al-Qaida No. 2: We Have Briefcase Nukes

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[Ichneumon]

You mentioned that a un-maintained nuclear bomb would still go off, but would cause little damage. Please explain. Is it that the detonator goes off but the nuclear portion doesn't blow? Or that because some of the detonators don't go, due to not being maintained, you don't get the proper nuclear chain reaction?

At the risk of oversimplifying, the key in a fission nuclear weapon is to slam the fissile components together in a way that causes a chain reaction sufficient to induce most of the core to undergo fission as completely as possible.

The catch is that the chain reaction has to occur pretty much simultaneously throughout the entire core in order to get the biggest "boom", because if any one portion of the core undergoes the chain reaction before the rest of the core (even by a few microseconds), that one portion releases enough energy to blow apart the rest of the core and prevents the bulk of it from reacting fully (or at all), and you get a "fizzle" -- a "pop" when you wanted a "*BOOM*".

Depending on how badly it misfired, you'd get an explosion with the force of anywhere from a hand grenade to a truck bomb, and uranium or plutonium splattered around the immediate vicinity making for a messy cleanup, but nothing like what most folks would consider a nuclear explosion.

[BulletBobCo]

This site has some interesting info. Check out the term wooden bomb.

[Southack]

The "wooden bomb" is actually rather large and divided into components that can be readily assembled into a functioning weapon. That's the first step in reducing the onerous maintenance on an atomic weapon, after all (e.g. reducing the radiation's deterioration of the electronics, the conventional explosives, etc.).

Another step is that the "wooden bomb" is built such that the expected nuclear decay of the atomic trigger, booster, and case/shell only reduces its yield over time, but still allows it to be functional at least...for years.

But that ain't no tiny, lightweight suitcase bomb from the old Soviet Union!

[Daniel Ramsey]

From what I know and not from action novels or sci-fi shows the smallest nuclear fission device ever made is about the size of a softball with an approximate ONE thousand pound TNT equivalent yield.
As far as those missing Russian backpacks being for real I very much think so. They were carried as a two part arraingement, each one was roughly 90 lbs, I forget the yield but it may have been up around 10k in yield. As far as what makes a bomb "smart" is whether it completes its fission cycle and detonates or fizzles and becomes a "dirty" bomb with just the conventional HE spreading the isotopes.
Does AQ have backpack nukes? I think they do,when is the best time to use them? when they think it would totally paralize, terrorize and absolutely hurt us. My thoughts would be they may try to smuggle in a trojan horse that appears to be a nuclear device (shipping containers full of lead sheating and dirty bombs) but are not the true device of terror which would be biologicals such as smallpox, all it would take is 100 Jhihadists injected with smallpox traveling across the country by bus, train and air to effectively cripple the country by contaminating everyone they come into contact with.

How do we battle all this? how do we treat a gangenous part of a body? negotiate with it? feel sorry for it? Myself I think the government should ban any religous practice involving the Koran in the US, its a terrorists religon.If it means a holy war then so be it, and I think there should be an American made neutron bomb placed in a secure bunker right in the middle of Mecca, big enough to kill every Muslim or living being in a 5 mile radius. It would not destroy the rekigous site and if we were attacked again we would detonate it again.

[ServesURight]

LOLOLOL!!!

[Redcloak]

You're quite right. If they had 'em, they'd have used 'em by now.

[demsux]

Who'd spend $30 million on a product that MIGHT NOT work. I wonder where they took it for a "test drive"....nope, not buyin' it

[X-FID]

Hasn't variations of this same story being going around for the past 3 and half years? Like everyone else has said, if they had them they would have used them a long time ago. This is trash.

You are correct, there is no such thing as a "suitcase nuke"!

[JoeSchem]

If they use one, we'll be hearing from every liberal loon about why, exactly, we deserved it.

Given that the logical targets are the nesting areas of liberal loons -- ie, New York, LA, DC -- there may be a few we won't be hearing from.

I'm not advocating anything, I'm just pointing something out . . . .

[rang1995]

Hope ,no pray,it's not true but if one goes off here..well,i sure hope islam will have a new awakening

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/icbm/mirv.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/icbm/lgm-30_3.htm&h=144&w=101&sz=3&tbnid=EipiCvh0g2cJ:&tbnh=88&tbnw=61&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmirv%2Bicbm%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8

[ExSoldier]

Hey! So do I. What's the date on your receipt?

[ExSoldier]

"If they use one, we'll be hearing from every liberal loon about why, exactly, we deserved it."

Unless they use it on Berkely. Or the following address:

The Harold Pratt House
58 East 68th Street
New York, NY 10021

It's the address for the Council on Foreign Relations.

[Dog Gone]

Was I supposed to get a reciept? DOH!

[MindBender26]

Any FReeper have knowledge of how long the tritium and other time-critical components could go without "servicing"

[Southack]

"Any FReeper have knowledge of how long the tritium and other time-critical components could go without "servicing"

The tritium *booster* can last 8 years or more and still be useful. The shell/case lasts even longer. The atomic *trigger*, however, has a shelf life of about 90 days.

Besides that 90 day time limit for the atomic trigger, you've got to remember that the radiation inside the bomb does a number on the associated electronics and conventional explosives.

One of the things that the Russians had to steal from us was the chemical recipe for our high explosives (RDX??) that we use in nukes because their own conventional explosives were...hmmm...how to say...having difficulties.

Also, keep in mind that Uranium and Plutonium are metals. Brittle, brittle, brittle metals, in fact. Oh, and they rust rather easily, to say the least.

So anyone with an old backpack nuke from the former Soviet Union (deceased for more than a decade now) essentially has a corroded, fragmented, decayed "dirty bomb" instead of a nuclear weapon.

If you want to have a greater than 50% chance of your atomic bomb actually chain reacting, then you need to perform laboratory-clean maintenance about every 3 months (replace the atomic trigger, test the electrical wires, replace the electrical components, test the humidity, replace the conventional explosives, etc.). Then about every 8 years you will want to replace the booster material (usually tritium) and every ten years or so you'll probably want to replace the core and shell/case.

And these aren't things that just any auto mechanic can perform. Move the core too close to the case/shell at any point during such maintenance and you'll be short one atomic maintenance crew. Create a spark or power surge while changing out the electronics and the high explosives may reach out and say hello.

Keep in mind that the entire might of NAZI Germany failed to get one of these "right" during 8 years of trying. It ain't easy. Most of what you read in the press is a fantastic oversimplification of the technical hurdles involved with these monsters.

[Southack]

"As far as those missing Russian backpacks being for real I very much think so."

Then see Post #95.

[Publius6961]

That approach is so mature, I suggest that you use it at your first oportunity when a surgeon is about to do a number on you.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[SYDNEY, Australia - Osama bin Laden's terror network claims to have bought ready-made nuclear weapons on the black market in central Asia, the biographer of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader was quoted as telling an Australian television station.]

No.2 Leader Zawahiri: "Yes we have nukes, but that's not the best of our plans. You see, we are going to wait until the Americans kill each and every one of us, AND THEN WE WILL ATTACK WITH OUR NUKES! ....Er, what? You think our plan is flawed? ....Oh? How can we enjoy our great victory when we are all dead? ....Hmmmm. You have a point there..."

[sirchtruth]

That approach is so mature, I suggest that you use it at your first oportunity when a surgeon is about to do a number on you.

Could you please clue me into what you are replying too?

[Psycho_Runner]

This Site is pretty much the edge of public info on nuclear info. A little technical but it is informative.


http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/TerroristBombIntro.html