Could a Rogue Billionaire Make a Nuclear Weapon?(wsj.com)
wsj.com
Could a Rogue Billionaire Make a Nuclear Weapon?
https://www.wsj.com/business/could-a-rogue-billionaire-make-a-nuclear-weapon-cd8bfde2
4 comments
Has anyone else ever read Joe Haldeman’s “To Howard Hughes: A Modest Proposal”?
I’d recommend trying to find a copy if you haven’t.
I’d recommend trying to find a copy if you haven’t.
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?50831
This story is included in this collection:
https://www.amazon.com/War-Stories-Joe-Haldeman-ebook/dp/B00...
This story is included in this collection:
https://www.amazon.com/War-Stories-Joe-Haldeman-ebook/dp/B00...
Where's Ernst Blofeld when you need him?
South Africa's successful but later dismantled nuclear weapons program cost about $400 million (1993 dollars), which is about $865 million (CPI inflation adjusted) today [1]. Cue the discussions about whether the cost of nuclear weapons production has been changing more in line with other manufactured goods like TVs or more like services such as health care.
The main obstacle for countries, or villainous billionaires, is how to build nuclear weapons without being detected. That's a lot harder, particularly if you want a live fire test to verify that the design works. (A basic gun-type bomb like the US dropped on Hiroshima, or like South Africa made, is so very simple that it can be assumed to work without prior testing. But it's also an incredibly inefficient way to make a bomb compared to implosion designs, which need live testing.)
[1] "A Chronology of South Africa's Nuclear Program" https://www.nonproliferation.org/wp-content/uploads/npr/masi...