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Nanotechnology: the potential for new WMD
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| 15 January 2003 |
The possibility for the production of new types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is emerging as the burgeoning field of nanotechnology (NT) – the science of designing microscopic structures in which materials are machined and manipulated atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule – matures.
While specialists agree that its widespread use by the military is some ways off, it is likely that it will be increasingly employed, especially as this new science develops. Under such monikers as "micromechanical engineering" and "microelectromechanical systems" (MEMS), the field of NT was born 30 years ago in nuclear weapons laboratories. Its present application has been to refine existing nuclear weapon designs. But its greatest potential, however, remains on the drawing board.
Nanotechnology has the potential to create entirely new weapons. Fourth-generation nuclear weapons are new types of nuclear explosives that would use inertial confinement fusion (ICF) facilities.
The defining technical characteristic of fourth-generation nuclear weapons is the triggering - by some advanced technology such as a superlaser - of a relatively small thermonuclear explosion in which a deuterium-tritium mixture is burnt in a device whose weight and size are not much larger than a few kilograms. Since the yield of these warheads could go from a fraction of a ton to many tens of tons of high-explosive equivalent, their delivery by precision-guided munitions or other means will dramatically increase the fire-power of those who possess them - without crossing the threshold of using kiloton-to-megaton nuclear weapons, and therefore without breaking the taboo against the first-use of WMD. Moreover, since these new weapons will use no (or very little) fissionable materials, they are expected to produce virtually no radioactive fallout.
NT manufacturing based on self-replication could also produce conventional weapons in such large quantities that they acquire the character of mass-destruction weapons. NT will provide stronger, lighter materials, smaller computer components, new sensor technologies, and, together with and beyond microsystems technologies, many options for miniaturisation.
NT could also be used to manufacture new types of biological weapons. Experts say that existing NT techniques designed to deliver medicines in a more effective and targeted fashion could also be used to deliver toxic substances into a person's system.
Cost-effective production remains a tricky proposition in most areas and even the instrumentation needed to analyse and manipulate the technology can be costly and difficult to manufacture. Building instrumentation to monitor the uniformity and effectiveness of the billions of nanomachines that could be contained in a single gram of material is a difficult proposition. However, scientists argue that it is only a matter of time before these challenges are overcome. Many advocates of the technology argue that nanotech has the potential to negate current forms of military power, and that an opponent could, in the future, use nanotechnology to greatly enhance their defensive or offensive military capabilities.
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