So... the general consensus seems to be that a full blown nuke bomb in the hands of terrorists is just plain nightmare fuel and nothing to really take seriously. The squaddies I listen to for strategic and military issues seem to be agreed on it. I've heard them say that nuclear weapons are maintenance intensive and beyond the goat herds and rag heads for whom the flush toilet is a mystery of modern technology.
I ran into suspicions with the justifications for that stance. According to the squaddies radioactive materials "corrode the chit out of their containers and sensitive electronics attached to them and have to be replaced regularly. Doing that safely takes highly trained personnel, other exotic materials of construction, and complex support and logistics beyond the garden variety terrorists of our day..."
So I did some digging - and I am probably on watch lists for Interpol, the FBI, KGB, CSIS, MI6, Interpol and and the East Overshoe RCMP detachMINT. Not bad for a guy whose criminal record consists of urinating in public parks, forgetting to go outside with pants on, and vagrancy and pan handling, eh? HAR HAR HAR!!!
So... Plutonium. The weasel words apply - heavy earths, transuranics and rare earths are out (far out of my wheelhouse). But simple chemistry is do-able for me, I know enough to be dangerous. So with that out of the way:
Plutonium is stored in a vacuum, or in a sealed container in gaseous plutonium dioxide. If it is exposed to air, it will oxidize... but it will pit, much like aluminum. Plutonium oxide is a dust, and as you might imagine - toxic as hell.
Plutonium will react with other metals in cathodic (corrosive) reactions - but you require molten solutions of poltassium and lithium and it is strictly a proposition for the lab. There's not much info and specifics as you can imagine for obvious reasons.
Like any highly radioactive material, it has to be heavily shielded to contain the radiation and materials like lead and other dense materials are preferred. The problem there is that eventually that shielding becomes radioactive, and has to be swapped out and replaced. The metals will look perfectly ordinary, but they will be radioactive as hell. If the shielding becomes too radioactive - the radiation can induce voltages on the electronics or fiddly-bits. It doesn't take much to fry a microprocessor.
So... no. Plutonium will not turn you into a zombie and rust the shite out of your city. If you don't get incinerated by the bomb, the radioactivity will get you. If you DO survive the blast one of the things they tell people is to take your metal jewelry- it doesn't matter if it's a $50,000.00 Dior emerald necklace, or a $20,000.00 Rolex - you take it off and bury it in a hole as deep as you can dig it. Only problem with that is that chances are everything metal around you is radioactive too. There is no defence against the nuclear weapon except to be somewhere else... and even that is a sketchy survival tactic considering the power modern weapons have. The ones that exploded in Japan in WW2 are literally firecrackers in comparison to the big boys we have today.
If I am correct in all of the above - and I may well NOT be - it is plausible that terrorists with big international support COULD have weapons of this nature. Uncle Sam is currently supplying nuke capable missiles to Israel and the 'Kraine and even helping them with targetting info for weapons with conventional warheads. Is it beyond Russia to furnish our enemies with these weapons? Or China or India? Iran may be in the nuclear club too. I'd say it's it's probable at this point.
Is a strike possible? Sure - IF your willing to face the retaliation and consequences. There are any number of kooks that would push the button without a second thought. Some of them are our own people now. The good news is that if things DO go nuclear, our leaders are personally at risk and with their own hides on the line... weapons like these just don't make sense and never did except for that fact.
I am personally not worried but I am concerned. We used to be smart enough to force warring nations to the negotiating table and arrange ceasefires and de-escalate problems in stupid places with stupid people. Now we are taking part in genocides that would make Hitler, Pol Pot and Mao jealous. If you are going to annihilate people on that scale, and they have weapons like these...?
It's something to be concerned about. Syria just stopped existing as a country. The Palestinians are next. The Ukraine is in the wind. And... high tech, specialty tools, precision electronics are cheap and plentiful as is the expertise to use them.
It's no use panicking...but our fate is up to some seriously shitty people that CAN get us killed if left to continue. Hopefully we'll have the sense to clean house and start sweeping away these unstable morons that would rule us?
Your comment about getting rid of metal jewelry reminded me of the novel "Alas, Babylon". The "hot" jewelry they stole got some people killed by the radiation.
ReplyDeleteHow corrosive and self-poisoning is highly enriched uranium 235? Is it unrealistic to consider some nuclear weapons nations have developed long shelf-life weapons with low signatures and minimal and intermittent maintenance to smuggle into future target nations in advance? No need for delivery systems and flight times when the bomb is already at its target.
ReplyDeleteStefan v.
A nuke core and a few dozens pounds of explosive will scatter radioactive material widely and is a dirty bomb. Even the core from a industrial radiography machine and a couple pounds of explosives on a roof top will contaminate a couple city blocks.
ReplyDeleteI'm much more concerned about a dirty bomb than a terrorist nuke.
Exile1981
There will be no nuke war, and as you pointed out, the skin in the game from the likes of our politicians and the people that bought them make it highly unlikely! Perpetual war is the only business model that keeps the wheels greased as does the climate hoax and the Alien invasion. I'm not concerned in the least...this is gonna be fun!
ReplyDeleteChutes Magoo
The clinton-obama-soros pukes all have access to mx for a nuke. The goat herders will to busy learning to clean their ass so as not to offend their great Allahbama.
ReplyDeleteJihadists do not possess a nuke, least not in the US. If they did they'd set it off and not hold on to it. That according to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. He's got the background to know.
ReplyDeleteJust as likely that Mossad or our own agencies would do it. After all we've had more than one of our politicians threaten US Citizens with nuking.
As to maintenance I don't know the particulars but the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge (dates back to the Manhattan project) is tasked with maintenance and upgrading our nuclear weapons in addition to storing our dot mil nuclear fuel. The thing I haven't seen in all this back'n'forth is someone who actually does the job chipping into the conversation which otherwise is like a bunch of virgin boys discussing sex.