On Friday 14 September 2007 14:02, Jed Rothwell wrote:
> thomas malloy wrote:
>
> >The discussion about the missing nuke makes me wonder about stealing
> >one verses buying or building one.
>
> All of the expert opinion I have seen is that it would be easiest by
> far to purchase a "loose nuke" from one of the ex-Soviet Union
> states. This is the most likely scenario. Many of the bombs are held
> in poorly guarded facilities, which are manned by corrupt troops who
> often go for months without pay.
>
> The US and Russia have a joint program to destroy these loose nukes
> and improve the security of the remaining facilities for bombs and
> also for radioactive material from disassembled bombs and nuclear
> reactors, which can be used in a dirty bomb. Unfortunately the Bush
> administration has reduced funding and delayed the completion of the
> program for many years. I regard this as most worst terrorist threat,
> but also -- paradoxically -- as the easiest to eliminate. Terrorism
> is supposedly the main concern of the Bush administration, but their
> inaction on this proves that they are not serious about terrorism.
>
> A few experts have suggested that a terrorist might be able to buy
> one from North Korea but based on their failed test last year, Mizuno
> and I do not think the North Koreans are capable of making nuclear
> weapons. This points out the extreme difficulty of option three:
> building one. If the nation state such as North Korea cannot do it, I
> think there is no chance that a small organization could
> independently build one. It would be like surreptitiously trying to
> manufacture an Apollo rocket, or a billion-dollar microprocessor fab plant.
>
> - Jed
>
If the Nut(north)Kases(koreans) are able to make one of these at all, it is
probably of very low yield. Maybe that was the intent, to make a 'suitcase
unit' for sale abroad to shady people. As for stealing one, forget it in the
United States unless one's group is prepared to lose a couple of dozen troops
in the attempt, or is extremely fortunate (unfortunate for we yanks).
