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Nuclear weapon design
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===Third generation=== First and second generation nuclear weapons release energy as omnidirectional blasts. Third generation<ref>{{cite book |title=The Role and Control of Weapons in the 1990s |last1=Barnaby |first1=Frank |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134901913 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H8wwRGrD6V4C&q=third+generation+nuclear+weapons+project+excalibur+prometheus&pg=PT148 |access-date=2020-11-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904154853/https://books.google.com/books?id=H8wwRGrD6V4C&q=third+generation+nuclear+weapons+project+excalibur+prometheus&pg=PT148 |archive-date=2021-09-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |publisher=Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc |date=March 1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rwwAAAAAMBAJ&q=shaped+nuclear+charge+third+generation+nuclear+weapons&pg=PA31 |access-date=2020-11-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904154853/https://books.google.com/books?id=rwwAAAAAMBAJ&q=shaped+nuclear+charge+third+generation+nuclear+weapons&pg=PA31 |archive-date=2021-09-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=SDI: Technology, survivability, and software |publisher=DIANE |isbn=978-1428922679 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XDTo_35uQcUC&q=sdi+nuclear+shotgun&pg=PA122 |access-date=2020-11-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904154853/https://books.google.com/books?id=XDTo_35uQcUC&q=sdi+nuclear+shotgun&pg=PA122 |archive-date=2021-09-04}}</ref> nuclear weapons are experimental special effect warheads and devices that can release energy in a directed manner, some of which were tested during the [[Cold War]] but were never deployed. These include: * Project Prometheus, also known as "Nuclear Shotgun", which would have used a nuclear explosion to accelerate kinetic penetrators against ICBMs.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Role and Control of Weapons in the 1990s |isbn=978-1134901913 |last1=Barnaby |first1=Frank |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H8wwRGrD6V4C&q=prometheus+nuclear+shotgun&pg=PT148 |access-date=2020-11-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904154854/https://books.google.com/books?id=H8wwRGrD6V4C&q=prometheus+nuclear+shotgun&pg=PT148 |archive-date=2021-09-04}}</ref> * [[Project Excalibur]], a nuclear-pumped X-ray laser to [[ballistic missile defense|destroy ballistic missiles]]. * [[Nuclear shaped charge]]s that focus their energy in particular directions. * [[Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)|Project Orion]] explored the use of nuclear explosives for rocket propulsion.
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