Re: Missile Defense Test Successful
Posted by Dale on Mar 18, 2002 at 09:05
(204.212.222.25)Re: Missile Defense Test Successful (Natalie L. Smith)
isn't our biggest worry now the fact that someone could bring a small, suitcase sized bomb into the US (or even build it here)It is VERY difficult to build a nuclear bomb. If it were easy there would be more than a few countries in the world who have them. Obtaining the material isn’t easy but obtaining the plutonium (or other more potent elements) is relatively easy compared to the problems of the design. You either get a device that kills the builders before they can finish it or you get something that fizzles. I keep hinting: why did we test the “Fatman” bomb at Trinity but we dropped the “Littleboy” bomb as our first use? We had both. Two very different designs. Why?
I am far more worried about the fact that you can go to Wal-Mart and purchase the material needed to drop the Sears Tower across several other buildings in downtown Chicago. Drop it the right direction and you could probably take out City Hall. The only reason the WTC wasn’t toppled in ’93 is they didn’t bother to check the building design before trying. If they had the death toll would have been well over 100,000 rather than the 3,000 they got this time. If you really want to worry about something, worry that Al-Quada gets hold of a structural engineer.