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{{Short description|Hypothetical salted nuclear bomb}}
{{For|cancer radiation treatments delivered from a device with a [[cobalt-60]] isotope source|cobalt therapy}}
{{Ref improve|date=May 2025}}
A '''cobalt bomb''' is a type of [[salted bomb]]: a [[nuclear weapon]] designed to produce enhanced amounts of [[Nuclear fallout|radioactive fallout]], intended to contaminate a large area with [[radioactive material]], potentially for the purpose of [[radiological warfare]], [[mutual assured destruction]] or as [[doomsday device]]s.  There is no firm evidence that such a device has ever been built or tested.

== History ==
The concept of a [[cobalt]] bomb was originally described in a radio program by physicist [[Leó Szilárd]] on February 26, 1950.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Armageddon Science: The Science of Mass Destruction|publisher=St. Martins Griffin |isbn=978-1-250-01649-2|first=Brian |last=Clegg |page=[https://archive.org/details/armageddonscienc0000cleg/page/77 77] |date=2012-12-11 |url=https://archive.org/details/armageddonscienc0000cleg/page/77}}</ref> His intent was not to propose that such a weapon be built, but to show that [[Nuclear weapon design|nuclear weapon technology]] would soon reach the point where a [[doomsday device]] could end human life on Earth.<ref name="Bushan">{{cite book | last = Bhushan | first = K. |author2=G. Katyal  | title = Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare | publisher = APH Publishing | year = 2002 | location = India | pages = 75–77 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JelgwgVx-P0C&q=%22leo+szilard%22+salted+cobalt+nuclear+life&pg=PA75 | isbn = 978-81-7648-312-4}}</ref><ref name="Sublette">{{cite web | last = Sublette | first = Carey | title = Types of nuclear weapons | department = FAQ | publisher = The Nuclear Weapon Archive | date = July 2007 | url = http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html#nfaq1.6 | access-date = 2010-02-13}}</ref>

The [[British nuclear tests at Maralinga#Operation Antler|Operation Antler]]/Round 1 test by the British at the Tadje site in the [[British nuclear tests at Maralinga|Maralinga range]] in Australia on September 14, 1957, tested a bomb using cobalt pellets as a radiochemical tracer for estimating [[nuclear weapon yield]]. This was considered a failure, and the experiment was not repeated.<ref name=arch>{{cite web|title=1.6 Cobalt Bombs and other Salted Bombs |url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html#nfaq1.6|access-date=February 10, 2011}}</ref> In Russia, the triple "[[Nuclear weapon design#Clean bombs|taiga]]" nuclear salvo test, as part of the preliminary March 1971 [[Pechora–Kama Canal]] project, produced relatively high amounts of [[cobalt-60]] (<sup>60</sup>Co or Co-60) from the steel that surrounded the taiga devices, with this [[Nuclear fusion|fusion]]-generated [[neutron activation]] product being responsible for about half of the [[Gamma ray|gamma]] dose in 2011 at the test site. The high percentage contribution is largely because the devices primarily used fusion rather than [[Nuclear fission|fission]] reactions, so the quantity of gamma-emitting [[caesium-137]] fallout was comparatively low. A [[secondary forest]] now exists around the lake that was formed by the detonation.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Radiological investigations at the 'Taiga' nuclear explosion site: Site description and in situ measurements| doi=10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.04.003 |pmid = 21524834|volume=102|issue=7|pages=672–680|journal=Journal of Environmental Radioactivity|year=2011|last1=Ramzaev|first1=V.|last2=Repin|first2=V.|last3=Medvedev|first3=A.|last4=Khramtsov|first4=E.|last5=Timofeeva|first5=M.|last6=Yakovlev|first6=V.| bibcode=2011JEnvR.102..672R }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Radiological investigations at the 'Taiga' nuclear explosion site, part II: man-made γ-ray emitting radionuclides in the ground and the resultant kerma rate in air| doi=10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.12.009|pmid = 22541991|volume=109|pages=1–12|journal=Journal of Environmental Radioactivity|year=2012|last1=Ramzaev|first1=V.|last2=Repin|first2=V.|last3=Medvedev|first3=A.|last4=Khramtsov|first4=E.|last5=Timofeeva|first5=M.|last6=Yakovlev|first6=V.| bibcode=2012JEnvR.109....1R}}</ref>

