HOWTO Build a Nuclear Device

[Karsten M. Self]

on Sat, Nov 17, 2001 at 12:24:31AM -0800, Tim May (tcmay at got.net) wrote:
> On Friday, November 16, 2001, at 08:20 PM, !Dr. Joe Baptista wrote:

> > Anyone on this planet can build a nuclear device.  So the only issue
> > in building the device is the will to die for a cause.  And the only
> > thing I find unfortunate in all of this is that there are so many
> > causes that people are willing to die for.  And war will not make
> > those reasons go away - it will only encourage them.
>
> It's really _not_ this easy. It took China and India a while before
> they successfully tested an A-bomb (many years after they had the raw
> materials from their reactor programs). It may have taken the South
> Africans and Israelis a few years after getting materials, too. So,
> why didn't they just hammer U-235 into stainless steel mixing bowls
> and do it the way "anyone on this planet can build a nuclear device,"
> one wonders.

This analysis neglects consideration of several points:

  - Nation-states (even authoritarian ones) will likely want to create
    both a sustained program, not merely crank out a few crude nukes,
    and preserve the talent involved.  One-offs are almost always easier
    to complete than a production effort, but the lowered total cost is
    offset by a higher unit cost.  The terrorist organization can
    accomplish its goals with crude tactics and marginally effective
    devices.  Credible military threat isn't as simple.

  - Credible military weapons have minimum requirements of both efficacy
    -- efficient use of supercritical energy -- and predictability --
    having the damned thing go off in the silo / bunker / hanger /
    munitions dump rather than the chosen target isn't particularly
    useful.

Tighter constraints => Longer fulfillment time.

The original US project, as described by Feynman, involved much
radiation exposure and high risks of criticality incidents at Oak Ridge,
some of which are documented in his biographical essay collections.  The
Hanford reservation is still a glowing waste zone, much of which greatly
postdates a fairly deep understanding of radiation hazards.

Peace.

--
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>       http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
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