Nuclear Fusion Warheads?

Hi,

just a thought: Warheads traditionally use a nuclear bomb to pump the lasers. But while "normal" missiles power their drives using supercapacitors, RMN missiles use fusion reactors, which can also produce a nice explosion.

So could the fusion reactor be used to pump the laser rods, removing the need for the bomb?

Since we don't know how the fusion reactor will behave when the gravity focusing rings are turned on, I do not know how to answer that. But wouldn't a reactor explosion also throw out large amounts of shrapnel (potentially destroying the rods), unlike the bomb warhead? Also could the bomb be optimized (unlike a reactor explosion) to emit the radiation that works best with the rods?

markusschaber wrote:Hi,

just a thought: Warheads traditionally use a nuclear bomb to pump the lasers. But while "normal" missiles power their drives using supercapacitors, RMN missiles use fusion reactors, which can also produce a nice explosion.

So could the fusion reactor be used to pump the laser rods, removing the need for the bomb?

Today that's how fusion warheads work. But in the Honorverse they long ago perfected warheads that use grav implosion to set off the fusion fuel; no fission bomb required.

In Fire Forged wrote:Further change hinged on many years of work on practical miniaturization of gravitic generators in the commercial sector. Their introduction made possible the long sought after pure fusion warhead in the 1650s. This was a nuclear bomb whose only fuels were relatively common light elements like hydrogen and its isotopes. Cheap gravitic implosion made it economical to fit devices with previously unheard of yields into a missile body.

Blowing the fusion reactor seems more likely to wreak the implosion device and cause a dud than to augment the power of the warhead.

(Even with today's fission pumped bombs setting off a nearby major explosion is likely to disrupt either the delicate balanced explosive driven implosion that's key to the fission explosion or the geometry and materials that funnel the x-rays created by the fission into the fusion fuel)

And since the reactor is behind the grav lensing that directs more of the the warhead's blast into the lasing rods even its destruction moments after the warhead goes off isn't going to provide any useful addition to the damage output

Jonathan_S wrote:And since the reactor is behind the grav lensing that directs more of the the warhead's blast into the lasing rods even its destruction moments after the warhead goes off isn't going to provide any useful addition to the damage output

But if this were to be tried, the gravity lensing would be moved behind the reactor to focus the blast forward. I just think that there is a lot of material that surrounds the reactor, much of it trying to contain the reaction (before the blast is desired) and it would diminish the radiation getting to the rods.

tlb wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:And since the reactor is behind the grav lensing that directs more of the the warhead's blast into the lasing rods even its destruction moments after the warhead goes off isn't going to provide any useful addition to the damage output

But if this were to be tried, the gravity lensing would be moved behind the reactor to focus the blast forward. I just think that there is a lot of material that surrounds the reactor, much of it trying to contain the reaction (before the blast is desired) and it would diminish the radiation getting to the rods.

I suspect trying to form the lens that far back would greatly diminish its effectiveness on directing the larger blast from the warhead.

Certainly when the RMN looked up up the damage output of the Mk16 they didn't mess with detonating the reactor; they just improved the grav lensing and more than doubled the output of the warhead. So even if there was some theoretical benefit to including the reactor explosion with the warhead it's probably more difficult than simply upping the warhead output. (Something they were able to do while still firing the missile out the same tubes; so presumably with no impact on missile size)

Jonathan_S wrote:I suspect trying to form the lens that far back would greatly diminish its effectiveness on directing the larger blast from the warhead.

Did you not notice that the question was about removing the bomb and just using the exploding reactor to pump the rods?

Certainly I expect that the blast from a reactor would be much less effective than the purposeful use of a bomb shaped by gravity lensing. Also I am uncertain what the effect of gravity lensing would have on a reactor about to go critical.

The reactor for the missile is behind the lazing rods. The rods are ejected and orient, then the warhead goes off......the missile body is traveling behind the warhead (so really close- they are attached) and when the warhead goes off the missile is going to be destroyed in the warhead blast- it is vastly unlikely that the rector and it's shielding is going to survive that blast so WHEN the reactor looses containment it is doing not much more than add a bit more umph to the warhead blast and the you just have a secondary auto-destruct system so of the missile tech goes to vapor.

tlb wrote:Did you not notice that the question was about removing the bomb and just using the exploding reactor to pump the rods?

In fact I did miss that. I somehow misread it as wanting to augment the warhead; rather that replace it. Reading comprehension fail

markusschaber wrote:Hi,

just a thought: Warheads traditionally use a nuclear bomb to pump the lasers. But while "normal" missiles power their drives using supercapacitors, RMN missiles use fusion reactors, which can also produce a nice explosion.

So could the fusion reactor be used to pump the laser rods, removing the need for the bomb?

They had perfectly working missiles (MDM even) with laser heads that were powered with capacitors. Why add complexity when the capacitor bank is replaced by a smaller fusion reactor? (perhaps research might be conducted to convert the reactor into a bomb, but not immediately).

Only RFC could answer properly, but my impression is that the wedge does most of the work. Even a huge fusion reactor couldn't by its self power a missile accellerating at 1,000s of Gs. The capacitors/fusion reactors/fission pile is more the activator of the wedge, which is where the energy really comes from.
My take is that this is the Honorverse. Either physics are different to OTL, or they are as far advanced of us as we are of the ancient Greeks. Wouldn't Alexander the Great have appreciated some assault rifles?
So the fusion reactor is of much smaller capacity than a gravity squeezed fusion bomb?