Posted on 06/30/2004 4:57:05 AM PDT by 7.62 x 51mm
On the way into work at 6:20am, I was listening to local radio station, WBSA's (www.wsba910.com) Dennis Edwards, interview of Paul L. Williams, author of his new book, "Osama's Revenge: The Next 9-11", who said there are already 20-40 tactical (10 kiloton) nukes in the US, in major cities. He also said that in October 2001, George Tenet testified that he'd sent President Bush a memo detailing some of the information and the serial numbers of two (2) of the nukes.
Anyone else hear this? Really ruined my day, if true.
I'm in the York-Lancaster, PA area, and have seen numerous men in blue military field uniforms with NEST on the backs of their suits, over the past 4-5 weeks.
We have Three Mile Island (north) and Peach Bottom (southeast) nuclear reactors within 20 miles of my home and business, but otherwise this area is not a "target-rich" environment.
I did a Google search for that acronym and didn't find anything relating to Nuclear Emergency Search Team or anything close to it, after 8 pages. FR has a few articles in their search archives.
It's 7:53am as I write this. and the next interview with author Williams will be on at 8:10am. You can get it streamed over the Net. They also carry Rush and Hannity daily. Sorry I didn't get this on sooner, but I have 4 landscape crews to brief and get moving, plus the retail garden center staff to get started-up and moving by 7am.
If this book is even partially accurate, we have a major headache brewing.
I know there are Islamist terrorists lurking this forum, and all I have to say is "Hey, you gutless pukes! There's no way you'll ever nuke my city! You wouldn't DARE place a suitcase nuke at 915 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA, laying waste to the biggest collection of commies and liberal pinheads on the entire Left Coast, and sending the state's electoral votes to the Republicans! COWARDS! I DARE YOU!!!"
Look, I gotta run...
What would 20 suitcase nukes have to do with ending something? What would it end? An idea?
The criticality is achieved by the compression of the core through explosives. The tritium boosts the yield after the fission reaction is achieved through the implosion and the forces created fuse the D and T mixture which releases a big burst of 14MeV neutrons into the mix.
While the yield may be enhanced enough to allow a smaller core and package, or give a smaller package a more worthy yield, you could still have a small nuke minus the tritium. The critical quantity of Plutonium needed to achieve a nuclear detonation in small bombis only around 20-27 pounds. The implosion device would be the heaviest component. Unboosted yield would be up to 2Kt
The Davey Crockett weapon weighed 76 pounds did not incorporate tritium.
Actually, it did--the initiator used tritium.
Makes sense to me. That's why I said we're not a very target-rich area.
Other than have the deadly radiation clouds drift to Philly, NJ and NYC, there'd be no reason to hit the plants in this area.
Another poster brought up the population centers as being target-rich, and I'd agree with that for the suitcase nukes scenario.
Spot on with that observation, PI.
Something's afoot, and he's covering all his bases, IMO. Glad to hear I'm not a lone voice in the wilderness, R.
I agree. I worked in NYC for 17yrs before opening my 20ac nursery in Penna back in '91, and wouldn't go back for all the money in the world.
The author, who was being interviewed, said 10kTs; perhaps he was mistaken. I just quoted what I heard on the radio yesterday morning.
In any case, it would make a whole lot more area unliveable for 500-1,000 years, just due to the radiation dispersal. A vast portion of a city would become a wasteland, depending upon win direction, etc.
Do you have a link or a reference to this? I looked all over the place and found no reference to tritium as an initiator.
Thanks
Suitcase nukes are very unstable and require servicing every year or two. This is due to the small amount of fissionable material in them and radioactive decay. Plus the yield is in the 1 to 2 kton range, bad yea, but survivable even as close as 200 yards if you are shielded from the blast (concrete building). All in all a poor choice for a terrorist looking to make a big bang. Unreliable, small yield, limited shelf life.
A much better choice and no more difficult to acquire would be a big nuke, say a 5 megaton Hydrogen bomb. Many more big nukes were produced then suitcase nukes. And even if the primary charge didn't work you'd still get the A blast from the detonator (20+ ktons). The device is much larger but so what? A 5 mton blast would wipe out a 20 mile radius instead of a 200 yard radius. Much bigger bang for the buck. The shelf life is much longer due to a larger amount of fissionable materials used. And they are more available then little unreliable suitcase nukes. The only drawback is size, were I a terrorist I be looking for a big reliable nuke and an old rust bucket freighter, not a suitcase nuke.
As for fallout, etc. Remember the bombs we dropped on Japan were very dirty, but people still live there, fallout is a killer, but it too is survivable unless lots of nukes are going off all over the place, then fallout become the major problem.
How do you feel about silk or plastic? Just rinse off the fallout. No water. No fertilizer. No muss, no fuss.
Not if Kerry or Hillary were president. Unless they had courtroom style evidence against the source country - they would not retaliate using nukes against NK or Pakistan. and what if the device came from the Russian black market - who do we nuke in retaliation?
Why would terrorists take all the trouble to crash airplanes into buildings when they can just set off 40-60 nukes?
I am just hoping the veggie garden will mutate into superplants with the radiation.
Occam's razor needed a bit of stropping. Thank you.
Just need one nuke to go off to justify turning Damascus and Tehran into parking lots.
bump
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