Naquadah/Potassium: Boom or Fizzle?

[Sealurk]

The mention of naquadah / potassium weapons in the Original Weapon Design thread made me wonder: has this odd and remarkably powerful aspect of everyone's favourite fictional element (no offence to those who prefer trinium) been mentioned once since 'Singularity'? Or has it been retconned out of existence in the Stargate universe, like the 3rd shot of a Zat?

Although I seem to remember Cassie's implanted bio-bomb has been mentioned obliquely in subsequent episodes, has the Nq-K reaction been revisited, or officially dropped, because it gave the SGC - and the Tauri in general - a far too powerful and simple weapon too early in the show? Fanwank weapons waiting to happen?

Considering that only microscopic amounts created a blast that destroyed everything in a radius of several metres, and the device inside Cassie (a few centimetres across and probably having a mass measured in grams) was said to be potentially a million times more destructive...what happens when you swap the 18kg warhead on an AMRAAM for 9kg of Potassium and 9kg of Naquadah? Other than the obvious...

[Mister Oragahn]

I posted a quick estimation of the power of this device.
It shows that the device in question would be capable of, at least, 1 kiloton of energy.
I don't think it has been retconned, maybe ignored.
Two reasons:
1. It's fairly possible that some Goa'uld bombs use similar chemical reactions.
Now naqahdah reactions triggered by nuclear warheads are much more powerful, not just because you use more naqahdah, but because of the nature of the reaction.

2. Earth easily builds small gigaton level nukes. That's million times more powerful.
If you had the volume of a gigaton nuke as intestine naqahdah balls, even if such weapons would be worth a few kilotons each, you'd fall very short of the power of the gigaton nuke.

So it seems rather easily explained that they're not used because Earth knows how to build kiloton level nuclear warheads without naqahdah, and when they want to use naqahdah for reactions triggered by warheads, they obtains yields which completely dwarf that.
Long story short: they don't use them because it's pointlessat the moment (and probably very dangerous), although many fans still believe that potassium-naqahdah shells for railguns would do wonders.

[=SGA=Jason_Binn]

i think we can hold our own with weapons we have know

[thekillman]

well its a big boom. AMRAAMS are alerady powerfull now. make them smaller, tadaa

[Mister Oragahn]

well its a big boom. AMRAAMS are alerady powerfull now. make them smaller, tadaa

Arming fighter missiles (like those mounted on F-302s) with such yields would be overkill (an Al'kesh will usually go down with 2-3 missiles, some hitting near the engines), and impossible to use due to the ranges fighters generally fight at.
Having the equivalent of nuclear yields used in atmosphere or close ranges in space is a big no no.
And for greater targets, they already have far better weapons, notably gigaton level naqahdah enhanced warheads, although notice that this is theoretical, since we have never been given confirmation thus far that such yields were available for anti-ship missiles... even if we know that it should be no problem for Earth's ships to fire such weapons, they're just the same warheads with naqahdah in them.

[Sealurk]

Arming fighter missiles (like those mounted on F-302s) with such yields would be overkill (an Al'kesh will usually go down with 2-3 missiles, some hitting near the engines), and impossible to use due to the ranges fighters generally fight at.
Having the equivalent of nuclear yields used in atmosphere or close ranges in space is a big no no.
And for greater targets, they already have far better weapons, notably gigaton level naqahdah enhanced warheads, although notice that this is theoretical, since we have never been given confirmation thus far that such yields were available for anti-ship missiles... even if we know that it should be no problem for Earth's ships to fire such weapons, they're just the same warheads with naqahdah in them.

Another bonus for the nuke approach: nuclear weapons would actually be more readily available for any major demolition job (say, a pesky Ha'tak) than a Nq-K warhead - because nukes already exist (and are known to be in the arsenals of the SGC and the 304 fleet).

Even something as simple sounding as a Nq-K warhead would need R & D, due to the sheer potential for and ease of catastrophe associated with such a weapon. In fact, just going by how the reaction is depicted in Singularity, it might well be far too unstable to be safely deployed by the military.

For example, there are explosives out there much more powerful than RDX, a pretty standard and common high explosive (it's the main ingredient in C-4), but the military don't use them because they're too unstable (e.g. nitroglycerin).

All of this, plus the fact that it hasn't been referenced since that episode as far as I can remember make me think it's been quietly removed from the Stargate universe because it's just too powerful (nuclear yields for a fraction of the mass, cost and complexity) and it's too likely to happen (potassium is fairly abundant, and all it requires is contact between naquadah and potassium).

And that last point I think is the big reason. You could destroy a Stargate by covering it in potassium. Does the Gate Room have strict No Potassium Beyond This Point signs at the doors?

[Mister Oragahn]

Another bonus for the nuke approach: nuclear weapons would actually be more readily available for any major demolition job (say, a pesky Ha'tak) than a Nq-K warhead - because nukes already exist (and are known to be in the arsenals of the SGC and the 304 fleet).

Even something as simple sounding as a Nq-K warhead would need R & D, due to the sheer potential for and ease of catastrophe associated with such a weapon. In fact, just going by how the reaction is depicted in Singularity, it might well be far too unstable to be safely deployed by the military.

For example, there are explosives out there much more powerful than RDX, a pretty standard and common high explosive (it's the main ingredient in C-4), but the military don't use them because they're too unstable (e.g. nitroglycerin).

All of this, plus the fact that it hasn't been referenced since that episode as far as I can remember make me think it's been quietly removed from the Stargate universe because it's just too powerful (nuclear yields for a fraction of the mass, cost and complexity) and it's too likely to happen (potassium is fairly abundant, and all it requires is contact between naquadah and potassium).

And that last point I think is the big reason. You could destroy a Stargate by covering it in potassium. Does the Gate Room have strict No Potassium Beyond This Point signs at the doors?

Well, I don't think touching a stargate with potassium would make any difference. The naqahdah used for construction has been sort of depleted, in a way. Sometimes used in alloys, and it's possible that the naqahdah in Cassandra was of a different isotope as well.

Besides, those Nq-K weapons, although powerful because they're capable of great destruction for virtually very little mass and volume, still fail terribly in light of even a megaton modern nuke.
As pointed out earlier, even the size of a megaton nuke in Nq-K balls would fail to be as powerful as the megaton nuke itself, at least in Stargate.
When you look at the size of the gigaton warheads, notably those held in the crates seen in Siege Part II (likely kiloton warheads boosted with naq), there's no debate.