/777/ - Weapons and War

I hypothetically have an AmBe source. It has a little under 180 uSv/hr in gamma/beta emissions measured maybe an inch away from the source. It's made of 230 smoke detectors, 12 g Be and 115 g depleted uranium. I think it has 300-700 n/s - pretty weak. I came here for tips on how to make it stronger. It's in a bag right now all crushed up and mixed together. Just want tips. Nothing dangerous, just maybe not so legal curiosity.

That radiation source is an very strong carcinogen, be careful about breathing without a really advanced respirator. I saw a supposedly hyper realistcic PBS show about a terrorist group working on a radiological terrorist weapon and they all died from cancer from inhaling small amounts of particles. I don't know much about amplifying the radiation, general stuff about exploding nuclear devices in outer space above the earth towards some copper or othe metal pipes directed towards the Earth to cause a letahal worlwide radiation blast. Some University oF Berkley California college had some tritium neutron gerator or something like that that amplified the neutron source into anuclear reacor equivalent.

Tritium is in stuff like self illuminating exit signs, gun night sights, medical equipment etc. It is used in nuclear weapons to do something like boosting the nuclear eplosion.
Boosting Before detonation, a few grams of tritium–deuterium gas are injected into the hollow "pit" of fissile material.
The early stages of the fission chain reaction supply enough heat and compression to start deuterium–tritium
fusion; then both fission and fusion proceed in parallel, the fission assisting the fusion by continuing heating
and compression, and the fusion assisting the fission with highly energetic (14.1 MeV) neutrons. As the
fission fuel depletes and also explodes outward, it falls below the density needed to stay critical by itself, but
the fusion neutrons make the fission process progress faster and continue longer than it would without
boosting. Increased yield comes overwhelmingly from the increased fission. The energy from the fusion
itself is much smaller because the amount of fusion fuel is much smaller. Effects of boosting include:
▪ increased yield (for the same amount of fission fuel, compared to unboosted)
▪ the possibility of variable yield by varying the amount of fusion fuel
▪ allowing the bomb to require a smaller amount of the very expensive fissile material
▪ eliminating the risk of predetonation by nearby nuclear explosions
▪ not so stringent requirements on the implosion setup, allowing for a smaller and lighter amount
of high explosives to be used

University Of Berkley in California has neutron reactors that are more nuclear reactor like. Here are some pdfs about them and their designs.

Seems like the "Outlaw Project" was the name of some internet pdf.

This doesn't necessarily work as laser enrichment, could just work in theory.

Artificial intelligence computer are supposed to be able to help build things like weapons grade uraniium or a nuclear bomb. But they can also tell you inaccurate information. Also the companies that make the Ai computers can make it illegal and impossible for the AI to tell you things like how to build a nuclear bomb. It can be a very difficult technological feat involving really good physicists.