In 2015, a page from an apparent Russian [[nuclear torpedo]] design was leaked. The design was titled "[[Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System|Oceanic Multipurpose System Status-6]]", later given the official name ''Poseidon''.<ref>{{cite news|title=U.S. calls for new nuclear weapons as Russia develops nuclear-armed torpedo|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/02/u-s-reverse-obama-decisions-catch-up-russia-china-rapidly-expanding-nuclear-capabilities-reverse-oba/302746002/|access-date=4 February 2018|work=USA TODAY|date=2018|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/22270/russia-releases-videos-offering-an-unprecedented-look-at-its-six-new-super-weapons|publisher=The Drive|date=2018-07-19|access-date=2021-04-27|title=Russia Releases Videos Offering An Unprecedented Look At Its Six New Super Weapons|first=Joseph|last=Trevithick}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://nationalinterest.org/feature/russias-new-super-torpedo-carries-the-threat-nuclear-14537|title=Russia's New Super-Torpedo Carries the Threat of Nuclear Contamination|first=Michael|last=Peck|magazine=[[The National Interest]]|date=2015-12-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/11/12/kremlin-controlled-tv-airs-secret-plans-for-new-submarine-launched-nuclear.html|title='Secret' Russian nuclear torpedo blueprint leaked|date=November 12, 2015|publisher=[[Fox News]]}}</ref> The document states the torpedo would create "wide areas of radioactive contamination, rendering them unusable for military, economic or other activity for a long time." Its payload would be "many tens of megatons in yield". Russian government newspaper ''[[Rossiiskaya Gazeta]]'' speculated that the warhead would be a cobalt bomb. It is not known whether the Status-6 is a real project or whether it is Russian disinformation.<ref name=BBC-Russia/><ref name=npr>{{cite news|title=Buried In Trump's Nuclear Report: A Russian Doomsday Weapon|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/02/02/582087310/buried-in-trumps-nuclear-report-a-russian-doomsday-weapon|access-date=4 February 2018|work=NPR.org|date=2 February 2018|language=en}}</ref> In 2018, the Pentagon's annual [[Nuclear Posture Review]] stated Russia is developing a system called the "Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System". If Status-6 does exist, it is not publicly known whether the leaked 2015 design is accurate or whether the 2015 claim that the torpedo might be a cobalt bomb is genuine.<ref name=npr/> Amongst other comments on it, Edward Moore Geist wrote a paper in which he says that "Russian decision makers would have little confidence that these areas would be in the intended locations"<ref>{{cite journal|title=Would Russia's undersea "doomsday drone" carry a cobalt bomb?|journal = Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|first=Edward Moore|last=Geist|date=July 3, 2016|volume=72|issue=4|pages=238–242|doi=10.1080/00963402.2016.1195199|bibcode = 2016BuAtS..72d.238G|s2cid = 147795467}}</ref> and Russian military experts are cited as saying that "robotic torpedoes could have other purposes, such as delivering deep-sea equipment or installing surveillance devices."<ref name=BBC-Russia>{{cite news |title=Russia reveals giant nuclear torpedo in state TV 'leak' |date=November 12, 2015 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34797252 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=February 16, 2017}}</ref> The Poseidon nuclear weapon was later claimed by Russia's state television as real, described as being supposedly intended to destroy Britain and the Western Europe with a gigantic radioactive tsunami wave as stated by [[Dmitry Kiselyov]]'s public threat of nuclear annihilation.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/15/putin-propaganda-24-hours-of-russian-media/ | title=My 24 hours strapped into Putin's propaganda machine | work=The Telegraph | date=15 November 2024 | last1=Scarr | first1=Francis }}</ref> Kiselyov's claim appeared to contain factual errors.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a39879099/russian-state-tv-threatens-to-annihilate-the-uk-with-1600-foot-tall-nuclear-tsunamis/ | title=Russian State TV Threatens to Annihilate the U.K. With 1,600-Foot-Tall Nuclear Tsunamis | date=5 May 2022 }}</ref> Later, another Russian TV presenter, [[Vladimir Solovyov (TV presenter)|Vladimir Solovyov]], issued a similar threat claiming that the Poseidon system could destroy the entire continental United States.<ref>https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1924448793677758937 {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2025}}</ref> Solovyov then issued another such threat against in America, claiming the existence of the "Poseidon-2".<ref>https://x.com/PulseOfUkraine/status/1943331839567069523 {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2025}}</ref>

