Zeon and Nuke

[False Prophet]

The Principality of Zeon has nuke, and quite early on: Zaku II type C is intended to carry nuclear missile launcher, not unlike GP02. However, to me, it raises two questions:

1. How did Zeon get access to them in the first place? There is zero chance they could mine on Earth, or the moon (recently found to have uranium deposits). However, there is always a chance that one of the planets of Solar System has the requisite ore. But uranium mining isn't as easy as it sounds - a project of that scale would surely reached EFF's ears. So, that leaves with small asteroids, like Palau. It actually makes sense - to make use of the smaller quantity, make smaller weapons (and various other advantages of a MS)

Or, maybe "Nuke" here is simply a colloquial terms? After all, MS runs on nuclear fusion reactor. It wouldn't surprise me if Minovsky particle is used in U.C era Nuclear Weapon. That also explains why something of the size of MS like GP02's nuclear missile can cause such tremendous damage.

2. Why didn't they used it? Of course, the Atlantic Treaty forbids it. However, by A Baoa Qu, it's quite illogical for them to make use of their nukes: The EFF has lost its leaders and one-third of its forces. And I don't think the like of Jamytov Hymen were competent enough to do anything if another one-third were to be eradicated by atomic weapons.)

However, we must not overlooked other factors. Maybe they're too confident on the Solar Ray. Maybe the Zeon has never done a serious atomic weapon testing. Or, maybe because Kycillia doesn't like it.

Any logical explanation?

[Areku]

Addressing point 1, it's not unreasonable to believe they found and harvested asteroids with large Uranium deposits. Additionally, there are enrichment methods with a smaller footprint than conventional gas centrifuges; in the real world, laser isotope separation has raised concerns that certain political entities could conceal their enrichment facilities with more ease than traditional centrifuges. Also, I haven't brushed up on my Minovsky physics lately, but I'm under the impression that Minovsky particles and Mega particles could be used to excite light nuclei to energy levels suitable for fusion; a fissile primer wouldn't be necessary like it is in current nuclear weapons, so Zeon wouldn't even need access to fissile material in the first place.

As for point 2, they did use nuclear weapons. Lots of them. They used them to utterly destroy Side 5 in the Battle of Loum, which occurred before the events of MSG. Along with the One Week War/Battle (which included Operation British, which vaporized Sydney and caused lesser damage across the planet), it was the major impetus for creating the Antarctic Treaty in the first place. Remember the Texas Colony? That was just some of the aftermath from the Battle of Loum.

[False Prophet]

On your first point, using Minovsky particles to energize the nuclei, so that means "missiles" would not be weapons as we think they are - A self-guided, self-propelled cyclotron? In that case, their engines must have run on minovsky particles, or a by-product of the reactor.

So we can can conclude that the EFF has no idea Zeon has nuke in the first place? Because if they do, they've the full right to take an invasion of Side 3 (legally speaking, the Laplace Box and Newtype are still unknown by this point, so Article 13 is null)

And now I remember Loum. In Shin Masunaga's manga, both Zeon and EFF used nuke. But that lead to another point: Can MS and spaceship really block radiation? It's strange that no ace of that battle has ever contracted some form of disease.

[Seto Kaiba]

1. How did Zeon get access to them in the first place? There is zero chance they could mine on Earth, or the moon (recently found to have uranium deposits). However, there is always a chance that one of the planets of Solar System has the requisite ore. But uranium mining isn't as easy as it sounds - a project of that scale would surely reached EFF's ears.

For one, the Earth Federation wasn't exactly what you'd call spectacularly competent in terms of overseeing the activities of the colonies. They were very Earth-centric and arrogant, missing no small number of obvious signs of hostile activity even after the One Year War.

For two, it's possible that the colonies had a legitimate use for radioisotopes that could potentially be weaponized. Munzo (later Zeon) was built with closed-type space colonies dependent on solar power plants outside the colony for electrical power, so they could potentially have disguised the nuclear weapons program as a nuclear power program to supplement their solar plants. Zeon's government also had connections on Luna, which may have helped.

For three, don't the colonies use nuclear power for their maneuvering engines?

Or, maybe "Nuke" here is simply a colloquial terms? After all, MS runs on nuclear fusion reactor. It wouldn't surprise me if Minovsky particle is used in U.C era Nuclear Weapon. That also explains why something of the size of MS like GP02's nuclear missile can cause such tremendous damage.

Unlikely, IMO. They're pretty clear about nuclear weapons meaning nuclear weapons as we understand them today.

2. Why didn't they used it? Of course, the Atlantic Treaty forbids it.

They did... that's why the Antarctic Treaty was signed in the first place. The EF and Zeon forces spammed nukes like mad in the opening stages of the war.

