[cvq3842]

A few other random thoughts, in addition to the ones people have already posted:

I think others have speculated that the REAL doomsday scenario would be several explosions, in several large cities, on the same day. 9/11 was a coordinated attack on NY and DC. Something like that could happen. Which changes the scenario a great deal. Also, I know an electromagnetic pulse could also damage any solid state circuits, including battery-operated radios, but that would probably not be an issue in this size ground burst. I could be wrong.

I also remember hearing that somehow the US government has some kind of "sniffer" capability that would be able to trace the radiological "fingerprint" of the bomb - in other words, we could probably find out what uranium was used, and have a good idea who used it, right away. Not much comfort, obviously, if a bomb has already gone off. I'd like to believe that any country able to create such a devise would also know of this possibility of tracing, and that that would be some kind of a deterrent. But that's very wishful thinking - I don't know our capabilities, or how much an enemy would care. Certainly another crew of 9/11 crazies wouldn't care. But they have to get the uranium from somewhere.

It is terribly ironic to think that in a sense we might have more to fear from one bomb in the hands of a fanatic than we did from thousands of Soviet missiles. Certainly not because the Soviet leaders were "good people," of course - but they were RATIONAL and did not want to be annihilated. Even though they had the capability to launch a massive attack.

There are plenty of suicidal terrorists out there. So far the ONLY think that has stopped them from doing this is their inability to do so.

If they could have done it already, they would have.

Among other things, it's a reminder that a lot of people in our government, military, etc. are working harder than we realize to keep things right.

[conservativewasp]

I've read minimal EMP from a gound detonated device, so radios and cars should work.

[Black Tooth]

If they could have done it already, they would have.

What you said has no logic.

A scenario like this could have been planned two years ago, and could come together anytime in the future.

What if the componets for the device and the plans to position it and detonate it came together 4 weeks from now, or a year from now, after being planned for the past 2 years?