[tw]

Originally Posted by marichiko

OK, I have a question. When it comes to weapons of mass destruction, what is the critical limiting factor? Is it delivery? Is it having a facility where one can manufacture the requisite plutonium? Could one make plutonium in one's own garage? Just curious. Can anyone enlighten me?

Which WMD? I assume this is a question about plutonium or uranium based weapons. It is extremely difficult. First one must obtain sufficient quantities of a material harder to obtain than precious metals. Tons of material must be unearthed just to extract grams. Then there is the major effort of refining this bomb material into weapons grade. The amount of energy necessary to make the first three US atom bombs was so great that processing facilities were located where electricity was plentiful - Hanford in WA and in the Tennessee River Valley. After two bombs were dropped on Japan, there was insufficient weapons grade material remaining for another bomb. It is that difficult to obtain weapons grade material.

To get around that problem, one must steal pounds. And remember, weapons grade uranium and especially weapons grade plutonium will kill quckly if not properly contained. How does one steal what must be in a large container?

So we have this material. Now we must make a bomb. Idea is to compress the material so tight to create a chain reaction. Again not so easy. One cannot just explode dynamite around it to cause the compression. The explosive forces must be carefully sized, timed and placed to make compression without any leakage in all three dimensions. Less accurate compression means even more weapons grade material is required - and bomb must be physically heavier.

But it does not stop there. Neutrons must be slowed to properly create the chain reaction. A moderator material is required. How much? Just more reasons why a bomb design involves so much time on super computers. Where does a terrorist steal super computers with advanced development software?

Now clearly the facility is getting quite large. Massive amounts of electricity, computer development time, carefully selected explosive materials of refined purity, special moderator materials, highly accurate machine shops, and a host of control equipment that is not routinely available in international markets. All this and the resulting radioactive shielding must be hidden from public, law enforcement, and satellite view.

Then there are the so many other little facts and special materials we are not even going to discuss.

In short, it takes the full resources of a nation's government to make a bomb sufficient to be a terrorist weapon.

Clearly a nuclear bomb in the hands of terrorists is almost impossible. It is also unlikely that lightning will strike you and only you while inside your car. That one lightning event only to you and no one else is many times more likely than a terrorist with a bomb. However no one cares if you are struck by lightning. We do care if something much more impossible happens - terrorists with a nuclear device. Therefore we ignore you verses lightning in the car but give serious consideration to something thousands of times less likely - a terrorist with a nuclear device.

Again I must emphasize how much nonsense and fear is used instead of logic and numbers. A terrorist with a nuclear device is mostly stuff of fiction. Terrorists using airplanes was always a realistic scenario as even noted in a PDB to George Jr. A smart president must be able to put these two events in proper perspective.

Terrorist with a nuclear device could only happen if top leadership was outrightly subverting the little people in government from doing their job - as George Jr administration did to this nation's top anti-terrorists including John O'Neil and Richard Clark and to ongoing investigations that were about to expose the terrorist plots. Yes a nuclear device is something we must worry about - but not from terrorists. Just another reason why our international relations are so important to this nation's security. That bomb cannot exist when America worries about having friends - and therefore the threat would be discovered long before the threat exists. What is the best defenses against a nuclear bomb terrorist attack? Good relations with virtually every nation in the world. Something we no longer have.

Look at that last paragraph. I have gone from being ho-hum about George Jr to being one of the most vocal critics of this mental midget president. Notice how we best avoid a nuclear terrorist attack. This is but another in a long list of reasons why I openly, aggressively, and unconditionally say that George Jr is a very bad president. He has made the nearly impossible just a little more possible by being both mentally weak and politically dangerous. I cannot say enough to the moderates and centrists among us - are you registered to vote? Your vote is probably more necessary this November than anytime in the last 30 years. Things have gotten that bad. Are you registered?