Based on what's been said by Tomino (and quoted in Gundam Encyclopedia), one of the reasons that Zeon's government kept faith with the Antarctic Treaty was that the Federation had a much larger stockpile of nuclear weapons than they did... and the treaty was pretty much all that was keeping the Federation from leveraging that bigger stick. Zeon had the advantage as long as it forced the Federation to fight a conventional war thanks to their more developed mobile suit tech.

However, by A Baoa Qu, it's quite illogical for them to make use of their nukes: The EFF has lost its leaders and one-third of its forces. And I don't think the like of Jamytov Hymen were competent enough to do anything if another one-third were to be eradicated by atomic weapons.)

They tried on a few occasions, remember?

Usually it was as a desperation move when they dusted them off... like when M'Quve launched a nuclear warhead after Operation Odessa backed his forces into a corner in the original series, or when a Zeon ship attempted to nuke Libot to prevent the completion and deployment of the new Gundam being developed there.

[MythSearcher]

Question, why do they need Uranium when they are using laser nuclear fusion tech in their nukes?
The Mk-82 on GP02A is a new warhead, but that does not mean the older ones are not based on same technology.

[Seto Kaiba]

Question, why do they need Uranium when they are using laser nuclear fusion tech in their nukes?
The Mk-82 on GP02A is a new warhead, but that does not mean the older ones are not based on same technology.

*record scratch sound*

Hmm... I'm not as big a Gundam guy as I am a Macross guy, so this threw me a bit. I can't find anything in my (admittedly somewhat limited) selection of Japanese source materials on Gundam 0083 that says the warheads are laser-initiated fusion warheads. Could you provide source citation for that factoid?

(If true, that raises the awkward question of why the GP02A allegedly needed extensive radiation shielding when a pure hydrogen fusion reaction produces no neutron radiation and relatively little gamma radiation.)

(Then again, we should probably also be asking ourselves why everyone's suddenly so worried about radioactive contamination from exploded Minovsky reactors in Victory Gundam, since a Minovsky reactor is aneutronic by nature.)

[False Prophet]

Question, why do they need Uranium when they are using laser nuclear fusion tech in their nukes?
The Mk-82 on GP02A is a new warhead, but that does not mean the older ones are not based on same technology.

*record scratch sound*

Hmm... I'm not as big a Gundam guy as I am a Macross guy, so this threw me a bit. I can't find anything in my (admittedly somewhat limited) selection of Japanese source materials on Gundam 0083 that says the warheads are laser-initiated fusion warheads. Could you provide source citation for that factoid?

(If true, that raises the awkward question of why the GP02A allegedly needed extensive radiation shielding when a pure hydrogen fusion reaction produces no neutron radiation and relatively little gamma radiation.)

(Then again, we should probably also be asking ourselves why everyone's suddenly so worried about radioactive contamination from exploded Minovsky reactors in Victory Gundam, since a Minovsky reactor is aneutronic by nature.)

From 0083: Rebellion

Spoiler

http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/Firem ... e.jpg.htmlhttp://s1067.photobucket.com/user/Firem ... d.jpg.html

No, I don't think that Minovsky particles are aneutronic. The Developers - Mobile Suit Gundam: Before the One Year War stated that Zeonic outsourced the Zaku I's development because they fear of a nuclear reactor meltdown.

[MythSearcher]

sources are scarced.
Gundam Officials did give it a more thorough description, summarizing the paragraph, the Mk-82 is a self contained warhead(stated as a fusion warhead earlier), and it is kinda like a large Minovsky Nuclear Fusion Generator that has a large Minovsky Particle Degeneration Layer limited by the EM field generated by the Nuclear detonation that contains most of the long gamma ray and neutrons inside the blast radius and continues the destruction for a while, that is also why it is catagorized as a laser nuclear warhead.

[Seto Kaiba]

From 0083: Rebellion

Spoiler

http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/Firem ... e.jpg.htmlhttp://s1067.photobucket.com/user/Firem ... d.jpg.html

... do you have those images with the original Japanese text?

I'm asking because the text in that translation makes absolutely no goddamn sense in the context of the terms they're using and the setting. I suspect the translator goofed, and that the original's text has Kou referring to the (fictional) carbide ceramic alloy armor fans know and love as either Luna Titanium or Gundarium. Conventional Chobham armor is ceramic tiles laminated with some rubberized elastic materials to resist kinetic penetrators and shaped charges... it'd offer little, or no, protection against the heat or radiation from a nuclear blast. More recent formulations have some heavy metals (tungsten or depleted uranium) but it's a mesh not a solid sheet, so it offers very little protection against radiation.

