Word: uranium
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America's atomic project dated from 1939, when Albert Einstein warned Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany was trying to develop atomic weapons based on an isotope of uranium, U-235. The American nuclear program thus commenced under the sharp prod of fear that Germany would win the race to be the first atomic power. It is fully reasonable to assume that the first U.S. bomb would have been used against Germany had it been available in time...
...Little Boy" worked much like firing a gun. A small explosive propelled a uranium "bullet" down a 6-ft. (1.8-m) barrel into a uranium core, triggering nuclear fission. The bomb never hit the ground. To maximize the damage, a radar proximity fuse in the tail detonated the bomb 1,900 ft. (580 m) above Hiroshima...
...course, making a nuclear bomb is difficult and expensive. The key ingredient for a bomb builder is the fissile material--either highly enriched uranium or plutonium--which is difficult to produce secretly. Nuclear-radiation leaks, even in minute quantities, can be detected. But making a nuclear bomb isn't impossible. Under the apartheid regime--at a time when it was subject to international trade sanctions--South Africa managed to build six of them. (Until the breakup of the Soviet Union, South Africa was the only nation to willingly and verifiably give up its entire nuclear arsenal.) Leaving aside North Korea...
...Moreover, Pyongyang probably doubts it would pay a large price for bargaining tough or even refusing in the end to denuclearize. So North Korea might agree to most of South Korea's proposal but ask for a few more benefits, while also insisting on retaining its uranium-enrichment program (especially because Beijing and Seoul are not convinced by U.S. intelligence that North Korea even has such a project). After all, China and South Korea may not like North Korea's nuclear arsenal but they seem to be getting used to living with it?and prefer it to instability...
...Speaking before the U.N., U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell conspicuously drops the Administration's earlier allegations of an Iraq-Africa uranium connection, later explaining that he didn't think the evidence strong enough to "present before the world." What Powell Achieved (2/5/2003...