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I saw this article and ask my mom's old boss what he thought about it and he sent me this email:
Regarding your question about Al-Qaida nukes, I think it is unlikely that they have any at the moment but we know they are trying very hard to get them. If anyone has definite info about the number of nukes Al-Qaida has, they have better info than I have !! A range of 12-70 tells you right away that someone is making a SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) and I'm not sure about the Scientific part. We do not even know exactly what North Korea has let alone trying to say precisely what Al-Qaida might have. There are often "rumors" about loose nukes in Russia, especially suitcase nukes. While Russia does not have as good of control as we would like for their weapons useable material, they have pretty good control once they make it into a weapon. Our main concern at the moment is an IND -- improvised nuclear device. This is where someone will obtain weapons useable material and fabricate a crude nuclear device -- a nightmare to say the least.

I dont want to say his name but he is a nuclear scientist who is an Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. He has spent many years going to Russia as an inspector under the START-2 Treaty and is very knowledgeable on the subject of nuclear weapons and power.

It is my understanding that in order to set off the nuclear chain reaction of spitting the atom a triggering mechanism which requires Cesium is necessary. Radioactive cesium has a fairly rapid half-life on the order of 7 years. It was expained to me that though they may have the weapons grade plutonium or uranium, without these triggering devises the fission will be unachievable.

Does anyone have any information about this?

"While Russia does not have as good of control as we would like for their weapons useable material, they have pretty good control once they make it into a weapon."

Thanks for your post. I always suspected these Russian free floating nukes might be an exaggeration.

Cool tagline too, btw!

OK, so it looks like this threat of 70 nukes going off at once in the US is the stuff of tin foil.

But, a terrorist nuke attack of some kind is certainly plausible and could occur as your expert boss makes clear.

When AQ attacked Madrid, the experts were shocked because no one had any idea they were operating in Spain. (I was one mile from where the bombs went off in Madrid.) Isn't surprise a basic element of war?

My main point is that your expert boss friend seems to say that they could make nuke on their own without buying them from the former Soviets. I find this line scary -- it means that even your experts fears that the threat of nuclear terrorism is cause for serious concern:

"Our main concern at the moment is an IND -- improvised nuclear device. This is where someone will obtain weapons usable material and fabricate a crude nuclear device -- a nightmare to say the least.
I don't want to say his name but he is a nuclear scientist who is an Assistant to the Secretary of Defense"

"Our main concern at the moment is an IND -- improvised nuclear device. This is where someone will obtain weapons useable material and fabricate a crude nuclear device -- a nightmare to say the least."

Fabricating the nuclear trigger, typically Po-210 and Berrylium, requires near constant, unlimited access to a working nuclear reactor. Po-210 has a half-life of a mere 140 days.

Plutonium is pyrophoric. Go look it up (if you're going to be posting about atomic bombs, then you need to know that word). You only work with Plutonium in very advanced clean room labs.