DailyDirt: Not So Secret Nuclear Weapons

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Nov 12th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

As technology advances, it gets easier and easier to make all kinds of complicated things. Information spreads more easily, and it's more and more difficult to keep technology away from any particular group of people. It's an exciting time, but it could also be a bit scary. The knowledge of how to design and build nuclear weapons has existed for decades now, and more countries are developing their own nuclear weapons programs (sometimes with the help of other nuclear-capable countries). Here are just a few things that might keep you awake as the Doomsday Clock is just 5 minutes away from midnight.

Saudi Arabia doesn't have its own nuclear weapons program, but it apparently has a standing order with Pakistan to buy some nuclear warheads. This arrangement isn't exactly transparent, but it's a situation that likely exists and may become more obvious if more Middle East countries develop nuclear weapons. [url]
Back in the 1960s, the Nth Country Experiment set out to show how long it would take for a country to develop its own atomic bomb from scratch. In 1964, three PhDs in physics were given a support staff and publicly available information about nuclear weapons, and just three years later, these scientists had reasonable blueprints for a nuclear weapon. [url]
Starfish Prime was part of a series of high-altitude nuclear bomb tests that detonated nuclear weapons over the Pacific Ocean in the 1960s. Starfish Prime demonstrated the effects of a 1.4 megaton nuclear bomb, by knocking out satellites and causing EMP problems for hundreds of miles -- and its blast has shown everyone the potential destructive power of an atomic bomb. [url]

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Filed Under: atomic bomb, doomsday clock, emp, nth country experiment, nuclear, starfish prime, weapons

8 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 12 Nov 2013 @ 6:04pm

They should do the nth country experiment again and see if it takes the same amount of time today. I suspect the blueprints for an atomic bomb are easier to write up than actually try to build.
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Alan (profile), 12 Nov 2013 @ 7:12pm

Re: Difficulties in building
The primary difficulty is obtaining the high-grade fissile material. Once you have that, the rest is (relatively) easy.

The second difficulty is casting and machining the stuff without killing ourself in the process. If you are lucky, you will die (relatively) quickly (hours to days). If not, you will linger (in a most unpleasant manner) for much longer.

There are many other engineering and logistical hurdles, but nothing a rogue government, bent on having such a weapon, couldn't handle. Any organization smaller than a government would be hard-pressed to find the resources.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Nov 2013 @ 12:41am

Atomic Bombs are easy to make
And the knowledge of them was a bit obvious after Japan in WW2

Australian Electronics mag in the 80s had a project to make your own atomic bomb (yes a real one).

It IS true though that it is very hard to make a small size and high yield weapon, but it is very easy to make a low yield and large atomic bomb. (the electronics mag used your house for the bomb (not small high yield).

The only you need is a ready source of plutonium, but once you have that, it's just a matter of making two chunks of it and firing one into the other,, kaboom..

its no easier today to make plutonium than it was 60 years ago, the laws of physics have not changed.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Nov 2013 @ 12:49am

Re: Re: Difficulties in building
your absolutely correct, one problem is the collapse of the USSR, with a huge potential for weapons grade material being available on the black market, or just not help in very secure locations.

It is very hard to build atomic bombs that are small enough for a war head, but as you said, if size does not matter building a big ass, but low yield nuke is VERY doable. Assuming you get the plutonium that is.

And yes, learn how to build it quick, otherwise you will be dead before you get to pull the trigger.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Nov 2013 @ 12:54am

Re: Re: Difficulties in building
it would not even have to be a rogue Government, with a source of material an individual with determination could do it. Easy with 2 people, and only basic engineering skills as well.
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abombinous coward, 13 Nov 2013 @ 4:00am

The national technical means to isolate fissionable isotopes is not as limiting as it used to be: the SILEX methodologies and tunable desktop lasers makes isotope isolation more compact and energy efficient. While 'dual-use' devices, such lasers are becoming more common. Progress in the total energy and fine tuning of such lasers makes the selective excitement of an isotope more feasible. The current limitations of centrifuges and gaseous diffusion may not be so limiting soon, and the cost of making fissionable materials may drop to the point that agents smaller than nation states might start affording them. Whee!
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MacCruiskeen, 13 Nov 2013 @ 4:55am

Indeed, bomb-building is more of an engineering challenge than basic science, which is fairly well understood. For instance, it took several years of effort for Iran to build the centrifuge that was damaged in the infamous Stuxnet attack. Much of what we keep secret about our bomb programs is the test data and designs that allow for modern weapons--the high-yield missile warheads carried by our sub and bomber fleet. (You might recall that early bombs were very large and heavy and relatively low-yield). You might remember the kerfuffle a few years back when it was thought that China had gotten a hold of the key designs, the W88.
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Miles Mathis, 7 Nov 2018 @ 12:34pm

NUCLEAR WEAPONS DO NOT EXIST:

https://wilhelmderzweite.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/atombomben-gibt-es-nicht.pdf

http://heiwac o.tripod.com/bomb.htm

http://www.big-lies.org

http://mileswmathis.com/trinity.pdf

https://vexmansthough ts.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/what-the-nuclear-hoax-implies/

https://pieceofmindful.com/2017/09/27/no-n ukes-yes-folks-there-are-no-nukes/
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