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How Each Nuclear-Capable Country Got Its Bombs, Visualized

As the NY Times point out in their review of two upcoming histories of The Bomb, Robbert Oppenheimer originally assumed that little could stop anyone from developing nuclear weapons. Thankfully, he was wrong.

With a geek's typical hubris, Oppenheimer assumed that since the laws of physics were universal, very little could stop anyone in getting a nuclear weapon, given the time and resources. Alas, the time and resources needed are indeed scarce, so to this day, only nine countries are nuclear-equipped—the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. Here we see these links visualized, starting with the Manhattan project and fanning out over the last six decades (click here for the full-size popup).

Instead, three proliferation experts demonstrate how nuclear capabilities were passed as political bargaining chips, stolen via espionage, and limited with diplomacy. Both books seem like fascinating reads. Check out much more at the Times: [NYTimes]

FROM NYT:

The book, in a main disclosure, discusses how China in 1982 made a policy decision to flood the developing world with atomic know-how. Its identified clients include Algeria, Pakistan and North Korea.

Alarmingly, the authors say one of China’s bombs was created as an “export design” that nearly “anybody could build.” The blueprint for the simple plan has traveled from Pakistan to Libya and, the authors say, Iran. That path is widely assumed among intelligence officials, but Tehran has repeatedly denied the charge.

The book sees a quiet repercussion of China’s proliferation policy in the Algerian desert. Built in secrecy, the reactor there now makes enough plutonium each year to fuel one atom bomb and is ringed by antiaircraft missiles, the book says.

China’s deck also held a wild card: its aid to Pakistan helped A.Q. Khan, a rogue Pakistani metallurgist who sold nuclear gear on the global black market. The authors compare Dr. Khan to “a used-car dealer” happy to sell his complex machinery to suckers who had no idea how hard it was to make fuel for a bomb.

Why did Beijing spread its atomic knowledge so freely? The authors speculate that it either wanted to strengthen the enemies of China’s enemies (for instance, Pakistan as a counterweight to India) or, more chillingly, to encourage nuclear wars or terror in foreign lands from which Beijing would emerge as the “last man standing.”

2000 : (PAKISTAN : NUCLEAR SCIENTIST SULTAN BASHIRUDDIN MAHMOOD RETIRES , AND THEN STARTS NGO FOR RELIEF WORK IN AFGHANISTAN WITH NUCLEAR SCIENTIST MAJID; THE NGO IS TIED WITH THE TALIBAN AND SOON DRAWS THE ATTENTION OF THE USA'S INTEL AGENCIES-- See PLUTONIUM) ...Proliferation experts in Washington say Mahmood and Majid are experts on plutonium technology. Mahmood is known for his contribution in setting up Pakistan's first "unsafeguarded" plutonium reactor in Khushab in central Pakistan. Majid is one of the few Pakistani scientists who had been trained at a plutonium facility in Belgium in the 1960s.
Majid worked with Mahmood for years, and they were both senior scientists in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. Mahmood, who was project director of Pakistan's nuclear programme before its 1998 tests, reportedly resigned in protest against Pakistan considering signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Majid, who went on to become Director of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, retired last year [2000].
Following their exit from the Pakistani nuclear establishment, the duo set up a non-governmental organisation for relief work and investment in Afghanistan. The NGO had close ties with the Taliban. The links had drawn the attention of US intelligence agencies that in turn alerted the Musharraf regime, which has been doing its best in recent months to convince Washington that its nuclear assets are safe.
-------- "US wakes up to Osama's nuke dreams," by CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA, TIMES NEWS NETWORK, The Times of India, 10/26/01
..........
The role of Pakistani scientists has been less clear, although US experts have speculated about links between Islamabad and the Iraqi nuclear program. In Islamabad yesterday, Pakistani spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi said "authorities were only investigating [Sultan Bashiruddin] Mahmood for his links with the Taliban through his relief agency, and not over concerns he may have passed on any government nuclear secrets."
-------- "US wakes up to Osama's nuke dreams," by CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA, TIMES NEWS NETWORK, The Times of India, 10/26/01

2001 OR EARLIER, BEFORE FALL OF THE TALIBAN: (PAKISTANI NUKE SCIENTISTS MET WITH BIN LADEN & MULLAH OMAR SEVERAL TIMES) WASHINGTON – As the Pakistani nuclear proliferation story widens [IN 2004], U.S. intelligence officials say top atomic scientists from that country met with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar in Afghanistan. Two former senior Pakistani nuclear scientists who were based in the Afghan town of Kandahar met Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden several times before the fall of the Taliban. They were later detained and questioned on their return to Pakistan. -
---------- "Bin Laden met nuke scientists -- 'Nuclear bazaar' story out of Pakistan gets more bizarre," by Joseph Farah, Worldnetdaily, 2.8.2004

OCTOBER 2001 : (SCIENTIST ROUNDUP --See MEHMOOD aka MAHMOOD & MAJID) Two of Pakistan's top atomic scientists were grilled yesterday about possible contacts with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers amid reports Osama Bin Laden had obtained nuclear material. Sultan Bashiru-Din Mehmood, one of the founders of the country's nuclear program, was detained Tuesday in Lahore, Interior Ministry officials said on condition of anonymity. They said Abdul Majid, a scientist who worked with Mehmood at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, also was being held.
"The investigation has nothing to do with the nuclear program," said Rashid Qureshi, a Pakistani military spokesman.
However, the Interior Ministry officials said the men were questioned about possible links to Afghan officials, including Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Neither had been charged with a crime.
In Britain, The Times newspaper and Channel Four television news quoted Western intelligence sources as saying Bin Laden, a Saudi-born terrorism mastermind, had obtained nuclear material from Pakistan. Citing an informed source, the Times said Bin Laden appeared to have amassed a "terrifying" range of weapons.
The Taliban, who have given refuge to Bin Laden since 1996, were put in power by Pakistan and have had close ties with its intelligence agencies.
The Western sources said Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network did not have the technology to make a nuclear bomb. But they said they were worried Bin Laden could produce a "dirty bomb" — one that would disperse radioactive material across a small urban area rather than creating a nuclear explosion — killing hundreds or thousands rather than millions.
---------Nuke Experts Detained/Pakistan probes 2 scientists' ties to Taliban, RICHARD WHITBY, New York Daily News ^ | 10/26/01 |