Does anyone know how real the danger from this really is ?

Thanks,
Jackjet

Man-portable nuclear weapons have been around for a long time. The SADM (Small Atomic Demolition Munition), designed to be jumped into a combat zone by special forces types and employed to destroy key infrastructures, such as bridges, dams, etc., was in service when I was in the army 30 years ago. I'm sure the "other side" had/has their versions of this concept.

Today, it is apparently not very difficult to make an easily-transported device from a small MIRV warhead that came out of a larger weapon (ICBM, etc.). I would imagine that our government is doing its best to keep track of such things.

But one thing I KNOW; with enough time, determination, and funds, a man on a personal mission can accomplish just about anything he desires. This muslim garbage we're fighting today has the best motivator of all in their pocket; religious zeal. A zealot is the most dangerous of adversaries, because he is not afraid to die for his cause.

Jack, in the grand scheme of things, I would imagine that you're more likely to get hassled by a room-temperature-IQ moron at a TSA checkpoint in an airport, than to be vaporized by a man-pack nuke in the mall. The bad guys have wildly succeeded, in that they have totally disrupted our lives and made it a pain, if not downright difficult, to travel. Not all of them are ignorant savages who only want a piece of those 72 virgins, or whatever...

BTW, if I offended anyone with the "muslim garbage" comment, sin loi. Those folks take the term 'intolerance' to new heights.

Hi Steve,
thanks for your reply.I was wondering how serious the threat was - now I know it is for real - it is just a matter of time before it happens - thats why I am glad I live in a small town..... less chance of it happening here.

Jackjet

You should also construct a helmet made of aluminum foil. It will prevent the government from reading your mind.

what mind ?
Art Bell and George Noory - coast to coast.......


Jackjet

For what it's worth, and if it makes you feel a little safer, nuclear weapons do not "store" easily. They are actually very intricate and complex devices and every part must perform within a narrow tolerance band in order to achieve an atomic detonation. For this reason, they require constant maintenance and attention using very sophisticated and expensive test equipment that is hardly available at Radio Shack. Therefore, the current fear, made popular in movies and paperbacks, of an ex-Cold War nuke being smuggled out of one of the ex-Soviet satellite countries and hidden in a warehouse for several years until purchased by a terrorist, is not likely to remain operative.

Anyone who has been in the USAF's munitions career field can tell you how much trouble it is to keep a nuclear device in reliable condition.

In that case, our government could save a lot of tax dollars by getting rid of our stockpile of nukes. I know of an ideal desert area on either side of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that would be an ideal area to dump them. Just one last tune-up before they go.

jackjet: we built a mess of arteilary nukes ( fired from 110 mm howitser flied gun) back in the 60's, they tested a bunch of em out in AZ. anyho be-afraid--- very afraid, your bub, scoooper

Saw a small blurb on something called the Davey Crocket. A small battlefield nuke designed to be fired, apparently, from a 3.5" bazooka. Problem was, the damage radius from the shell may have been larger than its firing range.

LOL, hilarious comment.

The most likely scenario would be to extract and powder the weapons grade radioactive materials and put them into a conventional bomb. The explosion would scatter long half-life materials over a large area. Of course, not only would this expose suicidal terrorists to highly radioactive materials, giving them a highly deserved terminal dosage, the metals Uranium and Plutonium are themselves highly toxic. In the late 40s or early 50s, my dad along with a number of other machinists quit a company that got a contract to machine inert Uranium components. The company didn't want to provide the needed personal protective equipment. I heard that the guys who stayed and were stupid enough to do it the company's way were dead or otherwise incapacitated within a few years.
BTW, my dad did have experience machining Uranium with at least one company smart enough to provide proper PPE. Said it's a real challenge. Too high a tool feed rate, local temperaure goes up a little too high, the hardness changes, and the tool either goes dull fast, or breaks off in the casting.

Yes, now that you have confirmation from whackos on the internet, you can act accordingly.

Don't beleive everything you read on the internet.

Personally, I kind of consider many things I read on the net as being in the same class of reliability as much of what is printed in things like the National Enquirer. Not very reliable, if not actually made up.

That's very wise!

Sometimes, it's pretty shocking, how people will take something they pick up off the net as gospel, like the exchange above. Wow.

Just like the comment of someone who appeared on a list of people who supposedly died under suspicious circumstances after reading about his death on the web. Words to the effect that "Glad I didn't read about it before it happened, it could have ruined my whole week!"

In fact, there are apparently web sites that intentionally invite retouched photographs, like the one that had a picture of someone standing on the roof of one of the Trade towers, with a 757 coming in.