Red Mercury. It does not exist and anyone promising you riches for it is a conman. Following CJ Chivers massive story in the New York Times magazine about the red mercury hoax, inlcuding efforts by groups like ISIS to obtain what they think is an ultra-secret nuclear material, Jeffrey talks to Michael Moore about the awful humanitarian impact of the widespread belief in Subsaharan Africa that landmines are a source of Red Mercury, and how he started a website, The Campaign Against Red Mercury, to get the word out.
C.J. Chivers, “The Doomsday Scam” New York Times Magazine, November 19, 2015.
Mercury pyroantimonate was the compound original cited as ‘red mercury. There are several Russian patents (in English) on it’s production. I just wondered if the huge neutron cross-section of mercury would promote the Wigner effect. Windscale required annealing at higher & higher temperatures to release said energy but if the displacement was a high % of the compound, how much heat would be generated and would it be enough heat to anneal the whole sample? If so, how fast and how hot.
I know, I know, I’m sure that this has been looked into but i cannot find any papers on the subject. Russian papers from the 1950s might be a primary source – of crap. No-makee-workee and hello Siberia.