A nuclear Glock?
For quite a few years I’ve joked about how nice it would be to have a nuclear Glock - I’ve even suggested a possibile technology. For my idea to work would require that element 114, currently known as Ununquadium, would have a long half-life fissile isotope. Nuclear shell theory posits that 298Uuq114 should be at the center of an “island of stability” and might have a fairly long halflife. The expectation would be that a fissile isotope of Uuq would have a significantly smaller critical mass. If small enough, you could build a micro-nuke that would fit in a .45 pistol round. It would probably pack the power of a few kilos of C4.
Back in the real world, the military is very interested in micro-nukes - what are called 4th generation nukes. According to an article from Jane’s Chem-Bio web (10 Jan 2003, paid subscription required), these nukes would utilize nanotech and rely on inertial confinement fusion. The article didn’t specifically say this but I’d guess that a Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) pellet would be “sweetened” by having a small particle of 239Pu in the center. From the article:
These weapons would release energy in the form of controlled microexplosions with yields in the range of a few kilograms to a few tons of high-explosive equivalent. The microexplosions would be contained, but they could be used in weapons if suitable compact triggers are developed. It was soon discovered that it is easier to design a micro-fusion than a micro-fission explosive, which has the further advantage of producing much less radioactive fallout than a micro-fission device of the same yield. Since then, research on micro-fusion bombs has become a prime advanced weapons research activity of nuclear weapons laboratories, using gigantic tools such as the US National Ignition Facility (NIF), the experimental laser facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which is part of the US Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons Stockpile Stewardship Program. The tiny pellets used in these experiments, containing the thermonuclear fuel to be exploded, are the most delicate and sophisticated NT-engineered devices in existence.
Nanotechnology has the potential to create entirely new weapons. Fourth-generation nuclear weapons are new types of nuclear explosives that would use inertial confinement fusion (ICF) facilities such as the NIF.
The defining technical characteristic of fourth-generation nuclear weapons is the triggering - by some advanced technology such as a superlaser - of a relatively small thermonuclear explosion in which a deuterium-tritium mixture is burnt in a device whose weight and size are not much larger than a few kilograms. Since the yield of these warheads could go from a fraction of a ton to many tens of tons of high-explosive equivalent, their delivery by precision-guided munitions or other means will dramatically increase the fire-power of those who possess them - without crossing the threshold of using kiloton-to-megaton nuclear weapons, and therefore without breaking the taboo against the first-use of WMD. Moreover, since these new weapons will use no (or very little) fissionable materials, they are expected to produce virtually no radioactive fallout.
My only quibble is with the last statement that there would be virtually no fallout. D-T fusion throws off lots of 17 MeV neutrons. These will activate surrounding material, so there would be some “fallout” — arguably not very much, of course and not enough to pose a serious hazard.
So, although there is still no prospect for a nuclear Glock, a 40 mm nuclear shell might well be feasible.