In recent months a great controversy has raged over US plans to produce and deploy the neutron bomb. A type of tactical nuclear weapon, the neutron bomb kills mainly by an intense flux of neutrons without producing a relatively wide-ranging blast. It is a warhead delivered to the battlefield by either a missile or howitzer. The neutrons readily penetrate armour, making it suitable for use against armoured attacks such as would be launched by the Warsaw Pact forces in Europe. The severely irradiated troops die within a few minutes up to a period of one month.

All nuclear weapons kill by a combination of heat, blast force and radiation. As the yield is reduced the relative balance of these effects changes. The previous tactical nuclear weapons of 10 kton yield produce severe destruction and fatal radiation doses out to 1 km from the detonation point. There is some blast damage and little radiation at 1.5 km

Gamma radiation and neutrons predominate in the output from a 1 kton bomb. Such a warhead detonated above a battlefield destroys the buildings, tanks and other vehicles and people within a relatively small radius. But the irradiation area reaches out further than for previous tactical nuclear weapons. If a neutron bomb were detonated 130—200 m above a battlefield, total destruction would occur within a 130 m radius about a point below where it was detonated. All victims within this radius would die in a period ranging from a few minutes to two days.

The central nervous system is affected. Victims within a radius of 1—2 km would survive a week or more, while those within 2—2.5 km would live at least a month. Before death they would suffer effects ranging from bleeding under the skin and gums to vomiting, diarrhoea, high fever and eventually coma. Victims more than 2.5 km away would not be killed or disabled — they suffer long term effects such as eventual development of leukaemia.