‘Most frightening for Cohen is the relative ease by which neutron bombs can be created with a substance called red mercury.Â* Red mercury is a compound containing mercury that has undergone irradiation.Â* When exploded, it creates tremendous heat and pressure – the same type needed to trigger a fusion device such as a mini-neutron bomb.
Before, an obstacle to creating a nuclear bomb was the need for plutonium, which when exploded could create a fusion reaction in hydrogen atoms.Â* But red mercury has changed that.Â* The cheap substance has been produced in Russia, Cohen said, and shipped on the black market throughout the world.
Cohen said that when UN inspectors went to Iraq to examine the Iraqi’s nuclear weapons capabilities, the U.N. team found documents showing that they had purchased quantities of red mercury.Â* The material means that a neutron bomb can be built “the size of a baseballâ€? but able to kill everyone within several square blocks.â€?