Unit 02 being so heavily armored to protect against radiation makes no very little if it the nuclear warhead functions as MythSearcher asserts. Without a fission primary, and with an i-field containing the neutron radiation and gamma radiation inside the blast area, there wouldn't be the significant peripheral radioactive effects that you'd get from a modern fusion warhead. If they've got the technology to ditch the fission primary altogether, they have the tech to produce the very sought-after pure fusion warheads... a nuke that produces no neutron radiation, only low levels of gamma rays, and leaves no fallout behind. (Which would explain why they were so cavalier about using nukes early in the OYW, but raises the awkward question of why the EF would arm the GP02 with a comparatively dirty bomb.)

No, I don't think that Minovsky particles are aneutronic.

Um... what? The Minovsky particle is an elementary particle... it's in the same general class of particles as quarks, leptons, photons, and neutrinos. The Neutron is a composite particle, made up of multiple elementary particles (one up quark and two down quarks).

The fusion reaction that produces Minovsky particles as a byproduct IS an aneutronic reaction by definition. It's the fusion of Deuterium (Hydrogen-2) and Helium-3. What you get by fusing one atom of Hydrogen-2 and one of Helium-3 is a Helium-4 atom (the normal, everyday helium that you put in party balloons), a free proton, and 18.35MeV of energy. The only neutrons that could end up released in a Minovsky reactor with that choice of fuel would be from unintentional (side) reactions in which deuterium fuses with itself. (Helium-3 fusing with itself is also aneutronic, its output being Helium-4, two free protons, and a little under 13MeV.)

Because the neutron radiation produced is less than 1% of the total energy generated, a Minovsky reactor is, by definition, carrying out aneutronic fusion.

The Developers - Mobile Suit Gundam: Before the One Year War stated that Zeonic outsourced the Zaku I's development because they fear of a nuclear reactor meltdown.

Close, but not quite... they outsourced the Zaku I's development and testing because they were concerned about the "one in a million" chance of a reactor explosion. They do mention a concern about the release of radiation (see the above about aneutronic reactions) in the event there's a reactor accident, but it's blown off as minor due to the Minovsky particles (though it's likely the radiation levels would be negligible even without them, given the reaction's size and nature of the fuel).

("Meltdown" is a term that arguably only really applies to a nuclear fission reactor, since it refers to a failure condition in which the coolant system is unable to control the heat inside the reactor's core and the reactor's fuel starts to melt.)

sources are scarced.
Gundam Officials did give it a more thorough description, summarizing the paragraph, the Mk-82 is a self contained warhead(stated as a fusion warhead earlier), and it is kinda like a large Minovsky Nuclear Fusion Generator that has a large Minovsky Particle Degeneration Layer limited by the EM field generated by the Nuclear detonation that contains most of the long gamma ray and neutrons inside the blast radius and continues the destruction for a while, that is also why it is catagorized as a laser nuclear warhead.

Very interesting. Could you provide a link to the article or document in question?

If it's a print publication, title and issue/volume number would do fine.

(I can't find ANYTHING to this effect on the old GundamOfficial or the current Gundam.info.)

[Areku]

I don't do extensive research into Gundam mythos and technology, so please forgive me if there's concrete evidence contradicting what I'm about to say.

I suppose it all comes down to whether or not an I-Field interacts with neutrons. This wouldn't be strictly necessary to make UC reactors work safely, given the relatively low energies and quantities of neutrons produced in a reactor utilizing Deuterium-Helium-3 (where only 5% of the released energy is in the form of free neutrons), so unless it has been explicitly stated that I-Fields can either reflect or capture neutrons, let's suppose they can't.

UC reactors use Deuterium-Helium-3 for fuel, as it would be the ideal choice of fuel for a reactor as it releases large quantities of energy. Specifically, only 5% of that energy is in the form of ever-hazardous neutrons, which will eventually saturate, compromise and radiologically activate any fixed material used to shield against it (turning the shielding itself into a substantial source of radiation), though liquid reservoirs (including propellant used for thrust!) could provide supplement shielding while preserving fixed shielding. The other 95% is in the form of charged particles and nuclei, which can theoretically interact with a powerful electromagnetic field to efficiently produce electricity in a single stage; in UC, apparatus similar to that used to form the I-Field could be used for that purpose (if not the I-Field itself!), which would provide a convenient explanation for the small size of UC reactors for their output.

