[jstolzen]

The other thing to consider is something bigger than a suitcase nuke, which we've heard doesn't require the same level of maintenance (due to the higher grade plutonium, etc used).

Could they possibly have bigger warheads - smuggled in somehow? Possibly, given the fall of the USSR and other relatively weak "controls" & corruption in the international community.

Something about this sure doesn't feel right. This time "feels" different.

[Sender]

Yes they could possibly have bigger warheads or entirely homemade warheads, produced from plutonium out of scavenged Soviet devices. They could have anything at all. They have the cash and drugs to buy whatever they want.

One thing I have learned from all the knowledgeable sources out there is that the difficulty of making a nuclear device 'work' is related to the amount of fissionable material you have. If you only have a minimal amount of the precious 'stuff', you must have everything perfect to achieve detonation. If you have a lot of 'stuff', it gets much easier to assure detonation even if parts of the device are degraded or not exactly engineered properly.