Re: BBC's "The Kitchen Table Nuclear Bomb"

[JGinniver@AOL.COM]

Apologies first for accidentally sending the first e-mail before adding any text.


For anyone that is interested I have obtained a copy of the origial article that sparked the BBC news story and will happily e-mail it to anyone who would like it.  I feel that it is certainly not as bad as the BBC - public sensationalist version, and it does make a number of valid points.  I do feel however that it is simplistic and is designed to reinforce the point of view of the authors rather than presenting an unbiased view.  My limitied undertsanding of the business of reprocessing is that while the chemitsry theory is reasonably well documented and understood that does not mean that construction and operation of even a small scale reprocessing rig (for unirradiated MOX fuel) is easy.


The article glosses over the need to obtain the MOX fuel in the first place.  This is possibly not an impossible task for a well armed terrorist. group  However to then remove the material to a secure location where it can be processed for at least 7 days (the period given in the article to process a sufficent quantity of plutonium) without the intervention of western governments is I would suggest impossible.


Regards

       Julian