But what if you don't care about efficiency, sustainability or radiological elegance (to say nothing of Minovsky/M-Particle production, which evidently requires Helium-3)? You know, like in a weapon. Deuterium-Tritium is a much more convenient fuel for a fusion weapon, as the main Deuterium-Tritium reaction is much easier to initiate and the relative ease of influencing the desired D-T reaction compared to inevitable D-D reactions. While the direct D-He-3 reaction releases a little more energy than the direct D-T reaction, in practice it requires a much more complicated (expensive!) design for D-He-3 designs to limit undesired side reactions enough to bring it to comparable output of the easier-to-regulate D-T reaction. This is due to the complications involved in the higher Coulomb forces to overcome with He-3's higher charge (and the much greater temperatures need to facilitate the reaction compared to the side reactions), as well as keeping the D and He-3 at different temperatures and pressures, which makes it much harder to thoroughly mix the D and He-3 to encourage D-He-3 and minimize D-D side reactions. By comparison, D and T can be maintained at the same pressure and temperature, meaning they can be pre-mixed, and while D-He-3 requires higher energies to fuse than D-D, D-T requires significantly lower energies than D-D. For clarification, the D-D reaction produces a relatively low average of 3.65MeV (0.91MeV/nucleon), D-T produces 17.6MeV (3.52MeV/nucleon), and D-He-3 produces 18.3MeV (3.66MeV/nucleon), though D-D drags practical D-He-3 down to somewhere around an average of 1.97MeV/nucleon.

TL;DR the last paragraph, D-T makes for a cheaper and more powerful fusion warhead than D-He-3.

That said, 80% of the energy released from a D-T reaction is in the form of neutrons. While that makes for an awful reactor, producing hazardous levels of radiation that activates shielding used to protect against it and requiring an extensive coolant/turbine system to make use of the energy, it makes for a very effective weapon.

Current fusion weapons utilize D-T fuel, and I should point out that we bother to maintain these weapons as D-T warheads despite the fact that Tritium decays to Helium-3 with just a 12.32 year half-life, so it isn't merely the scarcity of He-3 on Earth that's restraining us to D-T warheads.

If there's any possibility that I-Fields can't contain or protect against neutrons, a D-T would be the warhead of choice for a nuclear weapon. And if I-Fields can interact with neutrons... just don't put an I-Field Generator on the nuke! Any vessel that can't project an I-Field around itself (uncommon equipment around the time of 0083) will still be exposed to the brunt of the warhead; either the vessel can shield against the neutron flux and the crew survives but the ship/suit is too radioactive to ever be used again, or the vessel can't shield against the neutron flux and everyone's dead within the hour... assuming the vessel survives the blast and plasma of the other 20% of the energy.

TL;DR: A D-T warhead could easily explain GP-02's armor.

If an I-Field is capable of protecting against neutrons as well as the explicitly-stated charged particles, Mega-particles, and infrared and other forms of long-wavelength photon radiation, why not replace much of GP-02's bulky armor with a powerful I-Field Generator and depend on smaller amounts of properly positioned shielding to protect the pilot from the anticipated x-rays and gamma rays, since that would be about all the I-Field wouldn't stop. GP-03 demonstrates they had the means to do so.

[False Prophet]

I'm asking because the text in that translation makes absolutely no ZOINKS sense in the context of the terms they're using and the setting. I suspect the translator goofed, and that the original's text has Kou referring to the (fictional) carbide ceramic alloy armor fans know and love as either Luna Titanium or Gundarium. Conventional Chobham armor is ceramic tiles laminated with some rubberized elastic materials to resist kinetic penetrators and shaped charges... it'd offer little, or no, protection against the heat or radiation from a nuclear blast. More recent formulations have some heavy metals (tungsten or depleted uranium) but it's a mesh not a solid sheet, so it offers very little protection against radiation.

Unit 02 being so heavily armored to protect against radiation makes no very little if it the nuclear warhead functions as MythSearcher asserts. Without a fission primary, and with an i-field containing the neutron radiation and gamma radiation inside the blast area, there wouldn't be the significant peripheral radioactive effects that you'd get from a modern fusion warhead. If they've got the technology to ditch the fission primary altogether, they have the tech to produce the very sought-after pure fusion warheads... a nuke that produces no neutron radiation, only low levels of gamma rays, and leaves no fallout behind. (Which would explain why they were so cavalier about using nukes early in the OYW, but raises the awkward question of why the EF would arm the GP02 with a comparatively dirty bomb.)

That is the legacy of Alex Gundam, I think, labeling every extra kind of "jacket armor" as Chobham.

But how close does the GP02 need to be to fire the nuke? The manga may be wrong, yes, but what if that extra armor is actually useful? GP01 and 02 being partners is definitely nonsense - then why did they scrap GP04 which would fufill that role even better? That armor will definitely come in useful if you want to break through the enemy vanguard to strike where it hurt most.

And the second factor is that GP02 is built by Zeonic former employee. I say that if anything else, that Gundam is made in the image of the Rick Dom (coincidentally, it was in his custom Dom that Gato made his name).

