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Please drive carefully: scientists plan to transport volatile antimatter for first time
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2026
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A few thousand antimatter charged particles could be used as an implosive trigger for a fusion bomb.
EDIT Source. See section 3 in general and 3.5 specifically:
https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0510071
In conjunction with you know a fusion bomb so in and of itself not something I'd be concerned about.
It's like saying that a spark could be used to blow up a mountain, yeah it could, in conjunction with several hundred kilogrammes of C4.
you're off by something like 15-18 orders of magnitude
This is old, but you get the idea. See section 3.5.
https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0510071
EDIT: I'm getting bullshit downvotes from people who clearly won't read the paper and don't understand the proposed detonation model. One need not have grams of antimatter to trigger a H-H fusion detonation. A relatively small amount of antimatter is needed to trigger initial fusion of a hydrogen target, which by cascade can be used to detonate additional hydrogen. This removes the fission trigger and allows for very small fusion weapons with relatively low yields. For example, a device the size of a hand grenade with tons of TNT equivalent output - like a truck bomb in your hand. Or a rifle sized X-Ray laser is another proposed weapon.
Read the study. This technology is feasible.
it's not a twenty year old paper, it's a twenty two year old preprint which has all the reliability of a blog post. in 22 years, you can get born, complete all education bachelors degree, start masters degree and write a real paper that would be accepted in a real physics journal. the reason it's not accepted for all these years is it is packed full of crackpot nonsense. it cites Dan Brown's Angels and Demons ffs
The paper you linked says "1 microgram is sufficient to trigger one thermonuclear weapon" which corresponds to 6×10^17.
This makes your "few thousand" of by 14 orders of magnitude instead of 15, I bet you feel vindicated now.
A man portable nuke has existed since the 60's so it wouldn't be a game changer.
interesting! i had wondered whether that exists. the wikipedia page on radionuclides seems to hint so since it gives 10 kg as a possible total mass of fissile material in a critical scenarion but i still had doubts till now.
LMAO, the little baby down voted you.
You're getting the microgram statement from here. You miss the point. A millionth of a gram is feasible to make and contain right now. It was predicted by 2010 in the paper using CERN, and there are much better facilities producing since then.
You're missing the point to be pedantic over a 20 year old paper. Newer approaches reduce the antimatter requirements for such weapons even more.
This might make you wonder why antimatter is being transported around. The fact is, proposals to weaponize antimatter as a fusion trigger have been around for over 40 years, and the means to achieving that from a production and engineering standpoint seem a good bet to be available today.
I think even the TSA could tell that's a bomb.
Yes, but if you take the train or a private car you won't be searched. To get it across international borders try smuggling among other cargo or by submarine, maybe even diplomatic courier.
Sure. I just thought it was funny that it looks like the suitcase a cartoon character would put a warhead in.