Editing Nuclear weapon design (section)

===Cobalt bombs===
{{Main|Cobalt bomb}} {{See also|Salted bomb}}
A doomsday bomb, made popular by [[Nevil Shute]]'s 1957 [[On the Beach (novel)|novel]], and subsequent 1959 movie, ''[[On the Beach (1959 film)|On the Beach]]'', the cobalt bomb is a hydrogen bomb with a jacket of cobalt. The neutron-activated cobalt would have maximized the environmental damage from radioactive fallout. These bombs were popularized in the 1964 film ''[[Dr. Strangelove|Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb]]''; the material added to the bombs is referred to in the film as 'cobalt-thorium G'.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Such "salted" weapons were investigated by U.S. Department of Defense.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Samuel |last1=Glasstone |title=The Effects of Nuclear Weapons |year=1962 |publisher=U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission |pages=464–466 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ovu108BraNUC}}</ref> Fission products are as deadly as neutron-activated cobalt.

Initially, gamma radiation from the fission products of an equivalent size fission-fusion-fission bomb are much more intense than [[Cobalt-60]] ({{SimpleNuclide|cobalt|60}}): 15,000 times more intense at 1 hour; 35 times more intense at 1 week; 5 times more intense at 1 month; and about equal at 6 months. Thereafter fission drops off rapidly so that {{SimpleNuclide|cobalt|60}} fallout is 8 times more intense than fission at 1 year and 150 times more intense at 5 years. The very long-lived isotopes produced by fission would overtake the {{SimpleNuclide|cobalt|60}} again after about 75 years.<ref name="Nuclear Weapons FAQ: 1.6"/>

The triple "taiga" nuclear [[salvo]] test, as part of the preliminary March 1971 [[Pechora–Kama Canal]] project, produced a small amount of fission products and therefore a comparatively large amount of case material activated products are responsible for most of the residual activity at the site today, namely {{SimpleNuclide|cobalt|60}}. {{As of|2011|post=,}} [[neutron activation|fusion generated neutron activation]] was responsible for about half of the gamma dose at the test site. That dose is too small to cause deleterious effects, and normal green vegetation exists all around the lake that was formed.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Radiological investigations at the 'Taiga' nuclear explosion site: Site description and in situ measurements |pmid=21524834 |volume=102 |issue=7 |journal=Journal of Environmental Radioactivity |pages=672–680 |year=2011 |last1=Ramzaev |first1=V |last2=Repin |first2=V |last3=Medvedev |first3=A |last4=Khramtsov |first4=E |last5=Timofeeva |first5=M |last6=Yakovlev |first6=V |doi=10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.04.003|bibcode=2011JEnvR.102..672R }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Radiological investigations at the 'Taiga' nuclear explosion site, part II: man-made γ-ray emitting radionuclides in the ground and the resultant kerma rate in air |pmid=22541991 |volume=109 |journal=Journal of Environmental Radioactivity |pages=1–12 |year=2012 |last1=Ramzaev |first1=V |last2=Repin |first2=V |last3=Medvedev |first3=A |last4=Khramtsov |first4=E |last5=Timofeeva |first5=M |last6=Yakovlev |first6=V |doi=10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.12.009|bibcode=2012JEnvR.109....1R }}</ref>