How does a Neutron bomb work ?
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It’s a concept for nuclear weapons design that seeks to maximize the “prompt radiation” of the weapon, mostly in the form of fast-moving neutrons. See, nuclear fusion reactions release a lot of high-energy neutrons. These neutrons are very useful from a nuclear-weapon perspective because they can be absorbed by fissile materials, like uranium, and cause a fission reaction. So a typical ‘thermonuclear warhead’ will have a fission bomb, which ignites a fusion reaction in lithium deuteride, which in turn releases a bunch of neutrons into a uranium metal casing, which causes secondary fission reactions, which all adds up to a very big boom.
But the neutrons are also themselves very deadly to people because they are so high-energy. They are part of what is referred to as the ‘prompt radiation’ of a nuclear blast – the gamma rays and particles emitted by the nuclear reaction itself. (This is in contrast to the fallout radiation, which comes from the fission products, not the nuclear reaction itself). In an ordinary bomb the prompt radiation is basically of no consequence because everything it hits will be some combination of vaporized, flattened, or set on fire by the nuclear explosion.
But that prompt radiation has some interesting properties. It isn’t fallout, so it doesn’t linger; it’s gone once the bomb has finished going off, and those fast neutrons can penetrate most materials and still be deadly to people. So what if you just made a thermonuclear bomb with a very small explosive yield, and built its casing out of materials that let the prompt radiation escape, instead of focusing it into more fission reactions? If the bomb were quite small, and designed with this in mind, the prompt radiation would reach much farther than the fireball. So you would have a tactical-size weapon that, in theory, could be used in battlefield conditions to attack enemy troops (especially those inside armored vehicles) while not massively poisoning the area with fallout, or destroying infrastructure you want to keep in place.
That’s the concept, anyway. Whether this actually works in the tactical role described is up for debate. For one thing, the idea of a ‘clean nuclear bomb that leaves no fallout’ is pretty suspect, since most steel in the radiation radius (such as the steel in those tanks you’re trying to hit) would itself become harmfully radioactive due to neutron activation. For another, damp soil and concrete are both pretty good shielding against fast neutrons, so troops in bunkers or trenches would have good protection and it would probably have been better to just use a conventional munition.
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