Since Pakistan plans use the neutron bomb on advancing armor column.
And a amour column advances in the enemy territory, so Pakistan will be nuking its own territory.
How many thousand year will it, take for that part of Pakistan to become habitable again?
Secondly
Questionable effectiveness in modern anti-tank role[edit]
See also:
Centurion Tank § Nuclear tests,
Object 279, and
Neutron transport
The
neutron cross section and absorption probability in
barns of the two natural
boron isotopes found in nature (top curve is for 10B and bottom curve for 11B. As neutron energy increases to 14 MeV, the absorption effectiveness, in general, decreases. Thus, for boron-containing armor to be effective, fast neutrons must first be slowed by another element by
neutron scattering.
The questionable effectiveness of ER weapons against modern tanks is cited as one of the main reasons that these weapons are no longer fielded or stockpiled. With the increase in average tank armor thickness since the first ER weapons were fielded, tank armor protection approaches the level where tank crews are now almost fully protected from radiation effects. Thus, for an ER weapon to incapacitate a modern tank crew through irradiation, the weapon must now be detonated at such a close proximity to the tank that the nuclear explosion's blast would now be equally effective at incapacitating it and its crew.[54] However this assertion was regarded as dubious in a reply in 1986
[55] by a member of the
Royal Military College of Science as neutron radiation from a 1 kiloton neutron bomb would incapacitate the crew of a tank with a
protection factorof 35 out to a range of 280 meters, but the incapacitating blast range, depending on the exact weight of the tank, is much less, from 70 to 130 meters. However although the author did note that effective
neutron absorbers and
neutron poisons such as
boron carbide can be incorporated into conventional armor and strap on
neutron moderating hydrogenous material (hydrogen atom containing substances), such as explosive
reactive armor, can both increase the protection factor, the author holds that in practice combined with
neutron scattering, the actual average total tank area protection factor is rarely higher than 15.5 to 35.
[56]According to the
Federation of American Scientists, the neutron protection factor of a "tank" can be as low as 2,
[2] without qualifying whether the statement implies a
light tank,
medium tank, or
main battle tank.
A composite
high density concrete, or alternatively, a laminated
Graded Z shield, 24 units thick of which 16 units are iron and 8 units are
polyethylene containing
boron (BPE), and additional mass behind it to attenuate neutron capture gamma rays is more effective than just 24 units of pure iron or BPE alone, due to the advantages of both iron and BPE in combination. Iron is effective in slowing down/
scattering high-energy neutrons in the 14-MeV energy range and attenuating
gamma rays, while the hydrogen in polyethylene is effective in slowing down these now slower
fast neutrons in the few MeV range, and boron 10 has a high absorption cross section for
thermal neutrons and a low production yield of gamma rays when it absorbs a neutron.
[57][58][59][60] The Soviet
T72 tank, in response to the neutron bomb threat, is cited as having fitted a boronated,
[61] polyethylene liner, which has had its neutron shielding properties simulated.
[52][62]
The
radiation weighting factor for neutrons of various energy has been revised over time and certain agencies have different weighting factors, however despite the variation amongst the agencies, from the graph, for a given energy, A
fusion neutron (14.1 MeV) although more energetic, is less biologically harmful as rated in
Sieverts, than a fission generated
thermal neutron or a fusion neutron slowed to that energy, ~0.8 MeV.
However, some tank armor material contains
depleted uranium (DU), common in the US's
M1A1 Abrams tank, which "incorporates steel-encased depleted uranium armour",
[63] a substance that will
fast fission when it
captures a fast, fusion-generated neutron, and thus on fissioning will produce
fission neutrons and
fission productsembedded within the armor, products which emit among other things, penetrating gamma rays. Although the neutrons emitted by the neutron bomb may not penetrate to the tank crew in lethal quantities, the fast fission of DU within the armor could still ensure a lethal environment for the crew and maintenance personnel by fission neutron and gamma ray exposure,
[64] largely depending on the exact thickness and elemental composition of the armor—information usually hard to attain. Despite this,
Ducrete—which has an elemental composition similar to, but not identical to the ceramic
2nd generation heavy metal Chobham armor of the Abrams tank—is an effective radiation shield, to both
fission neutrons and gamma rays due to it being a graded Z material.
[65][66] Uranium being about twice as dense as
lead is thus nearly twice as effective at shielding gamma ray radiation per unit thickness.
[67]
