Word: plutonium
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...similarities between a facetious article titled "Let's Make a Thermonuclear Device!" which appeared in a now defunct humor publication called Journal of Irreproducible Results, and the language in the Times story, as well as the images on the BBC. A sample passage from the article: "Please remember that Plutonium is somewhat dangerous. Wash your hands with soap and warm water after handling the material, and don't allow your children or pets to play in it or eat it." To read more on this, go to wired.com/news/culture...
...thank you for giving me so many hints on how to make attempts at mass destruction more effective [TERRORISM, Oct. 29]. In a single short article--"Can a Nuke Really Fit into a Suitcase?"--you gave information on the availability of a suitcase nuke, what type of plutonium and uranium one would need to make one, and, totally unbelievable, which area of a nuclear power reactor should be attacked to incur the highest number of casualties. And you are not the only one. All over the press and the Internet, people are publishing all the material they can get their...
...would have to make them. And in a frightening study done by the Nuclear Control Institute, a nonproliferation group in Washington, a panel of nuclear-explosives experts concluded that a group of dedicated terrorists without nuclear backgrounds could assemble a bomb if it had the right materials (such as plutonium 239, uranium 235, plutonium oxide and uranium oxide). It would take about a year to complete the job. "There's little question that the only remaining obstacle is the acquisition of the material," says Paul Leventhal, the institute's president. Less than 110 kg of active ingredients could yield...
...ultimate nightmare would be terrorists in the U.S. wielding nuclear weapons. For this reason, the ability to create--or worse, steal or buy--weapons-grade plutonium has long been an issue of great concern and international intrigue. Fortunately, the practical difficulties in acquiring precisely the right materials, not to mention the engineering know-how to jerry-build a nuclear device successfully, make this type of threat highly unlikely...
Bush’s dogged persistence already threatens to weaken one such support—an initiative designed to reduce the amount of Russian weapons-grade plutonium that is inadequately guarded and that could be obtained by terrorists or rogue states. The initiative, started by the Clinton administration, would have destroyed a large number of weapons-grade plutonium stores—enough to make 8,000 nuclear bombs—by either converting the material to fuel for power plants or inactivating it by mixing it with radioactive waste. The Bush administration is considering canceling the program because...