Lost / misplaced nukes

Lost / misplaced nukes

Every now and then you will hear some news report , editorial , or documentary talking about lost and or misplaced nukes . These reports usually go on to state that not only have these nukes made it to the black market but have indeed already been sold on the black market .

Is this true ??

If so , I am left to wonder who would have bought these nukes? Would they not have been cold war nukes from the collapsed USSR ? I could see a country possibly buying one , but the country buying the nuke would presumable , possess a sufficient enough rocket as to lob the nuke far away enough from them selves as to not in a sense , nuke them selves .

I , rightfully or wrongly believe that any cold war nuke would not be of much use to a terrorist ? Unless they could sneak the nuke into a country and then detonate the nuke , if its even possible to detonate an old cold war nuke in such a fashion ?

Also do nukes not have a shelf life ? how much longer would any such nuke , assuming its an old USSR nuke , have before it would be rendered a dud , do to the passage of time ?

Its not just the Nukes in Russia to worry about either. The USSR went through a period (to be fair so did the US, just not as extreem) of atomic facination. Giant machines were produced to irradiate food to prevent spoilage etc among others and alot of this stuff is lying around. It may not be fissile but it sure as heck could make a dirty bomb.

reply to post by Max_TO


Some people were always afraid that certain former Soviet Russian scientist could be bought off to sell nuclear material on the black market.Not only that in the states alone there is been something like 90 report times nuclear devices been lost.

www.cnn.com...
www.didyouknow.cd...

reply to post by FredT


Good point , but how would such a item be turned into a \" weapon \" that could be used in an attack ? I would think that it would be reasonably difficult to turn a \" giant machine \" into a working weapon ?

reply to post by alienstar


Wow , This brings me back to my OP , What can Joe public expect as a result of all this ? One would think , if a country , or group bought or in some other way got there hands on a nuke one would think that they would use it , but how ?
Like the movies , would one expect to see some trunk size object with a little button on the side of it that simply needs to be pressed ? I would imagine , and hope that it would be
a bit more difficult then that , but just how much more difficult ?

They claim building the device is easiest part.You ever see the movie the Manhatten project?Some of that stuff in a sense wasnt real but in all...it could be done.The hardest part is for whoever to get the nuclear material.I think it was 20/20 who did a story on Former Russian scientist that the United States thought would fair better being hired by Los Alamos then have them covert to the dark side and sell out to 3rd world terrorist held countries.

[edit on 22-5-2008 by alienstar]

making the actual bomb is the easy part.. getting your hands on the material can be $$$$ also there are more sinister ways to use fissile material than to blow stuff up. contaminating food and water would probably yeild more deaths than a dirty bomb ever could.

reply to post by Max_TO



Yes, some were missing.. There are some nukes that will fit into a suit case.