Maybe a dirty bomb with nuclear materials, but an actual fission bomb on a vest? No. Never mind they don’t have the enriched fuel, never mind just building a working device would be extremely difficult for them and that would be large like the Hiroshima bomb.
This is Iraq Weapons of Mass Distraction all over again. Fuck this administration.
It is actually possible, though it would stretch the definition of “vest.” It’s not something that can really fit on a vest, but I suppose you could hide it in a fat suit, a wheelchair, or a fake pregnancy belly.
The W54 was a 1 kiloton bomb that weighed a bit over 50 lbs. It was built to be a man-portable demolition charge. It’s certainly possible for something like that to be built in a way that could be concealed on your person.
Yeah. I’m imagining a suicide bomber wearing a huge fat suit like Mike Myers wore when played Fat Bastard. Just a giant fake belly with a literal nuclear bomb concealed inside.
Though really, I think the real problem with a “nuclear suicide vest” is simple practicality. Like, what’s the actual point? The whole point of a suicide vest is to be able to smuggle explosives into an area where they’ll do the most damage. A guy holding a bomb in his hands won’t be let into a crowded bus. Someone holding a pipe bomb is going to cause people to run away from them screaming. A suicide vest bomber seeks to sneak into a crowded space densely packed with many people. Suicide bombers need to get close to large numbers of people. They need a bomb that can be concealed on their person. Otherwise they end up doing no more damage than someone could with a handgun.
But a nuke? You don’t need to sneak the nuke into the stadium. You set it off five blocks away. It doesn’t need to be concealed. If you want to deliver a terrorist nuking, you would instead load it on the back of a truck with heavy radiation shielding. You don’t try to sneak it in to a crowded location. You just try to drive it into a dense urban area or near a critical piece of infrastructure and hope to not set off any radiation detectors along the way. A nuclear truck bomb is a reasonable fear. A nuclear suicide vest is laughable.
They cannot build a W54. This would be an early prototype device and that would not fit on a vest. Iran only has enriched uranium, not plutonium (according to news reports). It takes a great deal more uranium than plutonium to build a bomb. About 65ish kilos of +90% enriched for a uranium bomb.
The W54 is a shaped charge implosion device. To build a W54, they’d need plutonium. And the trigger to detonate shaped charges at the right time in the right order. Plus, they need a neutron moderator to limit criticality so it doesn’t detonate with the full potential of the nuclear material. This is all well beyond Iran’s capabilities.
Russia could do it though. Probably China too. North Korea? I think not.
I’m not a nuclear weapons designer, I’ve just read some books. But my understanding is that shaped charge implosion is better for Pu designs. It does require much less material to reach criticality. Maybe 8-9kg? vs 65kg for a U device. But I don’t think Iran has been refining Pu, just U.
Maybe a dirty bomb with nuclear materials, but an actual fission bomb on a vest? No. Never mind they don’t have the enriched fuel, never mind just building a working device would be extremely difficult for them and that would be large like the Hiroshima bomb.
This is Iraq Weapons of Mass Distraction all over again. Fuck this administration.
It is actually possible, though it would stretch the definition of “vest.” It’s not something that can really fit on a vest, but I suppose you could hide it in a fat suit, a wheelchair, or a fake pregnancy belly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54
The W54 was a 1 kiloton bomb that weighed a bit over 50 lbs. It was built to be a man-portable demolition charge. It’s certainly possible for something like that to be built in a way that could be concealed on your person.
I love how inconspicuous it is:
Like something from Looney Tunes.
Yeah. I’m imagining a suicide bomber wearing a huge fat suit like Mike Myers wore when played Fat Bastard. Just a giant fake belly with a literal nuclear bomb concealed inside.
Though really, I think the real problem with a “nuclear suicide vest” is simple practicality. Like, what’s the actual point? The whole point of a suicide vest is to be able to smuggle explosives into an area where they’ll do the most damage. A guy holding a bomb in his hands won’t be let into a crowded bus. Someone holding a pipe bomb is going to cause people to run away from them screaming. A suicide vest bomber seeks to sneak into a crowded space densely packed with many people. Suicide bombers need to get close to large numbers of people. They need a bomb that can be concealed on their person. Otherwise they end up doing no more damage than someone could with a handgun.
But a nuke? You don’t need to sneak the nuke into the stadium. You set it off five blocks away. It doesn’t need to be concealed. If you want to deliver a terrorist nuking, you would instead load it on the back of a truck with heavy radiation shielding. You don’t try to sneak it in to a crowded location. You just try to drive it into a dense urban area or near a critical piece of infrastructure and hope to not set off any radiation detectors along the way. A nuclear truck bomb is a reasonable fear. A nuclear suicide vest is laughable.
It could fit into a suitcase, no?
Hey sexy! Is that a rocket in your poc…holy shit! That’s a godamn big whatever it is!
IT’S JUST A BACKPACK.
Maybe that’s why people keep backing away from Trump. It’s not incontinence, it’s their dosimeter badges.
They cannot build a W54. This would be an early prototype device and that would not fit on a vest. Iran only has enriched uranium, not plutonium (according to news reports). It takes a great deal more uranium than plutonium to build a bomb. About 65ish kilos of +90% enriched for a uranium bomb.
The W54 is a shaped charge implosion device. To build a W54, they’d need plutonium. And the trigger to detonate shaped charges at the right time in the right order. Plus, they need a neutron moderator to limit criticality so it doesn’t detonate with the full potential of the nuclear material. This is all well beyond Iran’s capabilities.
Russia could do it though. Probably China too. North Korea? I think not.
Gun-type nukes are relatively easy to make and can be pretty compact. The hard part is getting the plutonium
I’m not a nuclear weapons designer, I’ve just read some books. But my understanding is that shaped charge implosion is better for Pu designs. It does require much less material to reach criticality. Maybe 8-9kg? vs 65kg for a U device. But I don’t think Iran has been refining Pu, just U.