Suitcase nukes closer to fiction than reality

ABC News ^ | 10/06/2015

[SeekAndFind]

A more technical discussion of the technology needed to build a suitcase nuke can be found here:

http://www.gizmag.com/suitcase-nukes-fact-or-fiction/18506/

Are ‘suitcase nukes’ a genuine concern?

[Riley]

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/01/30/the-littlest-boy/

[cripplecreek]

Truck nukes are far more likely and doable.

[treetopsandroofs]

“Suitcase nukes closer to fiction than reality”

*YAWN*

Twelve years ago at FR:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/857060/posts

[MNJohnnie]

Someone might want to call the Pentagon about this. They are going to be very surprised to hear the W54 is an act of fiction.

[Little Ray]

The way I understand it, a “suitcase nuke” would weigh about 200 lbs. and require regular maintenance (replacing tritium, etc.) to keep it ready.
It is doable, though. We have nukes we can shoot from artillery pieces.

[Awgie]

I am 65 years old. I am sad to say, that due to corruption and mis management by our Government A-holes, I predict that during my lifetime there WILL BE A NUCLEAR DETONATION somewhere in our nation.

[zek157]

Google W-54 and SADM. 50 Kg was doable for a 2 man team.

[left that other site]

“Majidi”?

Hmmmmm

[Lake Living]

With open borders you don’t need a suitcase. A semi would do nicely.

[tet68]

Nuclear handgrenade weighs in at 75 lbs.
It works but needs “development”, Scientists say.

[chrisser]

"Perhaps the most likely threat is from a suitcase nuclear weapon in a rusty car on a dock in New York City,"

If it's in a rusty car, it doesn't need to be as small as a suitcase - trunk-sized would do nicely.

If you expand "car" to include "light truck", and especially vans, then you can effectively hide a much larger device than a suitcase.

[cripplecreek]

What our government can produce is orders of magnitude different from what a few jihadi goat rapists could pull off in a garage. That doesn’t mean a nation like Iran won’t be able to supply something reasonably advanced in a few years.

[meatloaf]

And if you conceal one on a ship during a yard period unknown to the crew except for one, maybe two? Certainly a dockside crane could lift more than 200 lbs or 2,000 lbs.

[17th Miss Regt]

They are going to be very surprised to hear the W54 is an act of fiction.

The Soviets had their version of the small atomic demolition munition as well.

[CommerceComet]

Is there really a nuclear hand grenade? How could you possibly throw one far enough to stay out of its blast radius?

[jpsb]

"All four variants share the same basic core: a nuclear system which is 10.75 inches diameter (270 mm), about 15.7 inches long (400 mm), and weighs around or slightly over 50 pounds (23 kg)."

"The Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) was a family of man-portable nuclear weapons fielded by the US military in the 1960s, but never used in combat."

[tet68]

That’s a design flaw, we can fix that with enough
funding.

[Billthedrill]

Right you are. They got this small:

This one's a 20 ton yield. The "device" version got up to 1 KT. Cute little bugger, ain't it?