Chapter 9
How Nuclear Weapons Work
In a 1998 interview with Time Magazine’s Rahimullah Yusufzai [1], Osama bin
Laden stated that “Acquiring [WMD] for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty.”
In the few years prior to making this statement bin Laden had actively pursued nuclear
capability, and his interest in nuclear weapons continued after this statement [2].
Nine years later, physicist Peter Zimmerman wrote an article for Foreign Affairs in
which he described how a terrorist group that had been supplied with highly enriched
uranium could build a nuclear weapon in a rented suburban home [3] just a few years
after a similar account written by Brown et al (2006) appeared in a more academic
publication. Zimmerman was not the first to suggest that terrorists might be able
to build a nuclear weapon; this topic was explored in 1986, and likely earlier, by
scientists with experience in this arena (Mark et al 1986) and a great deal of relevant
information is available in the unclassified literature (e.g. [4], Reed 2007, 2009 and
2016; Brown et al 2006).
In the first two decades of this century there have been repeated attempted to
smuggle and to sell highly enriched uranium to ostensible terrorists [5]. The fact is
that terrorists have made it clear that they have been, and continue to be interested in
obtaining nuclear weapons, and as Zimmerman and Lewis pointed out, if a group can
obtain the weapons-grade uranium, they have achieved the hardest part of building a
nuclear weapon. Given what we know about the destructive power of these weapons,
it is reasonable to work to prevent an attack, and to develop plans for response as a
city and as a nation should they be used.
9.1 Overview
A single nuclear fission releases about 200 million electron volts (MeV) of energy.
By comparison, chemical reactions such as those involved in chemical explosions
release on the order of tens of electron volts per reaction; thus, nuclear fission releases
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. A. Karam, Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism,
Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69162-2_9
83
How Nuclear Weapons Work
In a 1998 interview with Time Magazine’s Rahimullah Yusufzai [1], Osama bin
Laden stated that “Acquiring [WMD] for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty.”
In the few years prior to making this statement bin Laden had actively pursued nuclear
capability, and his interest in nuclear weapons continued after this statement [2].
Nine years later, physicist Peter Zimmerman wrote an article for Foreign Affairs in
which he described how a terrorist group that had been supplied with highly enriched
uranium could build a nuclear weapon in a rented suburban home [3] just a few years
after a similar account written by Brown et al (2006) appeared in a more academic
publication. Zimmerman was not the first to suggest that terrorists might be able
to build a nuclear weapon; this topic was explored in 1986, and likely earlier, by
scientists with experience in this arena (Mark et al 1986) and a great deal of relevant
information is available in the unclassified literature (e.g. [4], Reed 2007, 2009 and
2016; Brown et al 2006).
In the first two decades of this century there have been repeated attempted to
smuggle and to sell highly enriched uranium to ostensible terrorists [5]. The fact is
that terrorists have made it clear that they have been, and continue to be interested in
obtaining nuclear weapons, and as Zimmerman and Lewis pointed out, if a group can
obtain the weapons-grade uranium, they have achieved the hardest part of building a
nuclear weapon. Given what we know about the destructive power of these weapons,
it is reasonable to work to prevent an attack, and to develop plans for response as a
city and as a nation should they be used.
9.1 Overview
A single nuclear fission releases about 200 million electron volts (MeV) of energy.
By comparison, chemical reactions such as those involved in chemical explosions
release on the order of tens of electron volts per reaction; thus, nuclear fission releases
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. A. Karam, Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism,
Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69162-2_9
83