Baradium / Legends Baradium was a highly volatile element used in thermal detonators and was used to create some of the most powerful explosive weapons in the galaxy . Depleted baradium could be used as slugs . Characteristics . Although baradium was described as a " synthetic element " , it may have existed in some form in naturally - occurring lodes , as quantities of it were discovered on Duro and Anobis after the Yuuzhan Vong War ; these may possibly have been industrial by - products , however . During the Republic Dark Age , the surface of Chelloa contained vast deposits of baradium which could be tapped by exploding the ground . When detonated , a baradium weapon produced an incandescent sphere of energy , normally vaporizing everything within it . The destructive force was described as a fusion reaction , and the majority of the energy produced was released as heat . A second component of a baradium explosion was a particle field , which formed the outer surface of the blast sphere , and which was sustained by the energy of the explosion inside : this had the useful effect of containing the destructive effect within a relatively precise perimeter . But although baradium was a very potent explosive , it was also costly to process , and extremely unstable : accidental detonation could be triggered by careless use , and would have a devastating effect . These factors placed important limits on the employment of baradium munitions . Baradium also caused poisoning after detonation . Thermal detonators . Probably the best - known and most widespread form of baradium charge was a type known as a thermal detonator . The standard thermal detonators used by the Imperial Army had a five - meter blast radius , and could penetrate up to two meters of permacite , but they were designed to be placed manually against hardened targets as , rather than lobbed as grenades or mortar rounds . They were issued to Imperial Combat Engineer s , and to stormtroopers . Other thermal detonators were used by bounty hunters had a twenty - meter radius , and some could vaporize everything up to one hundred meters away . These were sometimes lobbed as grenades , or used as suicide weapons by terrorists . The ostentatious destructive potential of larger thermal detonators is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that a single Class - A thermal detonator , detonating in the basement , brought down Xizor ' s Palace , one of the largest buildings on Coruscant . Baradium was the active ingredient of Chiss vape charge s , which were used by the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force for demolition purposes . Baradium missiles . Much more powerful even than this were baradium missile s , which were capable of destroying capital ships in a single blast . One of these was acquired by the Jedi Order and supplied to the Myrkr strike team during the Yuuzhan Vong War . Carrying a charge of one metric ton of baradium , the blast - radius of a detonation in space was a full kilometer wide . To help ensure that it reached its target , it had deflector shields , and sufficient maneuverability to evade the defenses of enemy warships , both controlled by a droid brain pilot . Several racks of baradium missiles were later found in the Missile Hold aboard the Star Destroyer " Anakin Solo " . These had a trigger mechanism using a deuterium - based proton charge , which on its own was capable of producing a blast comparable to some thermal detonators . In 44 ABY , Baradium missiles were used during the Battle over Exodo II by the forces of Moff Drikl Lecersen to destroy the Star Destroyer " Gilad Pellaeon " and the moon Boreleo . Baradium fission device . Baradium was also used in the construction of superweapons that were capable of destroying an entire planet . Baradium fission device s were known to exist during both the Galactic Republic and Imperial eras . However , these weapons were banned sometime during the early Imperial era by the Senate via legislation strongly supported by Senator Bail Prestor Organa of Alderaan . The Rebellion did manage to obtain one baradium fission device and planned to use the device to destroy the Imperial Shipyards orbiting the planet Bilbringi . This mission would end in failure when the pilot charged to deliver the weapon ditched the device because he was unwilling to sacrifice the " Millennium Falcon " . Baradium bomb . During the Cold War , Imperial Agent Cipher Nine had to defuse a baradium bomb that the Gormak had intended to use to destroy the Voss capital city of Voss - Ka . The Gormak built the device from scavenged hardware and copied the design from existing Imperial baradium bombs . Ultimately Cipher Nine was successful in preventing the destruction of Voss - Ka . Other baradium weapons . In small quantities , baradium could be used with some precision : thermal detonator tape was used to breach blast doors , for example . A more specialized form of baradium weapon was the seismic charge , in which the baradium was combined with collapsium . Rather than a spherical blast - radius , the destructive power of a seismic charge was constrained into a narrow plane , producing a violent shearing effect through anything in the path of the blast . In an attempt to counteract the instability of baradium - based thermal detonators , the Alliance to Restore the Republic developed the Thermal well , which combined baradium with ytterbium , to produce a much more stable explosive compound . This burned at several thousand degrees Celsius , and was capable of melting most objects within its blast radius . Lastly , while baradium was normally used as an explosive , depleted baradium was used instead to make dense , small - caliber bullets . The YVH series could carry a depleted - baradium pellet launcher capable of shredding yorik coral . History . Baradium ' s destructive power meant that thermal detonators were banned by the Old Republic , and more powerful models remained illegal under the Galactic Empire , while unauthorized possession of a thermal detonator was now punishable by death . But while a small baradium charge was issued as standard to stormtroopers , the cost of production and the problems involved in handling the material also meant that its use was limited , even within the massive military - industrial complex of the Imperial forces . These limits did not completely prohibit the use of baradium weapons , however . Even under the Old Republic , thermal detonators were popular with bounty hunters and other fringe elements . During the Republic Dark Age , baradium was widely sought by Sith Lords like Daiman and Odion for their war effort against the Republic and the Jedi . In 1032 BBY , a Jedi team under Vannar Treece raided Chelloa to disrupt Daiman ' s baradium supply line . During the , Odion ' s forces deployed a massive kinetic corruptor which harnessed the baradium by exploding a chunk of the landscape and killing many of the combatants . Jedi Master Depa Billaba said that Mace Windu should have used a baradium bomb on Geonosis , rather than allowing the Clone Wars to begin . Subsequently , they were employed by the Grand Army of the Republic , and by elite Imperial soldiers such as stormtroopers . Merr - Sonn Munitions was known as the primary manufacturer , but a few other companies were authorized to produce detonators by the Empire , including BlasTech Industries subsidiary Tarascii Explosives . Large thermal detonators continued to be illegal under the New Republic , although that did not stop Han Solo from keeping a few in his private arsenal aboard the " Millennium Falcon " . The Yuuzhan Vong War saw the one recorded use of a baradium missile , by the Myrkr strike team . The primary plan of the strike team ' s mission was built around this weapon , which was to be used to destroy the cloning facility creating the voxyn at Myrkr . In the event , it was fired instead against a Yuuzhan Vong cruiser , completely obliterating it even though it exploded half a kilometer from the warship ' s hull . There is little further evidence for baradium missiles being regularly used in combat , however . The cache aboard the Star Destroyer " Anakin Solo " in 40 ABY may have been an anomaly , reflecting that ship ' s unusual role as command ship of the Galactic Alliance Guard . During the Battle of Kashyyyk , for example , Darth Caedus carried out the orbital bombardment exclusively with the Star Destroyer ' s long range turbolasers . After the war , the Galactic Alliance attempted to reassert tight state control of baradium supplies , as a large - scale smuggling operation it was considered a serious issue in 35 ABY . Shortly before 40 ABY , however , large deposits of baradium were discovered on Duro , and these would prove to be the ultimate catalyst for the Second Galactic Civil War , when Thrackan Sal - Solo and his faction began secret military preparations to secure the supply for Corellia .