[Georgia Girl 2]

“The laws of physics have not changed ~ the “fissionable” material does degrade ~ which is why we call it “fissionable” and why it has half-lives.”

Yes and the half life is about 10,000 years. We have such a solid state system we don’t have to worry too much. The only way it would be degrading is if it was leaking and we have sensors that monitor for it.

[muawiyah]

It degrades anyway ~ fissionable material continues to "fission" just sitting there at a very slow rate, and that rate varies depending on whether the neutron count is odd or even ~ (Just reread through the whole process and NO ONE anywhere says warheads aren't dangerously radioactive, so when you pull a core from a warhead you don't just toss it over in a parts box)

There are also problems involving the effect of very low levels of alpha particle emission on housings for the warheads. It's good to remanufacture the devices at regular intervals if only to replace the housings and replace the electrical detonation devices.