Editing Neutron bomb (section)

===Use as an area denial weapon===
In November 2012, British Labour peer [[Lord Gilbert]] suggested that multiple enhanced radiation reduced blast (ERRB) warheads could be detonated in the mountain region of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to prevent infiltration.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/26/lord-gilbert-neutron-bomb_n_2190607.html|title=Huffington Post|date=26 November 2012|access-date=2012-11-27|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121129031522/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/26/lord-gilbert-neutron-bomb_n_2190607.html|archive-date=2012-11-29}}</ref> He proposed to warn the inhabitants to evacuate, then irradiate the area, making it unusable and impassable.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jun/03/lord-gilbert |title=Lord Gilbert obituary, by Andrew Roth, 3 June 2013. "Nobody lives up in the mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan except for a few goats and a handful of people herding them," he observed. "If you told them that some ... warheads were going to be dropped there and that it would be a very unpleasant place to go, they would not go there." |website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |date=3 June 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306215444/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jun/03/lord-gilbert |archive-date=6 March 2014 }}</ref>  Used in this manner, the neutron bomb(s), regardless of burst height, would release [[neutron activation|neutron activated]] casing materials used in the bomb, and depending on burst height, create radioactive soil [[neutron activation|activation products]].

In much the same fashion as the [[area denial]] effect resulting from fission product (the substances that make up most [[fallout]]) contamination in an area following a conventional [[surface burst|surface-burst]] nuclear explosion, as considered in the Korean War by [[Douglas MacArthur]], it would thus be a form of [[radiological warfare]]—with the difference that neutron bombs produce half, or less, of the quantity of fission products relative to the same-yield pure [[fission bomb]]. Radiological warfare with neutron bombs that rely on [[Teller-Ulam design|fission primaries]] would thus still produce fission fallout, albeit a comparatively ''cleaner'' and shorter-lasting version of it in the area than if air bursts were used, as little to no fission products would be deposited on the direct immediate area, instead becoming diluted global [[fallout]].
[[Image:Deuterium-tritium fusion.svg|thumb|The easiest to achieve fusion reaction, of [[deuterium]] ("D) with [[tritium]] (T") creating [[helium-4]], freeing a [[neutron]], and releasing only 3.5 [[Electronvolt|MeV]] in the form of kinetic energy as the charged [[alpha particle]] that will [[bremstrahlung|inherently generate heat]] (which manifests as blast and thermal effects), while the majority of the energy of the reaction (14.1 MeV) is carried away by the uncharged [[fast neutron]].<ref name=Shultis>
{{cite book
 |author1=Shultis, J.K.  |author2=Faw, R.E.
  |name-list-style=amp |year=2002
 |title=Fundamentals of nuclear science and engineering
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SO4Lmw8XoEMC&pg=PA151
 |page=151
 |publisher=[[CRC Press]]
 |isbn=978-0-8247-0834-4
}}</ref> Devices with a higher proportion of yield derived from this reaction would be more efficient in the stand-off [[asteroid impact avoidance]] role, due to the [[mean free path|penetrative depth of fast-neutrons]] and the resulting higher [[momentum transfer]] that is produced in this "scabbing" of a much larger mass of material free from the main body, as opposed to the shallower surface penetration and [[ablation]] of [[regolith]], that is produced by thermal/soft X-rays.]]
A militarily useful use of a neutron bomb with respect to area denial would be to encase it in a thick shell of material that could be neutron activated, and use a surface burst. In this manner, the neutron bomb would be turned into a ''[[salted bomb]]''; for example, [[Isotopes of zinc|zinc-64]], produced as a byproduct of [[depleted zinc oxide]] enrichment, would when neutron activated become zinc-65, which is a gamma emitter with a [[half-life]] of 244 days.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html#nfaq1.6 |title=1.6 Cobalt Bombs and other Salted Bombs, Nuclear Weapons Archive, Carey Sublette |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809054936/http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html#nfaq1.6 |archive-date=2012-08-09 }}</ref>{{synthesis inline|reason=This reference does not say that this is the most effective use for area denial. In particular: The ref mentions fission-fusion-fission weapons in relation to salted bombs, not neutron bombs.|date=January 2023}}