Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Digix
of course it is hardly possible to vaporize earth, but not so hard to destroy most of high foms of life. H bonb have no power limit, components are insanely cheap, and available in unlimited amounts. So it is not so hard to make 1 or more gigaton bomb.
The worst thing is to imagine such thing in the hands of suicide bomber.
|
Actually, this is not even close to being true. The H-bomb limit was pretty much reached with the Soviet Union's Tsar bomb, which was only tested at 50 MT, with the theoretical possibility of 100 MT. The cost was prohibitive and the effect was less than desired, aside from perhaps the political one. With advances in precision striking capability, large MT nuclear weapons research was fazed out for MIRV technology (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle), which allows a single missile to now strike many targets at once.
A GT (gigaton) yield weapon is not possible at all. The problem with the Tsar bomb is that it was too big and the Soviet Union had problems with making all the of material create the fusion explosion before it was dispersed and unable to continue adding to the explosive yield. It was estimated that about 25% of the bomb would be wasted at the 100 MT range from the results of the 50 MT test. The bomb was also so heavy that it would only be able to be carried by the largest bomber in the USSR air force and was not able to be delivered by ICBMs.
Terrorists have no chance of using even MT-range nuclear weapons, they are far too heavy and require ICBM or bombers for delivery. It may be possible for a terrorist to obtain enough material of a low yield KT (kiloton) device, but even this is highly unlikely. A terrorist could never get enough nuclear material to produce a single MT nuclear weapon. It would be possible to build a KT (kiloton), but the amount of material required as well as the technology and expertise needed makes it very unlikely.
The main concern would be the "dirty bomb," which is nothing more than a regular explosive device with some radioactive material added in that will disperse over a heavily populated area. While certainly a concern, this is not a nuclear weapon, nor would it add to the explosive capability of the device in question. It would, however, make a large area uninhabitable due to the radioactive fallout and would require an evacuation of the area.