Oh, and Areku, a little question: In MSV-R, Johnny Ridden is shown that he walked without any protection through a then-deserted Jaburo, although the Titans' bombing had been only a few years pass. Does a D-T warhead's residual effect be that short? They aren't Enhanced Blast Reduce Radiation warheads, are they?

(Given, he stayed most of the time in the ground facilities, which was undoubtedly more fortified than Raven's Rock against all sort of warfare - It took the Zeon a Colony (or, that is what they though. And, Jaburo is inside the rainforest, which rains, moonsoon and current winds can swept away all the polluted materials.)

[Seto Kaiba]

I suppose it all comes down to whether or not an I-Field interacts with neutrons. This wouldn't be strictly necessary to make UC reactors work safely, given the relatively low energies and quantities of neutrons produced in a reactor utilizing Deuterium-Helium-3 (where only 5% of the released energy is in the form of free neutrons), so unless it has been explicitly stated that I-Fields can either reflect or capture neutrons, let's suppose they can't.

At present, I am unable to find an explicit statement that i-fields interact with free neutrons inside a Minovsky reactor... and you don't need to be a newtype to see there's a "but" inbound.

I've not been able to find an explicit statement that i-fields can disrupt neutron radiation, but what I have found is a handful of implicit assertions that the i-field inside a Minovsky reactor WILL either prevent or minimize the exposure to harmful radiation even in the event of an accident. In Developers: Mobile Suit Gundam: Before the One Year War, Zeonic's Tio Pajitnov tries very hard to reassure the Hosioka staff building the Zaku prototype that its Minovsky reactor is safe for exactly that reason in the second chapter.

However, as the i-field inside of a Minovsky reactor is arguably one of the densest kinds of i-field lattice, one would naturally assume that an i-field with a lower Minovsky particle concentration is not going to be as effective at containing that radiation. We do have a few examples of a mobile suit capable of producing an external i-field of this intensity... most notably the RX-93 v Gundam, which could project an i-field intense enough to stop the movement of all matter through the field surface.

UC reactors use Deuterium-Helium-3 for fuel, as it would be the ideal choice of fuel for a reactor as it releases large quantities of energy. Specifically, only 5% of that energy is in the form of ever-hazardous neutrons, [...]

Neutron radiation released by deuterium-deuterium side reactions can be mitigated by running a deuterium-lean fuel mix in the reaction... so the amount emitted isn't necessarily a fixed quantity.

The other 95% is in the form of charged particles and nuclei, which can theoretically interact with a powerful electromagnetic field to efficiently produce electricity in a single stage; in UC, apparatus similar to that used to form the I-Field could be used for that purpose (if not the I-Field itself!), which would provide a convenient explanation for the small size of UC reactors for their output.

From the official materials I've read, mobile suits powered by Minovsky reactors have a two stage generator process... the first stage is using a MHD system to generate power directly off reaction products, and the second is a more traditional heat-exchange generator process.

But what if you don't care about efficiency, sustainability or radiological elegance (to say nothing of Minovsky/M-Particle production, which evidently requires Helium-3)? You know, like in a weapon. Deuterium-Tritium is a much more convenient fuel for a fusion weapon, as the main Deuterium-Tritium reaction is much easier to initiate and the relative ease of influencing the desired D-T reaction compared to inevitable D-D reactions. While the direct D-He-3 reaction releases a little more energy than the direct D-T reaction, in practice it requires a much more complicated (expensive!) design for D-He-3 designs to limit undesired side reactions enough to bring it to comparable output of the easier-to-regulate D-T reaction.

Yes, deuterium-tritium is a more convenient fuel choice for a nuclear weapon if you don't care at all about the radioactive consequences of the weapon's use... but we are talking about a story in which the technology to produce a relatively clean nuclear weapon that minimizes the amount of radioactive contamination in the target area doesn't just exist, it's an established technology.

Pretty much all you need to do to turn a Minovsky reactor into a (fairly impressive) bomb is to start the fusion reaction and then use mega-particles to disperse the i-field. This is apparently what's got everyone's knickers in a twist in Victory Gundam. Still, if you can built nukes which will have minimal radiological consequences and still achieve the desired effect, building dirtier bombs makes very little sense if you intend to ever actually USE them.

TL;DR the last paragraph, D-T makes for a cheaper and more powerful fusion warhead than D-He-3.

Cheaper until you have to pay for the radiation cleanup, anyway...

If an I-Field is capable of protecting against neutrons as well as the explicitly-stated charged particles, Mega-particles, and infrared and other forms of long-wavelength photon radiation, why not replace much of GP-02's bulky armor with a powerful I-Field Generator and depend on smaller amounts of properly positioned shielding to protect the pilot from the anticipated x-rays and gamma rays, since that would be about all the I-Field wouldn't stop. GP-03 demonstrates they had the means to do so.

