### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/2 "2004-06-06T17:30:04Z")
> [@Mister V](#):
>
> Let’s say I’m a recently retired billionaire, with lots of money to burn. I decide that I want to own my own working nuclear bomb, simply to hang in my foyer and brag about at the country club.
>
> So, I hire some grad students from MIT, Caltech and Stanford, along with some experienced ex-government employees, give them a near-unlimited budget, and tell them “build me a hydrogen bomb!” Let’s assume that the budget includes enough money to get all the needed materials from legal channels - meaning they won’t need to steal plutonium from a government lab.
>
> I’m almost 100% sure that there is something illegal about this, even if I have absolutely no intent to ever use the bomb (or even threaten to). But I don’t know specifically what about it is illegal.
>
> So, can anyone point me to the exact law that makes it illegal for a private citizen to own a nuclear bomb, or any other weapon of mass destruction?
>
> And please don’t answer with a clever nitpick, like “The government controls every known source of \, so you’d have to steal it, so it would be illegal because of simple theft! HA!”. That’s not what I’m asking.
Is it just me being silly or did Michael Moore ask a friend of one of the Oklahoma bombers if he felt it wasn’t ok to own a nuclear device on Bowling for Columbine.
---
### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/3 "2004-06-06T17:45:46Z")
It would be illegal for a number of reasons. I’m fairly certain that the radioactive materials would be illegal to posses. Just the conventional portion of the bomb would be an unregistered destructive device which would put you in dutch with the ATFE.
---
### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/4 "2004-06-06T22:45:20Z")
18 USC 831 – Prohibited Transactions Involving Nuclear Materials
(a) Whoever, if one of the circumstances described in subsection © of this section occurs …
```
(2) with intent to deprive another of nuclear material or nuclear byproduct material, knowingly -
(A)takes and carries away nuclear material or nuclear byproduct material of another without authority;...
```
(b) The punishment for an offense …
```
(B) imprisonment -
(i) for any term of years or for life
```
Seeing as how I doubt one could get Uncle Sam to give permission to possess plutonium lawfully, if you try to get it unlawfully you could end up in the clink for the rest of your life.
---
### Author:  [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/5 "2004-06-07T02:38:26Z")
There were two events in the 70s that almost cover this. In one case, a college student built a nuclear bomb. The feds took it away from him. The other was some reporters who worked out how to build a bomb and were going to publish. The government stopped that. In neither case was plutonium involved. I don’t believe any charges were filed, but the lack of plutonium might have had something to do with that.
And the moral of this story is that you don’t need to be a billionaire and you don’t need a team of physics students from multiple schools. You may need to get in touch with some Libyan terrorists for the plutonium, though.
---
### Author:  [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/6 "2004-06-07T03:14:01Z")
It really probably is just a matter of getting the proper permits. Without the permits, it’s illegal. With the permits, it’s legal. You just wouldn’t be able to get the permits.
What would be interesting is if your cadre of university students came up with a nuclear device that didn’t require anything terribly exotic and tightly regulated.
---
### Author:  [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/7 "2004-06-07T03:26:59Z")
> [@1010011010](#):
>
> What would be interesting is if your cadre of university students came up with a nuclear device that didn’t require anything terribly exotic and tightly regulated.
I think that, by definition, a nuclear device is going to require some fissionable material, which automatically puts you in the “exotic and tightly regulated” sphere. Just picture sauntering into Home Depot and accosting an orange-shirt: “In which aisle is the enriched uranium?”
---
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/8 "2004-06-07T03:29:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> There were two events in the 70s that almost cover this. In one case, a college student built a nuclear bomb. The feds took it away from him. The other was some reporters who worked out how to build a bomb and were going to publish. The government stopped that. In neither case was plutonium involved. I don’t believe any charges were filed, but the lack of plutonium might have had something to do with that.
This just begs for a cite.
---
### Author:  [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/9 "2004-06-07T03:40:52Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#):
>
> This just begs for a cite.
