Editing Red mercury (section)

== History ==
References to red mercury first appeared in major Soviet and western media sources in the late 1980s. The articles were never specific as to what exactly red mercury was, but nevertheless claimed it was of great importance in nuclear bombs, or that it was used in the building of [[boosted fission weapon]]s. Almost as soon as the stories appeared, people started attempting to buy it. At that point, the purported nature of the substance started to change, and eventually turned into anything the buyer happened to be interested in. As ''[[New Scientist]]'' reported in 1992, a [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] report outlined that:

<blockquote>When red mercury first appeared on the international black market 15 years ago, the supposedly top secret nuclear material was 'red' because it came from Russia. When it resurfaced last year in the formerly communist states of Eastern Europe it had unaccountably acquired a red colour. But then, as a report from the US Department of Energy reveals, mysterious transformations are red mercury's stock in trade.

The report, compiled by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, shows that in the hands of hoaxers and conmen, red mercury can do almost anything the aspiring Third World demagogue wants it to. You want a short cut to making an atom bomb? You want the key to Soviet ballistic missile guidance systems? Or perhaps you want the Russian alternative to the anti-radar paint on the [[Stealth technology|stealth]] bomber? What you need is red mercury.<ref>{{cite web |first=William |last=Bown |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13418241.900-only-fools-still-hunt-for-elusive-red-mercury-.html |title=Only fools still hunt for elusive red mercury |work=[[New Scientist]] |publisher=[[Reed Business Information]] |date=6 June 1992 |access-date=15 May 2014 |url-access=subscription }}</ref></blockquote>

A 1993 article in the Russian newspaper ''[[Pravda]]'', claiming to be informed by leaked top-secret memos, described red mercury as:

<blockquote>[A] super-conductive material used for producing high-precision conventional and nuclear bomb explosives, 'Stealth' surfaces and self-guided warheads. Primary end-users are major aerospace and nuclear-industry companies in the United States and France along with nations aspiring to join the nuclear club, such as South Africa, Israel, Iran, Iraq, and Libya.<ref name=Yelysingate>{{cite web|url=http://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/yeltsingate/ |title=Yeltsingate |work=nti.org |publisher=[[Nuclear Threat Initiative]] |date=17 April 1993}}</ref></blockquote>

Two TV documentaries about red mercury were made by [[Channel 4|British Channel 4 television]], airing in 1993 and 1994; ''Trail of Red Mercury'' and ''Pocket Neutron'', which claimed to have "startling evidence that Russian scientists have designed a miniature neutron bomb using a mysterious compound called red mercury".<ref name=doomsday>{{cite magazine |title=The Doomsday Scam |first=C. J. |last=Chivers |author-link=C. J. Chivers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/magazine/the-doomsday-scam.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times Magazine]] |page=MM35 |date=22 November 2015 |access-date=14 February 2018}}</ref>

[[Samuel T. Cohen]], an American physicist who worked on building the atomic bomb, said in his autobiography that red mercury is manufactured by "mixing special nuclear materials in very small amounts into the ordinary compound and then inserting the mixture into a nuclear reactor or bombarding it with a particle-accelerator beam." When detonated, this mixture allegedly becomes "extremely hot, which allows pressures and temperatures to be built up that are capable of igniting the heavy hydrogen and producing a pure-fusion mini neutron bomb."<ref name=doomsday />

Red mercury was offered for sale throughout Europe and the Middle East by Russian businessmen, who found many buyers who would pay almost anything for the substance, even though they had no idea what it was. A study for the ''[[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'' published in 1997 has perhaps the most factual summary of red mercury:

<blockquote>The asking price for red mercury ranged from $100,000 to $300,000 per kilogram. Sometimes the material would be irradiated or shipped in containers with radioactive symbols, perhaps to convince potential buyers of its strategic value. But samples seized by police contained only [[mercury(II) oxide]], [[mercury(II) iodide]], or mercury mixed with red dye&nbsp;– hardly materials of interest to weapons-makers.<ref name=Rensselaer /></blockquote>

Following the arrest of several men in Britain in September 2004, on suspicion that they were trying to buy a kilogram of red mercury for £900,000, the [[International Atomic Energy Agency]] made a statement dismissing claims that the substance is real. "Red mercury doesn't exist," said the spokesman. "The whole thing is a bunch of [[wikt:malarkey|malarkey]]."<ref name="guardian" /> When the case came to trial at the [[Old Bailey]] in April 2006, it became apparent that ''[[News of the World]]''{{'}}s "fake sheikh" [[Mazher Mahmood]] had worked with the police to catch the three men (Dominic Martins, Roque Fernandes and Abdurahman Kanyare). They were tried for "trying to set up funding or property for terrorism" and "having an article (a highly dangerous mercury-based substance) for terrorism". According to the prosecutor, red mercury was believed to be a material which could cause a large explosion, possibly even a nuclear reaction, and whether or not red mercury actually existed was irrelevant to the prosecution.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4943122.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |title=Terror accused in 'mercury sting' |date=25 April 2006}}</ref> All three men were acquitted in July 2006.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5176382.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |first=Chris |last=Summers |title=What is red mercury? |date=25 July 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5176522.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |title=Trio cleared of red mercury plot |date=25 July 2006}}</ref>