Bombs, stutters, and the Demonization of the Dead

[Monte Davis]

Plus, the fission blanket can be cheap U-238, not costly U-235: the flood of neutrons 
from fusion is enough to split those nuclei, although they can't sustain a chain 
reaction themselves.

See Ted Taylor's comments in John McPhee's "The Curve of Binding Energy." There 
was some PR in the mid-50s to the effect that the H-bomb was cleaner as well as 
bigger; that in fact most got much of their bang from "dirty" fission didn't become 
common knowledge until the flurry over the "neutron bomb" (i.e., as you say, the 
almost-pure-fusion bomb)... when was that, in the 70s? Maybe security concerns, 
but my guess is it just would have revealed a humiliatingly large role for "old 
technology."

A-and I agree with you about the staccato stutter -- in context, it seems clearly a 
cue to excitement, anxiety, the words tumbling out. Entirely the opposite of 
"Aaaaaaaand... they are mild."