[FredZarguna]

I fail to see how that makes them naked w.r.t. China

Yeah, me too. I wonder if this is more of a political statement than a truthful one. India is outside of the NPT, and maybe he's trying to claim "we aren't so bad." -- OR -- Maybe he's arguing that the plutonium from the fast-breeders they're buying from the US ought to be put into more Chinese deterrence instead of reactor fuel.

Making H-Bombs is difficult, but they've had a long time and a number of tests since then. And they're certainly technologically capable of anything the Chinese are.

[grey_whiskers]

A cheap way to put the plutonium into deterrence -- and one I shudder to think of -- is to disperse the plutonium into *conventional* explosives to be detonated at/near population centres.

See also Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears about the fate of the guard at the terrorist bomb fabrication site.

I don't know -- nor do I want to -- what would need to be done to ensure the safety of the workers and environs of a factory making such radiological-based (not detonation/thermal pulse based) WMD's.

NO cheers, unfortunately.

Nukes suck, but we could have forestalled a LOT of the world's current problems by nuking Stalin in 1946...

[Freeport]

Check up on your history, China has attacked India in the past.