Apparently it's something to do with the maturity of defensive i-field technology. Until the 0090's, the defensive i-field generator technology was too much of a power hog to be used on any mobile weapon much smaller than a mobile armor. From the distribution of applications, it looks to have been an efficiency issue, since platforms prior to the v Gundam seem to have required outputs of tens of megawatts to operate it, and the v Gundam was a hair under 3 megawatts.

That is the legacy of Alex Gundam, I think, labeling every extra kind of "jacket armor" as Chobham.

Possible, though quite a lot of folks use the term "Chobham armor" to refer to any ceramic armor even if it's not in a Chobham-type arrangement. Luna Titanium/Gundarium is, after all, a carbide ceramic alloy.

But how close does the GP02 need to be to fire the nuke? The manga may be wrong, yes, but what if that extra armor is actually useful? GP01 and 02 being partners is definitely nonsense - then why did they scrap GP04 which would fufill that role even better? That armor will definitely come in useful if you want to break through the enemy vanguard to strike where it hurt most.

Not that close, since Gato seems to deploy it from quite a few kilometers away from the EFSF naval review without incident... and the warhead itself seems to be more than 50% rocket motor by volume based on the art.

[Areku]

You make a good argument about the drawbacks of the neutron radiation from a D-T warhead, but bear in mind that a D-He-3 warhead would also release a very significant amount of neutrons. While this amount would pale in comparison to that from a D-T warhead, it would have very similar consequences when it comes to cleaning up the aftermath or reclaiming damaged resources. Material would still be rather homogeneously radiologically activated, any degree of which is highly undesirable for salvage and just as much of a nightmare to cleanup; the only advantage a D-He-3 warhead would provide in that regard is that workers would be able to be on site longer before receiving their maximum allowable exposure.

As a general rule of thumb, if you're interested in making use of something later, don't nuke it in the first place. D-T, D-He-3, doesn't make much difference, both are radiological catastrophes, it's merely a difference in scale (time, specifically).

Edit: And as a friendly reminder, even if I-Fields can normally contain neutrons, the fact that the warhead worked as a weapon (if it was in fact D-He-3) demonstrates that the I-Field was unable to fully contain what it normally inhibits, so yes, there would be significant neutron activation. And while I don't claim to be an expert in practical fusion, I'm under the impression that the 5% energy figure is already accounting for D-lean / D-injection designs, and that even then those types of designs only make a meaningful difference in reactors, not warheads.

[jeffpiatt2004]

I'm asking because the text in that translation makes absolutely no ZOINKS sense in the context of the terms they're using and the setting. I suspect the translator goofed, and that the original's text has Kou referring to the (fictional) carbide ceramic alloy armor fans know and love as either Luna Titanium or Gundarium. Conventional Chobham armor is ceramic tiles laminated with some rubberized elastic materials to resist kinetic penetrators and shaped charges... it'd offer little, or no, protection against the heat or radiation from a nuclear blast. More recent formulations have some heavy metals (tungsten or depleted uranium) but it's a mesh not a solid sheet, so it offers very little protection against radiation.

Unit 02 being so heavily armored to protect against radiation makes no very little if it the nuclear warhead functions as MythSearcher asserts. Without a fission primary, and with an i-field containing the neutron radiation and gamma radiation inside the blast area, there wouldn't be the significant peripheral radioactive effects that you'd get from a modern fusion warhead. If they've got the technology to ditch the fission primary altogether, they have the tech to produce the very sought-after pure fusion warheads... a nuke that produces no neutron radiation, only low levels of gamma rays, and leaves no fallout behind. (Which would explain why they were so cavalier about using nukes early in the OYW, but raises the awkward question of why the EF would arm the GP02 with a comparatively dirty bomb.)

That is the legacy of Alex Gundam, I think, labeling every extra kind of "jacket armor" as Chobham.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chobham_armour
Chobham armour is actually an real thing and from the discription on Wiki all zeta era and later suits seemed to have that type of armor standerd for the body the Alex style seciondary suit seemed to be more of an test application based on the existing FA pck of the RX-78-2 body and the new 0083 manga has an GP01 FA for when it's acting as gp02A's escort after the blast it can eject the armor like the alex did if it;s built the same way The Gp02A was an very specialized unit with the goal of being nearly on top of the place it was bombing the earlyer Zaku I and Zaku II C-type seemed to be desgined to fire then run the F-type seems to have gotten most of its improved speed and operating time by removing the nuke shelding from the body and rearanging the parts to take advantage of the opened up space.

[Jamafore]

This is why I love this forum. It's the only place you can come to read about giant robots and walk away with a little bit better understanding of nuclear physics.