==Mechanism==
[[File:Cobalt-60m-decay.svg|thumb|upright=2|Decay of cobalt-60 showing the release of powerful [[gamma rays]].]]
A cobalt bomb could be made by placing a quantity of ordinary cobalt metal (<sup>59</sup>Co) around a [[thermonuclear weapon]]. When the bomb explodes, the [[neutron]]s produced by the fusion reaction in the secondary stage of the thermonuclear bomb's explosion would [[nuclear transmutation|transmute]] the cobalt to the radioactive cobalt-60, which would be vaporized by the explosion. The cobalt would then condense and fall back to Earth with the dust and debris from the explosion, contaminating the ground. The deposited cobalt-60 would have a [[half-life]] of 5.27 years, decaying into [[Nickel-60|<sup>60</sup>Ni]] and emitting two gamma rays with energies of 1.17 and 1.33 [[megaelectronvolt|MeV]], hence the overall nuclear equation of the reaction is:

{{nuclide|cobalt|59}} + n → {{nuclide|cobalt|60}} → {{nuclide|nickel|60}} + e<sup>−</sup> + gamma rays.

Nickel-60 is a stable isotope and undergoes no further decays after the transmutation is complete.

The 5.27 year half-life of the <sup>60</sup>Co is long enough to allow it to settle out before significant decay has occurred and to render it impractical to wait in [[bomb shelter|shelters]] for it to decay, yet short enough that intense radiation is produced.<ref name=arch /> Many isotopes are more radioactive ([[gold-198]], [[tantalum-182]], [[zinc-65]], [[sodium-24]], and many more), but they would decay faster, possibly allowing some population to survive in shelters.

==Nuclear fallout==
[[Fission products]] are more deadly than neutron-activated cobalt in the first few weeks following detonation. After one to six months, the fission products from even a large-yield thermonuclear weapon decay to levels tolerable by humans. The large-yield thermonuclear weapon is thus automatically a weapon of radiological warfare, but its fallout decays much more rapidly than that of a cobalt bomb. A cobalt bomb's fallout on the other hand would render affected areas effectively stuck in this interim state for decades: habitable but not safe for constant habitation.

Initially, gamma radiation from the fission products of an equivalent size thermonuclear weapon are much more intense than Co-60: 15,000 times more intense at 1 hour; 35 times more intense at 1 week; 5 times more intense at 1 month; and about equal at 6 months. Thereafter fission product fallout radiation levels drop off rapidly, so that Co-60 fallout is 8 times more intense than fission at 1 year and 150 times more intense at 5 years. The very long-lived isotopes produced by fission would overtake the <sup>60</sup>Co again after about 75 years.<ref name="Nuclear Weapons FAQ: 1.6">{{cite web|url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html#nfaq1.6|title=Section 1.0 Types of Nuclear Weapons|work=nuclearweaponarchive.org}}</ref>

Complete 100% conversion into Co-60 is unlikely; a 1957 British experiment at Maralinga showed that Co-59's [[neutron cross section|neutron absorption ability]] was much lower than predicted, resulting in a very limited formation of Co-60 isotope in practice. In addition, fallout is not deposited evenly throughout the path downwind from a detonation, so some areas would be relatively unaffected by fallout, and the Earth would not be universally rendered lifeless by a cobalt bomb.<ref name="gandd">{{Cite book |title=The Effects of Nuclear Weapons |publisher=United States Department of Defense and Department of Energy |date=1977 |location=Washington, D.C. |url=http://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents/Weapon_Effects/Effects_1977_09.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.alternatewars.com/WW3/WW3_Documents/Weapon_Effects/Effects_1977_09.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |editor-first1=Samuel |editor-last1=Glasstone |editor-first2=Philip J. |editor-last2=Dolan |edition=3rd|bibcode=1977enw..book.....G }}</ref>  The fallout and devastation following a nuclear detonation does not scale upwards linearly with the explosive yield. As a result, the concept of "overkill"—the idea that one can simply estimate the destruction and fallout created by a thermonuclear weapon of the size postulated by Leo Szilard's "cobalt bomb" thought experiment by extrapolating from the effects of thermonuclear weapons of smaller yields—is fallacious.<ref name="bmart">{{Cite journal |first=Brian |last=Martinus |title=The global health effects of nuclear war |journal=Current Affairs Bulletin |volume=59 |number=7 |date=December 1982 |pages=14–26 |url=http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/82cab/index.html}}</ref>