Well, it’s not quite accurate. Read about it [here](http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1101040503-629377,00.html) and [here](http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0351/essay.php). A student, by putting together information from various unclassified sources, put together a design for a nuclear device that was good enough to prompt the feds to put a lid on it.
---
### Author:  [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/10 "2004-06-07T05:04:04Z")
> [@Early Out](#):
>
> I think that, by definition, a nuclear device is going to require some fissionable material, which automatically puts you in the “exotic and tightly regulated” sphere. Just picture sauntering into Home Depot and accosting an orange-shirt: “In which aisle is the enriched uranium?”
The retired billionaire playboy asked for a hydrogen bomb. Fusion, not fission.
Granted many fusion bombs use a conventional fission explosion as the source for the neutron flux required to cause the chain reaction in the lithium deuteride, but there’s nothing saying our intrepid team of bright young folks couldn’t find some other source of sufficient neutron flux… or use some other way of concentrating the deuterium, reducing the flux requirements.
Palladium, bailing wire, a couple of car batteries, and some seawater… you’re all set. :dubious:
---
### Author:  [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/11 "2004-06-07T05:10:29Z")
> [@1010011010](#):
>
> Palladium, bailing wire, a couple of car batteries, and some seawater… you’re all set. :dubious:
Sounds like you’ve been giving this some serious thought. Watch out. The Feds know where you live. (How many people could there be in Ballston Spa?)
---
### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/12 "2004-06-07T05:21:08Z")
> [@Early Out](#):
>
> Sounds like you’ve been giving this some serious thought. Watch out. The Feds know where you live. (How many people could there be in Ballston Spa?)
Well, there are a heck of a lot of Navy nuke students training at the [Navy Nuclear Prototype Site](http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/knolls_k.htm) there. Trust me, the feds know all about Ballston Spa, and **1010011010** too, for that matter. He’s a current nuke student there. (I trained there back in 1992.)
---
### Author:  [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/13 "2004-06-07T05:26:09Z")
> [@robby](#):
>
> Well, there are a heck of a lot of Navy nuke students training at the [Navy Nuclear Prototype Site](http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/knolls_k.htm) there. Trust me, the feds know all about Ballston Spa, and **1010011010** too, for that matter. He’s a current nuke student there. (I trained there back in 1992.)
He’s even more dangerous than we thought! Duck and cover!!! 😃
---
### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/14 "2004-06-07T06:19:34Z")
As I remember, it’s generally illegal to build or possess a “destructive device.” I think the law was written broadly enough that it would still apply to, for example, some kind of Antimatter-Bomb, which wouldn’t even have to use _any_ explosives or nuclear material.
---
### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [June 7, 2004, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-build-a-nuclear-bomb/248971/15 "2004-06-07T06:41:26Z")
> [@Julius Henry](#):
>
> The other was some reporters who worked out how to build a bomb and were going to publish. The government stopped that. In neither case was plutonium involved. I don’t believe any charges were filed, but the lack of plutonium might have had something to do with that.
This was _The Progressive_ and its H-bomb [story](http://www.progressive.org/wx012801.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> And in 1978, [editor Sam Day] came to The Progressive, where he shepherded the magazine’s H-bomb story: “The H-Bomb Secret: How We Got It–Why We’re Telling It,” by Howard Morland.
>
> Sam was integral to the story, working with Morland on draft after draft and composing the crucial introduction and conclusion.
>
> As the article stated, “The secret of how a hydrogen bomb is made protects a more fundamental ‘secret’: the mechanism by which the resources of the most powerful nation on Earth have been marshaled for global catastrophe. Knowing how may be the key to asking why.”
>
> The U.S. government issued an unprecedented prior restraint order against The Progressive, forcing the magazine to keep the story under wraps for six months. But eventually the government folded up its tent of censorship, and the magazine published the article in November 1979.
The article itself is available [here](http://www.progressive.org/best.html) for download in .pdf format.