First, welcome home.
Those prepositioned weapons were placed to be used at a later date. The positioning party would take that into account and prepare accordingly.
The only support parts that would need maintenance would be off the shelf retail.
The PM on the device would be simple, and easily accomplished, especially given the amount of support accessible to AQ.
I'm not sure that the delay is mechanical, but I can agree that you may well be right. I can also see strategic delays that would require coordination across multiple timezones and goblin systems/governments.
Closely fits my assumptions.
Is there a difference between the poison levels of weapons grade Plutonium and Uranium?
I think I tend to agree with you that support parts for such a device will be available "off the shelf." Probably they will be mechanical rather than gee whiz electronic stuff for two reasons: First the era in which these devices were created was not a "golden age of technology" for the USSR. Also, they have always had the soul of simplicity, when it comes to war. Look at the AK-47.
I'm not sure I agree with Godzilla's assessment that the former commie and current capitalists who sold these devices or their locations to AQ will be worried about having the weapons turned on their own kind. First rule of capitalism is look out for #1. Money talks and B$ walks. Next they won't have sold them a weapon that could be easily cached on Russian soil. The risk of detection in moving a device from U.S. soil to anywhere in the former USSR is simply too great. I don't think that anybody looks too far ahead with the idea that an ally might turn into an adversary. Otherwise, our side would never have provided the Mujahadeen with Stingers to take down the dreaded HIND-D helicopter that was a deadly killer to the Muj fighters in the 1980's.