==Radiation levels and time==
{{Original research section|date=May 2025}}
For the type of radiation given by a cobalt bomb, the dosage measured in [[sievert]] (Sv) and [[Gray (unit)|gray]] (Gy) can be treated as equivalent. This is because the relevant harmful radiation from cobalt-60 is gamma rays. When converting between sievert and gray for gamma rays, the [[Sievert#Radiation type weighting factor WR|radiation type weighting factor]] will be 1, and the radiation will be a highly penetrating radiation spread evenly over the body so the [[Sievert#Tissue type weighting factor WT|tissue type weighting factor]] will also be 1.

Assume a cobalt bomb deposits intense fallout causing a dose rate of 10 Sv per hour. At this dose rate, any unsheltered person exposed to the fallout would receive a lethal dose in about 30 minutes (assuming a [[LD50|median lethal dose]] of 5 Sv<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/lethal-dose-ld.html|website=www.nrc.gov|access-date=2017-02-12|title=Lethal dose (LD)}}</ref>). People in well-built shelters would be safe due to [[radiation protection|radiation shielding]].

* After one half-life of 5.27 years, the dose rate in the affected area would be 5 Sv/hour. At this dose rate, a person exposed to the radiation would receive a lethal dose in 1 hour.
* After 10 half-lives (about 53 years), the dose rate would have decayed to around 10 mSv/hour. At this point, a healthy person could spend up to 4 days exposed to the fallout with no ''immediate'' effects. Long-term effects from this exposure would be increased risk to develop [[radiation-induced cancer|cancer]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection|journal=Annals of the ICRP|year=2007|volume=37|series=ICRP publication 103|issue=2–4|url=http://www.icrp.org/publication.asp?id=ICRP%20Publication%20103|access-date=17 May 2012|isbn=978-0-7020-3048-2|author1=Icrp}}</ref> At the 4th day, the accumulated dose will be about 1 Sv, at which point the first symptoms of [[acute radiation syndrome]] may appear.
* After 20 half-lives (about 105 years), the dose rate would have decayed to around 10 μSv/hour. At this stage, humans could remain unsheltered full-time since their yearly radiation dose would be about 80 mSv. This yearly dose rate is about 30 times greater than the average [[Background radiation#Background dose rate examples|natural background radiation]] rate of 2.4 mSv/year,<ref>{{cite book |author=United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation|title=Sources and effects of ionizing radiation |date=2008 |publication-date=2010 |publisher=United Nations |location=New York |isbn=978-92-1-142274-0 |url=http://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/publications/2008_1.html |access-date=9 November 2012|page=4}}</ref> but within its variability. At this dose rate, causal connection to cancer incidence would be difficult to establish.
* After 25 half-lives (about 130 years), the dose rate from cobalt-60 would have decayed to less than 0.4 μSv/hour and could be considered negligible.

