Bump and as always thanks!
Today, all of our lives have changed.
Most of us grew up during the cold war and remember fallout shelters, drills, and the "Evil Empire". I remember the yellow and black signs almost everywhere. It was a part of our life, and as such, part of what makes us who we are today. Life was simple though. We always knew who the bad guys were. They were well defined, easily identified, and someone you could always point to.
The entire cold war was fought under the concept of "MAD", (Mutual Assured Destruction). The MAD concept always kept the big bullets in the guns. It was a fancy term for "mexican standoff", but it worked. They didn't destroy the world and neither did we, in spite of the fact that we each held guns to the other's head.
There were really only two sides to the cold war. There really couldn't be MORE than two sides, as membership in the thermonuclear club required spending in in the mega billion dollar range. It required major R&D spending and the building of fast breed nuclear reactors for material. The extraction of enriched material was also extremely expensive, no matter what method was used.
Remember this for a few minutes.
In 1978 that started to change. The Camp David Accords in September put a little blood in the water, as we chose to exercise influence over Israel's military deployment. On December 15 of 1978, President Carter withdrew from our mutual defense treaty with Taiwan, broke formal relations, and removed all american military personnel under pressure from the Chicoms.
The message these decisions sent to the world was the pebble that started the landslide. My personal opinion is that these actions contributed to the event that changed my life for ever, and the world as we knew it.
On November 4th, 1979, the world got incredibly more complicated for us. 500 or so muslims took over the American Embassy, taking american hostages, 52 of which were kept for 444 days. Iran changed from an ally into an instant enemy in spite of President Carter's best efforts at appeasing the new theocracy. (This event is what led to my decision to enlist on my 18th birthday, the very moment it was legal for me to do so, shortly after the hostages were taken)
In spite if this start to islam's war on America, it was still a relatively minor deal for us compared to our relationship with the soviets. We were still a member of the "elite" thermo nuclear club.
Let's jump forward a little bit here.
After the alleged collapse of the Soviet Union there were nuclear weapons everywhere. Materials and weapons appeared to be for sale to the highest bidder. Ukraine can still only account for about 1/3 of their warheads.
It's alleged that Osama Bin Laden bought fission type tactical nuclear weapons and uranium-236. With these things he could certainly do a considerable amount of damage.
The one thing that we could count on is that as bad as they are, they could never cause damage anywhere close to the damage caused by thermo nuclear devices, (fusion type weapons, otherwise known as hydrogen bombs).
Ok, now it's time to talk about that which I asked you to remember.
Israel is facing off against Iran over their nuclear program, primarily because of their new reactor. We're tracking a centrifuge in Syria that is commonly used for the extraction of enriched material.
These things can be tracked because of weapon development requirements. The huge investment and required equipment are a dead giveaway to intentions.
That was yesterday. Now let's look at today.
I was asked by ExSoldier to go get a copy of the August issue of "Popular Mechanics". The cover is rather extreme. The headline "America's Worst Nightmare.....HOMEMADE H-BOMBS" got a chuckle from me. I thought that I was going to catch them being confused between fission and fusion, as most people tend to be. As I've said before, any trained monkey can create a simple fission device in the average home workshop, given the materials.
That's the key word there, materials.
Immediately below the headline there is a synopsis:
"Cold Fusion Technology Enables Anyone To Build A Nuke From Commonly Available Materials".
Another laugh. "Cold Fusion". Sure thing. Uranium enrichment? Tritium? Whatever.
How about you give me some of the materials that you're smoking?
After reading the article and RE reading the article, I was sick. I mean sick in a way that I have not been since September 11th, 2001.
I immediately researched the referenced findings on my own. There are links at the bottom of this post for reference, for those who are interested.
The truth is that cold fusion, while not yet a method for regulated power generation, does some very interesting things. It does generate tritium. It can enrich uranium, (there is a link below that references a patent issued in 1925 for the process). It does these things so efficiently and quickly that our own goverment is now looking to use it to keep our nuclear arsenal working, as our own tritium production facility is dysfunctional.
The bottom line here is that there is no more elite club. There is no more requirement for fast breed reactors. There is no more requirement for billions of dollars in expenditure, or millions even. There is no way to effectively track those who would do this.
The technology for the big bomb was developed a long time ago. There is no R&D that needs to be done. It's all out there, and now ANYBODY can do it.
I don't mean the little fission types. I mean the multi MEGATON monsters have been aimed at us our entire lives. Now anyone who wants to can build one.
Life as we know it has changed. There is no more parity.
I am heart sick.
http://www.padrak.com/ine/NICONF96.html
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994741
http://www.rpi.edu/web/News/press_releases/2004/lahey.htm
http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2004/3/4/101948/8179
http://www.rhfweb.com/cftorch.html