Ninerfan1 Wrote:

OptimisticOwl Wrote:My understanding is that all the information needed to build an atomic bomb is on the net, and your basic sixteen year old geek could build one with easily available amterials IF he had the nuclear material.

This is very much true. It's not hard to build a nuke per say, it's getting the materials to do it, specifically the radioactive material.

I think you guys do a disservice to the Manhattan project and others in this field.

There is alot of craftmanship that needs to be put into the most basic A-bomb. Even if the "know how" literature was posted, it would still take time, resources and skills (electronics, machining, mechanics/mechanical enigneering) to do this.

Maybe I'm jealous of 16 genius year olds, but I don't think any could do it, even w/ the blueprints in front of them.

Could a state find the talent to get this done? Sure...but even that would take some time, trial&error, and components that are challenging to obtain. And obsolescence runs both ways, so you aren't going to find many COTS components that would be called out in such diagrams.

Obviously, those aren't compelling enough by themselves to say "were safe," but the 16 year old illustration grates on me.