==Decontamination==
{{See also|Cactus Dome|Radioactive contamination#Decontamination}}
It may be possible to decontaminate relatively small areas contaminated by a cobalt bomb with equipment such as excavators and bulldozers covered with [[lead glass]], similar to those employed at the cleanup of the [[Semipalatinsk Test Site]].<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/XEqYroQEtA8 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20101207202828/http://www.youtube.com//watch?v=XEqYroQEtA8 Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEqYroQEtA8|title=Born of Nuclear Blast: Russia's Lakes of Mystery|date=November 28, 2010|work=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> By skimming off the thin layer of fallout on the [[topsoil]] and burying it in the likes of a deep trench along with isolating it from [[ground water]] sources, the gamma air dose is cut by orders of magnitude.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nafa/faqs-food-agriculture.html|title=Joint Division Questions & Answers - Nuclear Emergency Response for Food and Agriculture, NAFA|author=Joint FAO/IAEA Programme|work=iaea.org|access-date=2014-10-06|archive-date=2020-03-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200312060731/http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nafa/faqs-food-agriculture.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>International Atomic Energy Agency
International Atomic Energy Agency, 2000 - Technology & Engineering - restoration of environments with radioactive residues : papers and discussions, 697 pages</ref>{{Verify source|date=September 2025|reason=IAEA source needs verification and improved citation}} The decontamination after the [[Goiânia accident]] in Brazil in 1987 and the possibility of a "[[dirty bomb]]" with Co-60, which has similarities with the environment that one would be faced with after a nuclear yielding cobalt bomb's fallout had settled, has prompted the invention of "sequestration coatings" and cheap liquid phase [[sorbent]]s for Co-60 that would further aid in [[decontamination]], including that of water.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neimagazine.com/features/featurescavenging-cobalt-from-radwaste-4428587/|title=Scavenging cobalt from radwaste|work=neimagazine.com|access-date=2014-11-09|archive-date=2014-11-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109033443/http://www.neimagazine.com/features/featurescavenging-cobalt-from-radwaste-4428587/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wmsym.org/archives/2009/pdfs/9067.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.wmsym.org/archives/2009/pdfs/9067.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Sequestration Coating Performance Requirements for Mitigation of Contamination from a Radiological Dispersion Device- 9067|publisher=Wmsym.org|access-date=2015-11-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_file_download.cfm?p_download_id=485276 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010192148/http://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_file_download.cfm?p_download_id=485276 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 10, 2014 |format=PDF |title=Sequestration Coating Performance Requirements for Mitigation of Contamination from a Radiological Dispersion Device |first=John |last=Drake |publisher=Cfpub.epa.gov |access-date=2015-11-12}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
* In [[Nevil Shute]]'s novel ''[[On the Beach (novel)|On the Beach]]'' (1957), cobalt bombs are given as the cause of the lethal radioactivity that is approaching Australia. The cobalt bomb was a symbol of man's hubris.<ref>{{cite news|title=Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon|last1=Smith|first1=P. D.|date=25 September 2008|publisher=Penguin UK|language=en}}</ref>
* In ''[[City of Fear (1959 film)|City of Fear]]'' (1959), an escaped convict from [[San Quentin State Prison]] steals a canister of cobalt-60, thinking it contains drugs. He flees to Los Angeles to pawn it, not knowing it could kill him and possibly contaminate the city.
* In the dark comedy ''[[Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb]]'' (1964), a type of cobalt-salted bomb is employed, specifically utilizing a composite called 'Cobalt-Thorium G' with a [[Dead Hand (nuclear war)|Dead Hand]] mechanism, by the Soviet Union as a '[[doomsday device]]' nuclear deterrent: if the system detects any nuclear attack, the doomsday device will be automatically unleashed. With unfortunate timing, a deranged American general mutinies and orders an attack on the USSR before the Soviet secret device, already activated, could be unveiled to the world. One American bomber piloted by a hapless and unknowing crew gets through to their target; the Dead Hand mechanism works as designed and initiates a worldwide nuclear holocaust. In the film, the Soviet Ambassador says, "If you take, say, fifty H-bombs in the hundred megaton range and jacket them with Cobalt-Thorium G, when they are exploded they will produce a doomsday shroud. A lethal cloud of radioactivity which will encircle the earth for ninety-three years!"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRj7AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA129|title=Kubrick's Total Cinema: Philosophical Themes and Formal Qualities|last=Kuberski|first=Philip|date=2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|isbn=9781441149565|language=en}}</ref>
