Nuclear Intensifier

INTRODUCTION

Nuclear intensifier technology was being researched by both Spacers and Settlers roughly two centuries after the start of the second wave of colonization from Earth. It was believed that one of these devices would allow a single vessel to destroy whole enemy fleets by making their nuclear engines explode.

HISTORY

After the demise of the Auroran roboticist and politician Han Fastolfe, the tension between both branches of mankind that he had placated for over a century reappeared. At this time, both sides rattled their sabers quite loudly and quite often, but a stalemate had been achieved: the Settlers had a numerical advantage that increased every year, but the Spacers had more advanced technology and, as a result of their high degree of automation, extremely productive economies. Both sides needed nuclear intensifiers to change the status quo: time was against the Spacers, as their advantages dwindled and any attack to thwart the Settler rise would be more unlikely to succeed with every passing year, while the Settlers couldn't risk such a powerful weapon to fall in the hands of their enemies, who at the time were starting to realize that the 'Earthlings' were more than a nuisance.

As the Spacer worlds didn't cooperate with each other, it isn't surprising that the Settlers managed to develop experimental models of nuclear intensifier shortly after the Spacers, in spite of their inferior technology and scientific knowledge. The reclusive Solarians were the winners in this race, as it was later found that they were the first to create a nuclear intensifier compact enough to have tactical uses, namely the destruction of all those foreign spaceships that might dare to land in Solaria. Fortunately for the Settlers, the Solarians didn't share the technology with other Spacer groups before leaving for parts unknown and a few years later a Settler freighter managed to land in Solaria and steal a working model from its robotic caretakers, thus removing what little lead other Spacer worlds had.

The Spacer failure in this arms race prevented them from moving openly against the Settlers and, eventually, sealed their fate, as their stagnation doomed them to decay once the growth of the Settler population changed the balance for good. Although open war was avoided, the actions of Kelden Amadiro (Auroran roboticist and former political enemy of Fastolfe) and Levular Mandamus brought Earth's downfall. Both Auroran scientists managed to secretly build many nuclear intensifiers that once activated started a chain reaction in Earth's crust that after several centuries depopulated the planet, that would become before twenty thousand years a radioactive wasteland where no life could survive.

It is unknown whether the technology was later lost to the human civilizations or if it was integrated into the base of knowledge of mankind. Even if the former is true, it seems likely that certain robotic groups managed to preserve the knowledge and used it in the galactic-wide cleansing of alien life that cleared the way for human colonization, making main sequence stars go nova in the neighborhood of star systems with alien intelligence.

CAPABILITIES

As its very name suggests, nuclear intensifiers intensify natural reactions of the atomic nucleus by several orders of magnitude. Using a stream of 'W' particles, the device can increase the fusion rate of free protons from the highly energized hydrogen atoms used as fuel in fusion reactors, and, as a result, the number of free protons increases enormously - resulting in the explosive consumption of all the hydrogen in a split second, regardless of the built-in safeties. Although starting a fusion reaction with hydrogen atoms has high temperatures requirements that must be met, heavier and more energetic atoms (seemingly those of most radioactive elements) can undergo atomic fission under 'W' particle stimulation at much lower temperatures.

The destructive potential of a nuclear intensifier when used against a planet with a significative amount of heavy elements in its crust should not be understated: once the chain reaction begins, nothing short of the removal of the whole crust will stop it and spare the planet from an agony that might last from ten years to several centuries.

Record 258 - technology - Last update 28 Mar 2007, 23:13:36

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