Getting nuclear capability

[ciphergoth]

Apparently, Saddam Hussein does have the capability to obtain a nuclear warhead, if he has help from other countries. This has been announced with some fanfare by a respected think-tank.

Well, golly-gosh, so do I! I can have a nuclear warhead too, if some nuclear power sends one to me by Federal Express with gift wrapping around it!

Comments

[nickys.livejournal.com]

And there I was thinking that the biggest threat to world peace was that my local branch of Boots has the capability to make biological warfare agents....

Can't you make a nuclear warhead by dismantling lots of old smoke detectors, then?

Delicious

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

What an amazing idea a bomb made out of Americium-241.

Even if it can't detonate, it would be fantastic to see what the conspiracy theorists(tm) make of it. Especially as the namesake countrymen don't ever seem to understand irony no matter how much comedy we export to them.

-Roy

Re: Delicious

[nickys.livejournal.com]

Okay, I suppose it wouldn't be a proper nuclear warhead really. It'd just be a conventional bomb that scattered radioactive material around the place...

Oh well, back to the old plotting...

Are you familiar with <a href="http://www.ozyandmillie.org/>Ozy and Millie</a> and the International Dragon Conspiracy?

[babysimon]

Fuck it, all you need is some U235, some C4, and an LED timer (set to explode at 1 minute 30 of course) and you can assemble it yourself.

As pretexts for wars go, this is feeble.

Oh, and s/respected/Republican/

[adjectivemarcus.livejournal.com]

Send? Dear god, why not just check behind the sofa or go through the boxes in the attic. It's all around here somewhere, I'm sure...

[lamovrevx.livejournal.com]

anyways, the plum bastards.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

*confused*

also I'm trying to work out if we've met. hello!

Re:

[lamovrevx.livejournal.com]

sorry no but war sucks, sorry randomy found your journal, thought it was interesting

[miruku.livejournal.com]

yeah, lets do nothing and leave us suceptable to a nuclear or biological attack!

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

We are already susceptible to a nuclear or biological attack. Not everything that could reduce this risk is justified. Swallowing all of the propaganda in support of war on Iraq, even that as ludicrous as the report I'm decrying here, will not improve our safety.

Also, sarcasm done properly is a subtler art than merely saying the opposite of what you think.

Re:

[lamovrevx.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, well I shall be moving to canada

ROFLMAO

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder how Goverments can spread such obvious propaganda about, and the majority don't seem to care or worse they believe it and will fight for it.

It's easy to think that it's an Us and Them situation. The same mindset that every kid thinks their parents generation just doesn't understand them. I sit in my online ivory tower, watching conversations from my anarchist friends and I know the disenfranchised gulf is to blame...

Then you come along and in one sentance shatter that illusion.

I am hoping that your fears are based on the IISS "Iraqs Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Net Assessment" report published in the last few days where the quote "It could, however, assemble nuclear weapons within months if fissile material from foreign sources were obtained." was widely pushed around. And if so I'd like to share with you the complete four statements and a link to the full report. The first two statements are damning.

-Roy

from http://www.iiss.org/news-more.php?itemID=88 (http://www.iiss.org/news-more.php?itemID=88)
Our net assessment of the current situation is that:

Iraq does not possess facilities to produce fissile material in sufficient
amounts for nuclear weapons.

It would require several years and extensive foreign assistance to build
such fissile material production facilities.

It could, however, assemble nuclear weapons within months if fissile
material from foreign sources were obtained.

It could divert domestic civil-use radioisotopes or seek to obtain foreign
material for a crude radiological device.

Just make sure...

[kingginger.livejournal.com]

... that its lead lined,

And that is shipped in two halves...

(dont want to be shipping that critical mass!!)

:-)

Humm... Maybe the Russians can help for a few $$$?

Re: Just make sure...

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

hoho... though actually plutonium devices work by rapidly heating the plutonium through compression, which reduces the critical mass. AIUI the only uranium gun-type device ever detonated was the "Little Boy" which devastated Hiroshima:

Manhattan Project scientists were so confident in the performance of the “Little Boy” uranium bomb that the device was not even tested before it was used.

-- http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/design.htm

Re: Just make sure...

[kingginger.livejournal.com]

Oh well...

I think that quite a Tom Clancy novels will help them plan what they might need.

Given last years events, someone has gleaned ideas from Tom Clancy / Dale Brown (Dale Brown had the idea of crashing planes in a book before Tom Clancy did though).

Oh well...

I am sure that dirty nuke detonations are a not that far off possibility.
Sadly.

:-S

But fair enough with the uranium / plutonium - I suppose its just a case of what comes on the market first!

(humm - ebay??)

[djm4]

"You've never constructed even the simplest nuclear weapon."

I did wonder why this was news when I heard it this morning. Mind you, it strikes me that Dubya might be a bit flummoxed, even if presented with an 'Insert detonator A into fissile material B' kit.

[evil-girlie666.livejournal.com]

Erm, isn't it true that anyone educated to the standard of a half-decent Physics University degree actually theoretically has the "capability" to make a nuclear bomb, if given access to the right materials?

Doesn't that mean that as long as one educated person remains alive in Iraq, we theoretically (according to Dubya-thinking) have the "right" to bomb the living daylights out of them?

Not that we ever entirely stopped bombing Iraq anyway, apparently....

Ta-ra

E.

(pssst! it's Glasgow Shona btw - how are you?)

[ruis.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't even need a degree to be able to jury rig something. The difficult part is getting the device to detonate where you want it to and ensuring that you are outside its blast radius.

Whilst not quiet the same thing this story shows how easy it can be to obtain and play with nuclear material.

[jinxremoving.livejournal.com]

as far as revelations go, that statement ranks right up there with "we know bin laden is either dead, or in afghanistan, or somewhere else."

[lilithmagna.livejournal.com]

Ah, but recent quotes indicate that it's not even having the capability that counts. It's wanting the capability. This from a government who derogated from the international bioconevention thingy on the grounds that inspection would be impractical and would threaten commercial confidence. Obviously Saddam needs to get into bed with Westingate or whoever, and everything would be dandy. Wait a minute! Who was it who sold him the chemicals to make the gas to bomb his own population last time round? I know an old woman who0 swallowed a fly ....