* In the [[James Bond]] film ''[[Goldfinger (film)|Goldfinger]]'' (1964), the title character informs Bond he intends to set off a "particularly dirty" atomic device using "cobalt and [[iodine]]"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sciencebydegrees.com/2018/02/21/no-mr-bond-i-dont-know-about-radioactivity/|title=No Mr Bond, I don't know about anything radioactivity|date=2018-02-21|website=Science by degrees|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-11}}</ref> in the [[United States Bullion Depository|U.S. Bullion Repository]] at [[Fort Knox]] as part of Operation Grand Slam, a scheme intended to contaminate the gold at Fort Knox to increase value of the gold he has been stockpiling.
* In [[Roger Zelazny]]'s 1965 [[Hugo Award for Best Novel|Hugo Award]]-winning novel ''[[This Immortal]]'', Earth has suffered a nuclear war many decades ago and some areas still suffer high radiation levels from cobalt bombs, leading to drastic mutations and ecological changes.
* In the fourth act of the classic [[Star Trek: The Original Series|''Star Trek'']] episode "[[Obsession (Star Trek: The Original Series)|Obsession]]" (1967), Ensign Garrovick states that 10,000 cobalt bombs would be less powerful than one ounce of [[antimatter]].
* In ''[[Beneath the Planet of the Apes]]'' (1970) the main character, upon seeing an underground [[mutant]] community worship a doomsday bomb, comments "They finally built one with a cobalt casing" in reference to a cobalt bomb that could wipe out the world. After astronauts Brent and Taylor are shot  by an invading army of apes, Taylor's dying act is to detonate the doomsday bomb, obliterating all life on fortieth-century Earth.
* In a two-part episode of the TV show ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'', "Doomsday Is Tomorrow", a cobalt bomb, dubbed by its creator as "the most diabolical instrument of destruction ever conceived by man" is used as a trigger for a more powerful weapon that can render the world lifeless.
* In [[Tom Clancy]]'s novel ''[[The Sum of All Fears]]'' (1991) it is noted that [[Israeli Air Force]] tactical nuclear bombs can optionally be fitted with cobalt jackets "to poison a landscape to all kinds of life for years to come".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/335003/the-sum-of-all-fears-by-tom-clancy/9780451489814/excerpt|title=Excerpt from The Sum of All Fears|website=Penguin Random House Canada|language=en|access-date=2019-06-11}}</ref>
* In the [[Virgin New Adventures|Doctor Who New Adventures]] novel ''[[Timewyrm: Genesys]]'' (1991), the planet Anu was destroyed by a cobalt bomb in the year 2,700 BC. The [[cyborg]] responsible escapes in a spacecraft, which crashes in ancient [[Mesopotamia]]. After adopting the guise of the goddess [[Ishtar]], she builds another cobalt bomb in the city of [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]] to threaten the [[Seventh Doctor]], [[Gilgamesh]], and the city's king with the destruction of the Earth if they should interfere with her plans for world domination. This second bomb is later used as a nuclear power source for a spacecraft, allowing the surviving refugees of Anu to travel to a new homeworld.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/Doctor_Who_-_New_Adventures_001_-_Timewyrm-_Genesys|title=''Timewyrm: Genesis''|website=The Internet Archive|language=en|last=Peel|first=John|date=1991|access-date=2022-12-01}}</ref>
* In the television show ''[[Designated Survivor (TV series)|Designated Survivor]]'' (2016), over the course of Season Two, a plan to use a cobalt bomb on the city of [[Washington D.C.]] is discovered during diplomatic summits. The bomb and its maker are tracked by Special Agent Hannah Wells, but it ends up detonating and killing six federal agents, including FBI Director John Foerstel. It is later uncovered as planted by a conspiracy led by the ambassador of the fictional nation of Kunami in an attempted domestic power-play.
* In the video game ''[[Detroit: Become Human]]'' (2018), the player has the option of detonating an improvised cobalt bomb during certain endings of the game.
* In the video game ''[[Metro Exodus]]'' (2019), the player visits the Russian city of [[Novosibirsk]] which was hit with at least one cobalt warhead during a worldwide nuclear war in the year 2013, resulting in catastrophic levels of radiation, and easily the most irradiated area visited in the three ''[[Metro (franchise)|Metro]] ''games. While the city is left largely standing even twenty years after the cobalt warhead's detonation, the radiation in the city is so lethal that even with lead-lined full enclosure suits, the player can only spend a few minutes on the surface before receiving lethal amounts of radiation poisoning. During their visit, the player discovers that the survivors of the attack survived underground for twenty-two years, but only due to constant injections of anti-radiation medicine.
* In ''[[Termination Shock (novel)|Termination Shock]]'' by [[Neal Stephenson]], a lead-lined briefcase is filled with activated cobalt wrapped around a conventional explosive bomb with the intention of detonating it under a weather alteration gun to render it unusable for a hundred years.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Nuclear technology}}
* [[Neutron bomb]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Doomsday}}
[[Category:Cobalt]]
[[Category:Nuclear doomsday]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]

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