Sands of War

In the U.S., nearly all nuclear physicists know atomic secrets of some sort and therefore must keep their mouths shut for fear of an unintentional slip. Because he is bound by no security rules, Physicist Hans Thirring of Austria may speculate freely about atomic weapons on the basis of what is known to all the world's physicists. In the latest issue of Britain's Discovery, Dr. Thirring discusses the possibilities of radiological warfare, an old favorite of his (TIME, Aug. 7, 1950).

Every nuclear reactor, whether built to make plutonium or to generate power, produces radioactive "fission products." The supply of this radioactive material does not increase indefinitely because it eventually reaches a point of equilibrium where new additions are balanced by decay of the old. But the fission products must be removed and stored where they can do no damage.* "In these days of cold war," says Thirring, it is likely that "countries possessing atomic piles will store their dangerous by-products with the intention of using them to make enemy cities or industrial centers uninhabitable." He suggests that this will be done by combining the active material with fine sand and sifting it sparingly from airplanes over the target areas.

A city may be considered uninhabitable, Thirring says, if it is so radioactive that people who stay in it for four weeks will die of radiation sickness. This level of saturation does not require much of the activated sand. "Further calculations," says Thirring, "give the following result: if in a few decades only 10% of the power consumed in the U.S. is generated by atomic piles, the stock of radioactive material which may be used for contamination of an enemy country will suffice for making an area of about 3,000 square miles uninhabitable." This is more than the area of all the big cities in Europe. (Area of Manhattan Island: 22 sq. mi.)

"Any war is a crime today," says Thirring, but "this specific kind of warfare would be relatively humane . . . By warning the enemy in time, a nation having a sufficient stock of radioactive isotopes . . . might force its enemy to stop the war without firing one gun, without killing a single person or destroying one house."

* The fission products from the great plutonium reactors at Hanford, Wash. are tucked away underground in stainless steel tanks.

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