neb:There's one very effective way to get rid of weeds, including roots, spores, and all other organic matter. You just need to apply a bit of sodium-24, which you can manufacture on the spot from natural sodium, Na-23. What you do is build up alternating layers of sodium and lithium deuteride and ignite it. The resulting Na-24 has a half-life of only about 15 hours, so you can re-enter the area after a couple of days and all your weeds will be gone since it produces staggering amounts of high-energy gamma radiation as it decays. The weeds most definitely won't come back. The one downside is that sodium has a tiny neutron capture cross-section, so you need to make the sodium/LiD layers quite thick in order for this to work. This means you may inadvertently kill some of your neighbours' weeds in the process.
Sounds like a neat idea. Would it be effective on the neighbours as well as their weeds?
neb:There's one very effective way to get rid of weeds, including roots, spores, and all other organic matter. You just need to apply a bit of sodium-24, which you can manufacture on the spot from natural sodium, Na-23. What you do is build up alternating layers of sodium and lithium deuteride and ignite it. The resulting Na-24 has a half-life of only about 15 hours, so you can re-enter the area after a couple of days and all your weeds will be gone since it produces staggering amounts of high-energy gamma radiation as it decays. The weeds most definitely won't come back. The one downside is that sodium has a tiny neutron capture cross-section, so you need to make the sodium/LiD layers quite thick in order for this to work. This means you may inadvertently kill some of your neighbours' weeds in the process.
Sounds like a neat idea. Would it be effective on the neighbours as well as their weeds?
Sure, the gamma rays aren't choosy.
Sheesh, I really did have to look up Na-24, didn't I :-).
I think Na-22 is far more interesting:
Sodium-22
Sodium-22 is being investigated as an efficient generator of “cold positrons” (essentially antimatter) to produce muons for catalyzing fusion of deuterium. The energy released would induce phenomenal specific impulse in a rocket engine, enabling probe missions to reach any outer planet in a few weeks instead of years or Alpha Centauri in less than a decade.
It's actually a trick question, or at least a trick answer. Note the comment about sodium's very low neutron capture cross-section, this means you need to use quite a thick layer of it to get a good burn, probably several meters thick (disclaimer: no actual calculations, just estimates). So you'd end up with alternating layers of LiD and sodium, like the Russian Sloika design used in the RDS-6s device. The problem here isn't scaling it up, it's scaling it down to the minimum size you can get away with. You're probably going to end up with something that pretty much fills your section with fuel.
The result of lighting that off would certainly deal with your neighbours, even if they're currently on holiday in Australia.
It might also ignite portions of the atmosphere, or strip it off the planet. I imagine the effect would be like that cutscene of a Tiberium explosion from Command and Conquer. It would get rid of your weeds though.
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