John has a post I think everyone should take a look at. What does all this terror alert stuff have to do with you, anyway?
And so what if terrorists get their hands on a nuclear (or nuculer, if you prefer) device? What does it matter to you? I know, you can’t be bothered.
Perhaps what John has to say might put things into perspective for you. It fits well with Hanson’s article I just cited.
His numbers are for a one megaton surface blast. I would prefer to see the data on a more likely sized device, say about 100 to 250 kilo-tons. Those are more realistic numbers. The amount of fissionable meterial to make a one megaton blast is quite large. So large that it would be rather unlikey to obtain and not get caught. Additionally inorder to get a blast of 1 megaton you need to go into the thermo-nuke realm. While a basic atomic device is fairly simple thermo-nukes are a magnitude of difficulty more complex.
Comment by Bubba Bo Bob Brain — August 8, 2004 @ 5:59 pm
The scale really isn’t what I am thinking about. The capacity for a large amount of destruction in a city like NYC is substantial. A compact target is the most logical choice, and just the lower end of Manhattan houses thousands during a working day. Depending on “additives”, a small device could cause significant damage and make the area untenable for quite some time.
Comment by Bunker — August 8, 2004 @ 6:32 pm
Hell the fifteen to twenty kiloton device used in Hiroshima would be more then effective enough for the southern tip of Manhattan. I worry about the ability of a terror cell being dedicated enough though to find some way of creating an air blast, Even a “small” device would do a lot more damage if the blast is at 2500 to 3000 feet in altitiude. Very troubling indeed.
Comment by Bubba Bo Bob Brain — August 9, 2004 @ 7:51 pm
Perhaps that is the reason for considering tourist helicopters.
Comment by Bunker — August 10, 2004 @ 5:37 am
Who’s to say that they would have one bomb? Two Hiroshima-sized bombs could easily knock out the US government.
Comment by John Rogers — August 11, 2004 @ 3:10 am