samuel wrote:
Yes a little posts back, I suggested stuffing Mr. Six's tiny balls in a sock and chucking them. If that is what they were doing, what was the problem with TN being declared a failure and keeping our options open in that regard. No need to test???
Samuel let me repeat what I believe to be a badly kept secret that I mentioned in one of these threads.
Given the level of engineering capability that now exists across most of the world and in most countries - the only thing tha separates a "Nucelar Weapons State" (NWS) and a non NWS is either a signature on some treaty, or lack of fissile material like enriched Uranium or Pu.
There was a ref - maybe the Goa paper that spoke of how handling of pure Plutonium balls above a particular mass would cause them to heat up and sizzle and that had actually happened on numerous occasions. In some book by Feynman he recalls a similar experience sitting near a pile of super-critical Uranium.
Building a nuclear weapon is relatively easy for a bunch of moderately competent engineers with some explosives expertise and a suitable 1960s level manufacturing industry. That is why desperate attempts are being made to
1) Stop people from making nukes or proliferating
2) Pretend that it is all damn tough
3) Prevent the spread of fissile material
4) Pretending that you have to belong to Brahmin caste to recite mantras - i.e you need thermonuclear bombs to claim that you actually have nukes.
This is balderdash. It's not that tough and the haves are fairly desperately clutching at straws trying to bolt the barn door after a herd of horses have escaped.
If you can get 25 kg of Pu to come together - it does not need much compression to produce a 20 kt bomb. Critical mass is less than 10 Kg I think. 25 Kg Pu is unsafe - but heck who cares - it is meant to be unsafe. Only in the US will the weapons storage guys have their asses sued off if there is an accident. Do you think that will happen in Talib-land or even India?
Nobody with half a brain in this world will believe that anyone with access to several hundred Kg of Plutonium does not have a working bomb. Tested or untested it will work.