“The design for an atomic bomb can easily be found on the Internet; some basic materials purchased at the local hardware shop will complete production.”
-Helen Caldicott, Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, p.62
Link? Details, details.
And a plutonium bomb is extremely difficult to make, even if you have the material.
Filed under Anti-Nuclear Quote of the Day, Plutonium, Proliferation, Security and Terrorism
Posted on September 26, 2006 by Stewart Peterson |
… and this quote again is about nuclear weapons. By (incorrectly) trumpeting their ease of construction, it in fact de-links nuclear weapons from nuclear power generation. To this extent it is accurate - nuclear power generation has almost nothing to do with nuclear weapons. In fact, has any purely civilian nuclear reactor (optimized for electricity production) ever provided material for a nuclear bomb?
This is a classic used-car salesman technique that is being used by the anti-nuclear movement.
Let me post an analogy:
I’ll bet, if I cared to look hard enough, I could find a schematic for a fighter jet on the internet.
Sure…my local store has some of the parts that I might need to construct an F-15 or an F-16 fighter jet. They have standard size nuts, bolts, washers, perhaps some metal (of the wrong alloy), standard types of wiring and wiring harnesses etc. They have the parts that are commonly used in homes, autos, and small businesses.
Guess what?! If I tried to buy up these parts and start making an F-15 or an F-16 out behind Bubba’s Tool, Machine, and Car Parts shop, I would come up more than just a little bit short of having a flyable aircraft.
Omitted might be some really important parts, like, perhaps the entire wings or the parts in the cockpit needed to fly the aircraft….
Having just attended a meeting in Chapel Hill, and having seen some of Helen Caldicott’s fans in action, I can tell you that they are quite well trained in the art of public speaking, and in the art of making deceptive statements that involve important omissions.
Joffan:
No civilian nuclear power plant ever has produced bomb material. Of course, as you probably know, it is very possible to connect a bomb factory to a turbine and generator, but that doesn’t make it a civilian nuclear power plant.
Ruth:
An interesting example of “atomic bomb plans” is found here. ASCII art apparently qualifies.
I don’t doubt that *somewhere* on the web is bomb plans. IIRC, a graduate student once assembled such plans from unclassified materials as his thesis, and it didn’t get classified or suppressed.
Its just, thats kind of the point: the designs for a nuclear weapon ( generically speaking ) are not exactly secret, because they aren’t the limiting factor. Its the materials and precision engineering that are the limiting factors.
-Metaphysician
Metaphysician:
John Phillips’ bomb design was pretty vague, if that’s what you’re talking about–IIRC he left out some important dimensions and other specifications. I also recall (I think it was) Bernard Cohen’s offer of an ‘A’ to any student who could present a design for a functional plutonium bomb. He has received three papers in the past 30-odd years, and none could actually be manufactured from the plans presented.