Homemade nuclear bomb syndrome

With the publication of Nuclear Theft: Risks and Safeguards by Willrich and Taylor, significant attention has been focused by the media and the public on the possibility of fissile materials being stolen by a terrorist organization and diverted to the actual building, or the threat of building, of a nuclear explosive device. The implication has been created that one or several relatively inexperienced individuals could obtain the materials necessary and fabricate a low-yield nuclear explosive. This article examines these contentions in some detail. The safeguards and use-denial methods presently used in the nuclear fuel cycle are considered and the difficulties they present in obtaining significant amounts of strategic nuclear materials are examined. The characteristics of reactor-grade plutonium are discussed, and the difficulties associated with the assembly of an efficient nuclear explosive device are outlined.