[Brave Fencer Kirby]

GP01 and 02 being partners is definitely nonsense - then why did they scrap GP04 which would fufill that role even better? That armor will definitely come in useful if you want to break through the enemy vanguard to strike where it hurt most.

The GP-04 was cancelled because it was basically a space version of GP-01 -- and they retooled GP-01 into a space-use model after Kou trashed it. Since they already HAD a space-use Gundam, then GP-04 became redundant.

[False Prophet]

GP01 and 02 being partners is definitely nonsense - then why did they scrap GP04 which would fufill that role even better? That armor will definitely come in useful if you want to break through the enemy vanguard to strike where it hurt most.

The GP-04 was cancelled because it was basically a space version of GP-01 -- and they retooled GP-01 into a space-use model after Kou trashed it. Since they already HAD a space-use Gundam, then GP-04 became redundant.

Then why did Cima Grahau received the Gerbera Tetra in its original head configuration as the Gerbera Gundam (according to a recent post)?

Frankly speaking, if the EFF intended to end all war with a GP02's nuke, then why they bothered with making a multi-purpose MS, and slow it down with heavy Chobham armor? Since the GP02 fires nuke at a close range at the heart of the enemy formation, I imagine that a suitable partner for it would be something extremely fast, mobile, and can handle multiply enemies at once (no doubt every commander would direct all of their MS toward GP02 just by its menacing look.)

[MythSearcher]

Very interesting. Could you provide a link to the article or document in question?

If it's a print publication, title and issue/volume number would do fine.

(I can't find ANYTHING to this effect on the old GundamOfficial or the current Gundam.info.)

The 3.5kg Gundam Officials.
http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/product?isbn=9784063301106

The Gundam Test Type 2(GP02A) entry. P.176

[JEFFPIATT]

Then why did Cima Grahau received the Gerbera Tetra in its original head configuration as the Gerbera Gundam (according to a recent post)?

The AGX-04 in it's delivery config from the 0083 bluray picture story is not even remotely the same as the proposed RX-78GP04 prototype blueprint. The back story of the AGX-04 was that by the time the order was canceled due to the GP01FB being able to get the same data makeing the 04 redundant AE had already had most of the Gundam's frame constructed and AE decided to let the former Zeonic techs experiment on it the completed unit did not mount the vulcan guns in the head unit and redesgined the backback to one rocket nozzle the only kept feature was the Stürm Booster

[MythSearcher]

I don't do extensive research into Gundam mythos and technology, so please forgive me if there's concrete evidence contradicting what I'm about to say.

I suppose it all comes down to whether or not an I-Field interacts with neutrons. This wouldn't be strictly necessary to make UC reactors work safely, given the relatively low energies and quantities of neutrons produced in a reactor utilizing Deuterium-Helium-3 (where only 5% of the released energy is in the form of free neutrons), so unless it has been explicitly stated that I-Fields can either reflect or capture neutrons, let's suppose they can't.

Well, in the description I got from the Gundam Officials entry above, the Minovsky Particle Layer(I-Field) can contain neutrons within, and utilize that to enable a more devastating destruction within the blast radius.

I can't really recall more source on this though.

It actually kinda contradicts another setting of the M-particles, where they simply slip through non-electrical conductors.(good electrical conductors blocks most of them, not all)
If a particle can only be stopped because of its own electrical charge, why would it be able to block neutrons, when itself can pass through most of it?

UC reactors use Deuterium-Helium-3 for fuel, as it would be the ideal choice of fuel for a reactor as it releases large quantities of energy. Specifically, only 5% of that energy is in the form of ever-hazardous neutrons, which will eventually saturate, compromise and radiologically activate any fixed material used to shield against it (turning the shielding itself into a substantial source of radiation), though liquid reservoirs (including propellant used for thrust!) could provide supplement shielding while preserving fixed shielding. The other 95% is in the form of charged particles and nuclei, which can theoretically interact with a powerful electromagnetic field to efficiently produce electricity in a single stage; in UC, apparatus similar to that used to form the I-Field could be used for that purpose (if not the I-Field itself!), which would provide a convenient explanation for the small size of UC reactors for their output.

The MI reactor's description on how it works is like this.
The I-Field Lattice is formed by positively and negatively charged Minovsky Particles, and they form pseudo-molecules with the D and He3. By compressing the Lattice with an EM field, the D and He3 are also compressed together and at the right pressure(distance), fusion starts. The Lattice is expanded by the energy generated and fusioned matter escapes the Lattice, while new fuel is added in for the next fusion.

This takes care of all the D-He3 fusion problems you mentioned in the later paragraph.

Supposed to be a Muon catalyzed fusion with Muon and D-D replaced by Minovsky particles and D-He3 respectively with a combustion engine like Minovsky Particle Lattice.
(To tell you the truth, I almost have no idea what I am talking about...?)

