Whose Nuke is this anyway?

I was watching some Hollywood thriller the other night about missing nukes etc (?), not really that original anymore which could pose other questions; but it had me thinking how could we tell the origins of one if it was stopped or say it went off (god forbid).

Thanks to our tech-thrillers from the likes of Tom Clancy, we now know that the uranium has a unique signature to the location it was mined or processed (?); so a Russian or NATO weapon would be identified by this signature.

My question or pondering is how could we be sure that the weapon was from an enemy and not stockpiled by someone like our own governments? With all the supposed nukes on the Russian black market (thanks again Hollywood), do you think governments, corporations, individuals or even religious organisations could acquire one or more to use for there own gains.

Simply stockpiling it, and if the time came setting it off and pulled the rogue terrorist state card to further there own agenda. A bit Dr. Evil admittedly but with the huge amounts of money and influence such an atrocity could yield, I personally can easily imagine someone justifying it to themselves etc.

I am not a scientist, simply a guy with too much time on his hands thanks to the global recession; though I would be interested in actual thoughts on this topic.

Regards

"With all the supposed nukes on the Russian black market (thanks again Hollywood),"


Key words: Supposed and Hollywood.

Do I need to elaborate?

I doubt there are nukes on the black market.

If there really was - they would fetch an global economy transforming price.

Imagine the US, EU, and countries in the middle east all bidding for the same item. The price would be astronomical.

And with many "black market" sales, such a sale of a nuclear weapon would be highly risky. You would need to mobilize many troops and tanks to protect the exchange. Such a mobilization would hardly go unnoticed.

It's only guess but I'd imagine the refinement process may carry unique signatures that can be traced back to the source.

IRM