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Old 12-08-2017, 10:11 AM   #29
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: [Spaceships] Mass-driver realism

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Fusion caused by metallic hydrogen compression, inertial compression, magnetic compression, etc is not generally considered thermonuclear because it does not involve a fission explosion.
Even assuming that definition was true, it's somewhat irrelevant. What we care about is the quantity of radioactive material generated, which is a combination of fragments of the bomb itself that are radioactive (this is mostly from the fission component, though you presumably get some tritium release) and neutron activation of materials exposed to the bomb (fusion generally produces more of these than fission, though it depends significantly on fuel mix and completeness of burn -- the cycle n+Li6 -> 4He+T, T+D -> 4He+n doesn't actually produce any net neutrons, but some neutrons always escape).
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