In the extraordinarily important (if too short) Ted Koppel program “The Price of Security” that aired around 9-11, Representative Christopher Shays (R - CT) asserted that he had been shown by scientists at a national lab (Los Alamos or somewhere) that someone could build a nuclear weapon (not a radiological or “dirty” bomb, but a nuclear explosive) from parts purchased at Home Depot or Lowes. He strongly implied (but did not state outright) that one could build such a weapon solely from such parts, else why bother making such a statement in the first place? After all, to make such a device would probably require screws for example, and screws can of course be purchased from Home Depot, but claiming that someone could make a nuke using some parts from Home Depot is an utterly pointless and ridiculous waste of time. Thus he must have believed that all of the parts necessary could be so purchased.
Now, since my most revered icon is Pearl Forrester, as soon as I heard that news I sent my evil minions to Home Depot to purchase their nuclear weapon kit including all the high explosives and plutonium or U-235 I would need to dominate the world. Alas, they reported that they could find no such material! Naturally, I killed them for their incompetence. But now I’m wondering: What could Shays have been thinking? What might the national weapons lab scientists have actually meant?
Or was this just more contemptible Republican fear-mongering, as I suspect it was?
Actually, in theory one might be able to do such a thing. It just depends upon how you want to split hairs (and what kinds of theories of physics you subscribe to). If you know where there’s some ore, you could mine and process it into uranium, and then make it into a nuke with stuff you buy at Home Depot (but ya better have a lot of cash and free time, since you’ll need to make your own machine shop). Maybe if you had an army of folks and lots and lots of money, you could do it that way, but you’d be doing a lot of mining as well, since many of the materials you’d need (like uranium) aren’t sold at Home Depot.
The other possibility (and this is even more remote) depends upon how much you want to bend the rules of physics. You see, it relies on cold fusion. Now, there’s some evidence that there is something to cold fusion, just not fusion, and there’s a few theories that you might be able to use cold fusion (whatever it may be) to make nuclear material.
In short, there’s really no practical way that you could get what you need from Home Depot to build a nuke.
“No” what? “No” Shays wasn’t fear-mongering? “No” Shays didn’t mean what he said? “No” Shays wasn’t told you could build a nuke that way? Again, “no” what?
Thank you. I wouldn’t have known that otherwise without your help. :smack:
I repeat my questions: What could Shays have been thinking? What might the national weapons lab scientists have actually meant? Or was this just more contemptible Republican fear-mongering, as I suspect it was?
Even assuming the totally absurd notion that you could mine uranium (U-238) and extract the necessary amount of U-235 for such a device, I strongly reject the notion that even with billions of dollars you could find the exotic non-uranium/plutonium materials, machine tools, electronics, high explosives and so forth at Home Depot or Lowes. So even if Shays meant to say that you could buy just the non-uranium/plutonium items at Home Depot, he must have been totally full of shit, no?
Even assuming that that the extant ideas about cold fusion are viable (which I personally do not accept in the slightest), it is my understanding that cold fusion does not release the neutrons necessary for that task. But even if it did, you can’t buy palladium and the other necessary materials for cold fusion from Home Depot.
I hope you realize that I strongly agree with that assessment and did before my OP. However, I still wonder what Shays could have meant and what the scientists could have meant by their claims (assuming Shays wasn’t just lying about that).
Again, it’s how technical you want to get, and how long you want to take. There’s a series of books out that (actually, several, now that I think about it) which tell you how to build your own machine shop out of scrap materials. Other than the books, you can get all the supplies you’d need from Home Depot (of course, buying up aluminum furnature, simply to melt it down to make castings is a bit absurd). The electronics could be cannibalized out of various items that Home Depot sells. Remember, the original bombs were built with nothing more sophisticated than vacuum tubes and sliderules. You can get explosives at Home Depot if you’re willing to buy a lot of chemicals (cleaners, sealers, etc., etc., etc.) and extract the various compounds you’d need from those. Possible? Yes. Practical? Hell no. The best you could hope for is a low-yield weapon, which would probably require a semi to move into position. That’s assuming that you get the thing done before you died of radiation poisoning, since you’d not be able to have all kinds of sophisticated protective gear as they don’t sell that (some of it you could make or improvise, but odds are, you’d get a lethal dose at some point).
You can’t walk into Home Depot and buy palladium by itself, no. You can, however, buy things made with palladium and extract it from them.
Well, you know what they say, “You can tell if a politician’s lying if his lips are moving.”
My understanding is that a few respected workers claim to have produced trivial but genuine cold fusion, but that claim is very hotly(!) disputed by the larger scientific community. Do you have a cite in the peer-reviewed literature that acknowledges that such claims have been accepted by the majority of physicists? I remain extremely skeptical. In any case, I don’t see how that can get you any closer to a nuclear weapon.
I don’t think its fissionable at all. True, if you bought a whole shitload of them, you could certainly make a very dangerous radiological bomb. But given that your average smoke detector only has microcuries of Americium, you’d have to buy a truly ridiculous number of them (hundreds of thousands? Millions?)
I agree my wording probably doesn’t fit with GQ, but I nevertheless still contend it is an essential part of my OP, since it suggests a possible answer to my other questions that must be considered. After all, I’m trying to find out the reasons he said what he did.
However, I do take your point and will be more careful in the future.
Well guys, a Boy Scout working for a merit badge, built a breeder reactor using old smoke detectors and batteries. Both of which are available at HD.
He did use other stuff which isn’t available from HD. I consider the claim to be BS.