But what if you don't care about efficiency, sustainability or radiological elegance (to say nothing of Minovsky/M-Particle production, which evidently requires Helium-3)? You know, like in a weapon. Deuterium-Tritium is a much more convenient fuel for a fusion weapon, as the main Deuterium-Tritium reaction is much easier to initiate and the relative ease of influencing the desired D-T reaction compared to inevitable D-D reactions. While the direct D-He-3 reaction releases a little more energy than the direct D-T reaction, in practice it requires a much more complicated (expensive!) design for D-He-3 designs to limit undesired side reactions enough to bring it to comparable output of the easier-to-regulate D-T reaction. This is due to the complications involved in the higher Coulomb forces to overcome with He-3's higher charge (and the much greater temperatures need to facilitate the reaction compared to the side reactions), as well as keeping the D and He-3 at different temperatures and pressures, which makes it much harder to thoroughly mix the D and He-3 to encourage D-He-3 and minimize D-D side reactions. By comparison, D and T can be maintained at the same pressure and temperature, meaning they can be pre-mixed, and while D-He-3 requires higher energies to fuse than D-D, D-T requires significantly lower energies than D-D. For clarification, the D-D reaction produces a relatively low average of 3.65MeV (0.91MeV/nucleon), D-T produces 17.6MeV (3.52MeV/nucleon), and D-He-3 produces 18.3MeV (3.66MeV/nucleon), though D-D drags practical D-He-3 down to somewhere around an average of 1.97MeV/nucleon.

TL;DR the last paragraph, D-T makes for a cheaper and more powerful fusion warhead than D-He-3.

Possibly.
Even with the Minovsky tech, MS generators don't really look cheap.

That said, 80% of the energy released from a D-T reaction is in the form of neutrons. While that makes for an awful reactor, producing hazardous levels of radiation that activates shielding used to protect against it and requiring an extensive coolant/turbine system to make use of the energy, it makes for a very effective weapon.

Especially when the Minovsky Particle Layer can contain those within a certain area.

Current fusion weapons utilize D-T fuel, and I should point out that we bother to maintain these weapons as D-T warheads despite the fact that Tritium decays to Helium-3 with just a 12.32 year half-life, so it isn't merely the scarcity of He-3 on Earth that's restraining us to D-T warheads.

If there's any possibility that I-Fields can't contain or protect against neutrons, a D-T would be the warhead of choice for a nuclear weapon. And if I-Fields can interact with neutrons... just don't put an I-Field Generator on the nuke! Any vessel that can't project an I-Field around itself (uncommon equipment around the time of 0083) will still be exposed to the brunt of the warhead; either the vessel can shield against the neutron flux and the crew survives but the ship/suit is too radioactive to ever be used again, or the vessel can't shield against the neutron flux and everyone's dead within the hour... assuming the vessel survives the blast and plasma of the other 20% of the energy.

TL;DR: A D-T warhead could easily explain GP-02's armor.

Well, beam sabres and MI generators have I-Field generators, just not the barrier type.
In fact, disperse M-particles out, they form an I-Field automatically by its own electrical charge. The I-Field Lattice will expand pretty fast(another quite contradictory settings, the M-particles are supposed to disperse at an exponential rate relative to distance and reaches sub-light speed at around 100km, but takes like a month to reduce in density to a point for normal communications after a battle?)

Luckily, as long as its a conductor, it blocks most of the M-particle(i.e. I-Field, funny that it doesn't block the beam from the beam sabres) thus in this situation, GP02A's shield and armour, as long as it is made of a good conductor and on top of that, have some kind of current running through it to create an EM field, should be able to block the M-particle layer created by the Mk-82 warhead.
Of course given that it is far (enough) from the detonation point and the EM field is strong enough to counter the one generated by the nuclear detonation.
(Which is likely why it still sacrificed its left hand and the shield, design flaws aside, the shield was damaged and it was too close to the detonation)

If an I-Field is capable of protecting against neutrons as well as the explicitly-stated charged particles, Mega-particles, and infrared and other forms of long-wavelength photon radiation, why not replace much of GP-02's bulky armor with a powerful I-Field Generator and depend on smaller amounts of properly positioned shielding to protect the pilot from the anticipated x-rays and gamma rays, since that would be about all the I-Field wouldn't stop. GP-03 demonstrates they had the means to do so.

A full fledged I-Field generator is likely too power consuming or too big. Look at the GP03's I-Field generator, it is larger than the MS.

The contradiction probably comes from they didn't really think of the whole picture and just piece stuff together. They didn't think of the Minovsky Particle layer is essentially an I-Field, and gave it much more extra properties than it should have.