This US national lab turned to AI to hunt rogue nukes Researchers at America's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are developing machine learning techniques to help the Feds crack down on potentially rogue nuclear weapons. Suffice to say, it's generally illegal for any individual or group to own a nuclear weapon, certainly in the United States. Yes, there are the five …
I'm sure that, with a trip to Putin's Russia and the application of a generous amount of dollars to a local general, you too can have your very own king-sized snowcone maker.
"Suffice to say, it's generally illegal for any individual or group to own a nuclear weapon..."
If you're in the UK it's now illegal to use one - Nuclear Explosions (Prohibition and Inspections) Act 1998
Although fortunately: (2)Nothing in subsection (1) shall apply to a nuclear weapon explosion carried out in the course of an armed conflict.
" there are the five officially recognized nuclear-armed nations – France, Russia, China, the UK, and the US – whose governments have a stash of these devices. "
Not sure who is the official doing the official recognition, or what "officially recognised" is supposed to mean in this context.
I believe that it's fairly well known that India, Pakistan and North Korea have functional nuclear weapons, which they have openly tested, and their governments aren't hiding that fact.
Israel are also generally understood to be a nuclear weapons state although they are deliberately coy about the existence of their nuclear arsenal.
Neither of the 4 need some certificate from the UN
Not sure who is the official doing the official recognition, or what "officially recognised" is supposed to mean in this context.
Under the NPT, a nuclear-weapon state is one who detonated a nuclear device before 1 Jan 1967 (surprise surprise, the five qualifying nations also happen to be the five permanent members of the UN Security Council). These are the only signatories who can legitimately have nuclear weapons under the treaty because the point of the NPT is to say "we won't develop/test/transfer tech"
India, Pakistan & Israel are not parties to the NPT. North Korea was, but withdrew in order to pursue its programme. South Sudan also hasn't got around to joining.
When 190 states are signed up and 5 aren't, that's generally a "consensus view" that you're in or out of the club.
But in practical terms yes, aside from the 5 NPT members, there are probably 3 additional "competent" nuclear weapon states (by which I mean they have a weapon system they could deploy with some expectation of "success" - not that using nuclear weapons is ever a successful endeavour), plus North Korea who make a big deal about testing a fizzle every now and then but could probably make a mess of Seoul even if the warhead just fizzled out and acted as a dirty bomb.
For completeness, there's the subtlety about Russia being the successor state of the USSR for the purposes of the NPT. The other ex-Soviet states with nuclear warheads (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus) gave then up in exchange for security guarantees from the permanent members of the Security Council (see: Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances).
Ironically, the memoranda, signed in Patria Hall at the Budapest Convention Center with US Ambassador Donald M. Blinken amongst others in attendance, prohibited the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, "except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations."
Once again, Russia proved it doesn't honor it's agreements.
>>Once again, Russia proved it doesn't honor it's agreements.
Ah Comrade, that's where you are wrong. Ruzzia was existentially threatened by NATO's active advance, against our great nation, using UA as a cover for their Nazi operations. Ruzzia is, therefore, in complete compliance with the treaty.
There's also some European countries which host US bombs and which would (in the event of daddy P having a full on Untergang tantrum) be employed by the air forces of those nations, with roughly the same degree of autonomy (very little) as Belarus has over anything the Russians base there.
>Is there that much suspicious radioactive material being sent by snail mail these days ?
You can use Royal Mail but note that Pu-239 has a half-life of 24K years, which you should take into account when using 2nd class mail
Also under the Royal Mail Prohibited and Restricted Materials page they do note:
- UK & International - Allowed with restrictions
- Surround with cushioning material e.g. bubble wrap.
- The sender's name and return address must be clearly visible on the outer packaging.
"Is there that much suspicious radioactive material being sent by snail mail these days ?"
Well, I hope not, but there are a number of legitimate, non-weapon uses for "nuclear material". I used to use some radioactive materials for analytical purposes when I was a graduate student in molecular biology - sometimes you need a very strong signal, and nothing beats radioactive emissions. But it was never all >that< much compared to a nuclear weapon, and certainly not the right elements.
But I expect some folks out there can provide stories that may relate to more interesting isotopes, and perhaps in quantities that might surprise the rest of us.
And yeah, we got ours by snail mail.
There used to be a system involving bicycles and the fleet-of-foot to get very short lived isotopes from the accelerator to the hospital's dept of doing-scary-stuff-to-people.
Apparently they upgraded to a pneumatic tube running under the campus.
I love the idea that we have a nuclear air-rifle / pea-shooter
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