From a newspaper called “The Scotsman”:
Arms race fear over new bomb
by JOHN INNES
US SCIENTISTS are working on a space-age weapon that experts fear could trigger a new arms race, it was claimed last night.
The gamma ray bomb blurs the line between conventional and nuclear explosives. It produces an enormous burst of energy from atoms without involving nuclear fission or fusion.
Just one gram of the explosive could store more energy than 50 kilograms of TNT.
A gamma bomb would produce little fall-out compared with a normal nuclear weapon, although undetonated particles could cause long-term health problems for anyone breathing them in.
Despite the fact that research is at an early stage and a practical weapon may not be built for many years, some experts are already worried.
Dr Andre Gsponer, the director of the Independent Scientific Research Institute in Geneva, believes countries without such weapons would not be able to fight ones that possessed them.
The result could be a arms race – or, worse, a decision to resort to nuclear weapons, he claims.
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