[geeks] NSI must die!!!!

[Rob]

What about making the bomb from heavy water? That's everywhere and can be
distilled from tap water. (It'll take a damn long time to collect any
volume however.)

- Rob

On Sat, 15 Jun 2002, Eric Dittman wrote:

> > > The type of nuclear material needed depends on the type of
> > > weapon one wanted to make.  A dirty bomb is easy, fission
> > > bombs and above are increasingly more difficult.  Most
> > > likely the best one could do would be a low-yield fission
> > > bomb.
> >
> > You'll need purified weapons-grade uranium. This isn't stuff you can make in
> > your garage. It takes some pretty hefty equipment (IE, entire factories) to
> > purify uranium. Plus, you have to be able to machine it, which is in and of
> > itself an extraordinarily dangerous activity. Once you actually /have/ that
> > though, the bomb itself is simple.
>
> I'm not going to speak on what you need for a dirty bomb,
> but anyone that's read the news lately knows that the
> material isn't that hard to obtain.  For fission and
> above you do need weapons-grade uranium.  That takes
> considerable time to refine, with the associated costs.
>
> Consider the Iraqis have been trying to get enough weapons-
> grade uranium for a while (among other types of fissile
> material; anyone remember the reactor the Israelis destroyed
> a few years ago?).  They never had enough time to make enough
> material before the plant was destroyed, and they didn't lack
> for money to spend on weapons development.
>
> Hell, consider how long it took to make the initial bombs
> during WWII.  The US was working as fast as it could, and
> at the time Hiroshima and Nagasaki were neutralized we only
> had a few (less than 8, IIRC) available.
> --
> Eric Dittman
> dittman at dittman.net
> Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/
> _______________________________________________
> GEEKS:  http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/geeks