Anybody with college level science skills and access to the right materials can build a bomb. Whether it will actually detonate as a nuclear bomb, or just blow up like a dirty bomb, now, that's the trick. And even if you can get one built, then you have to have a reliable delivery system. When they do an test picked up by our satellite systems, then I'll be worried.

But it's time to get our troops and their dependants out of South Korea, just in case.

Anybody with college level science skills and access to the right materials can build a bomb. Whether it will actually detonate as a nuclear bomb, or just blow up like a dirty bomb, now, that's the trick.

This is oversimplifying.


Bombs can be acquired as well as built. Presumably, if acquired from proliferation, they are somewhat more reliable than the homebrew variety, but not entirely. Even U.S. nukes have reliability issues, because of their complexity, something which has moved funding to building longer-lasting, more reliable ones. (There may be other motives, too, like keeping nuke-building know-how passing from generation to generation, but we'll never know for sure.)


The homebrew bomb, even the "dirty bomb", is a dicey thing. The only way to make it sure is to minimize it's potential for havoc, i.e., it's size. Many of the nuclear materials are chemically toxic as well as radioactive, and it's really hard to move these materials from place to place without detection, since either their penetrating radioactivity gives them away or they need to be shielded with heavy materials. (Ever picked up a block of lead?)


The materials are hard to come by, although not as hard as they should be. And the technology of building the detonator is what is really hard, particularly if pretending to build the nuclear weapon itself.


While not wanting to minimize the risk, as usual, a terrorist is exploiting a public's fears and unfortunate ignorance of science through the media, and that's the effect they want primarily. Otherwise they'd be content with detonating conventional explosives using suicide bombers at big weddings in Oshkosh, UT.

This is an example of the kind of practice which really ought to be squashed, yet which government and industry seem to accept as "understandable errors" and "business as usual".

I have no sympathy at all for people who give comfort, support, and financial assistance to terrorists and terrorist organizations, but this kind of thing ought really to be heavily fined and penalized. Just because it's a corporation ... .

Jon,

Calm down a bit because the article you reference does not mean anything you accuse.

The chemical was lossed and luckily eventually found intact. There was no malicious intent behind this. There is no evidence/proof of malicious intent. The chemical was not being shipped to terrorists or their organizations.

People are too quick to hit the 'Anti-Halliburton' button.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (Click here should you choose to sign out.)

As you post your comment, please mind our simple comment policy: we welcome all perspectives, but require that comments be both civil and respectful. We also ask that you avoid the extensive use of profanity, racist terms (neither of which we consider civil or respectful), and other boorish language.

We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy. As a courtesy, we will first send you an email noting a violation so you understand the boundaries. This will occur only once, however, and should we ban you from our comment forums we expect that ban to be permanent.

We also will frown upon those who suggest that we ban other individuals for voicing unpopular opinions, should those opinions be voiced in a civil and respectful manner. The point of our comment threads is to provide a forum for spirited though civil and respectful discourse … it is not to provide a forum in which everyone will agree with your point of view.

If you can live by these rules, welcome aboard. If not, then we’re sorry it didn’t work out, and thanks for visiting The Command Post.

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: