Editing Red mercury (section)

===Red mercury as a ballotechnic===
[[Samuel T. Cohen]], the "father of the [[neutron bomb]]", claimed for a long time that red mercury is a powerful explosive-like chemical known as a [[ballotechnics|ballotechnic]]. The energy released during its reaction is allegedly enough to directly compress the secondary without the need for a fission primary in a [[Nuclear weapon design|thermonuclear weapon]]. He claimed that he learned that the Soviet scientists perfected the use of red mercury and used it to produce a number of [[softball]]-sized [[Pure fusion weapon|pure fusion bombs]] weighing as little as {{convert|10|lb|abbr=on}}, which he claimed were made in large numbers.<ref name=fse>{{cite web |last1=Cohen |first1=Sam |last2=Douglass |first2=Joe |title=The nuclear threat that doesn't exist – or does it? |publisher=Financial Sense Editorials |date=11 March 2003 |url=http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/douglass/2003/0311.html |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081016050603/http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/douglass/2003/0311.html |archive-date=16 October 2008}}</ref>

He went on to claim that the reason this is not more widely known is that elements within the US power structure are deliberately suppressing or hiding information due to the frightening implications such a weapon would have on nuclear proliferation. Since a red mercury bomb would require no fissile material, it would seemingly be impossible to protect against its widespread proliferation given current arms control methodologies. Instead of trying to do so, they simply claim it does not exist, while acknowledging its existence privately. Cohen also claimed that when President [[Boris Yeltsin]] took power, he secretly authorized the sale of red mercury on the international market, and that fake versions of it were sometimes offered to gullible buyers.<ref name=fse/>

Critics argue Cohen's claims are difficult to support scientifically. The amount of energy released by the fission primary is thousands of times greater than that released by conventional explosives, and it appears{{who|date=June 2011}} that the "red mercury" approach would be orders of magnitude smaller than required.

Additionally, it appears there is no independent confirmation of any sort of Cohen's claims to the reality of red mercury. The scientists{{who|date=June 2011}} in charge of the labs where the material would have been made have publicly dismissed the claims (see below), as have numerous US colleagues, including [[Edward Teller]].

According to Cohen,<ref name=fse/> veteran nuclear weapon designer [[Frank Barnaby]] conducted secret interviews with Russian scientists who told him that red mercury was produced by dissolving mercury antimony oxide in mercury, heating and [[Irradiation|irradiating]] the resultant [[amalgam (chemistry)|amalgam]], and then removing the elemental mercury through evaporation.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Barnaby |first=Frank |title=Red mercury: Is there a pure-fusion bomb for sale? |journal=International Defense Review |issue=6 |pages=79–81 |year=1994}}</ref> The irradiation was reportedly carried out by placing the substance inside a nuclear reactor.<ref name="guardian">{{cite news |last=Adam |first=David |title=What is red mercury? |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=30 September 2004 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/sep/30/thisweekssciencequestions1 |location=London}}</ref>