WEBVTT - How easy is it to steal a nuclear bomb? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.600 It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff? You should know 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:15.480 from how Stuff Works dot Com. Everybody loves Altoy. It's 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.520 little ments that come intense. Well, once the ments are gone, 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:20.960 you can do some really neat things with the leftover tens. 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.200 People have made MP three players, cameras, even stoves. Check 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.760 out how stuff works dot com slash tent evats to 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:32.919 find out more. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.120 Josh Clark. Sitting across from me is the always likable 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.120 Charles W. Chuck Bryant so not so Oh, It's treat Chuck. 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.080 Everybody likes you. You're the most affable fella. I know. 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.839 I used to think so you are. I believe you. Thanks. Yeah, 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.760 Chuck's a little down today, So we're gonna talk about 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.560 stealing nuclear bombs. Little pork me up Penal Bright in 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.720 your day, wont it? Chuck? Of course you've seen the 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.640 five Robert Zemecka's classic Back to the Few. Sure I 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:02.760 knew you were going to bring that up. Well, you 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:04.800 know me pretty well. I even wrote down Back to 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.440 the Future in here somewhere we're in sync my friend. 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:12.960 Arguably that was that was Thomas F. Wilson's greatest role. Um, 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.280 who was that the guy who played Biff? No, Actually, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.479 I was looking at him on internet movie database. Guy 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.280 has been in a lot of stuff. Huh, Well he's Biff. 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:29.720 He was also an Ecttion Jackson. He had a cameos deff. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:33.520 It's like Frank Oz and the Blues Brothers. Um. Well, 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:35.800 if you remember, as I'm sure you do, since you 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:38.720 wrote down Back to the Future on your notes, Um, 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:40.960 there was a kind of a subplot going on with 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:45.360 Doc and his dealings with Middle Eastern terrorists. I didn't 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.080 remember that. I thought this was a podcast on Jigawatts 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.320 get it? Yeah? Um, so, okay, well then you do 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:57.960 remember that Doc was he was selling some plutonium to 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.440 these terrorists, right, or they wanted plutoni him from it. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.520 And the reason of course that they wanted plutonium, he 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.160 kept it for the dolorium by the way, of course. Okay, 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.040 but the reason they wanted plutonium is because ostensibly they 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.480 were going to manufacture a nuclear weapon, right, And that 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.079 is not outside the realm of possibilities. Scarily enough, it's 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.639 not Chuck. There was another movie too. They're back to 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.959 the future too yet know was a movie called The 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:28.680 Manhattan Project where a teenager steals enriched uranium to make 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.399 an atomic bomb for his science project. I remember that, 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.679 John Liftgal, Yes, bad movie. I haven't seen it, though 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.040 it wasn't bad, And if I remember correctly, everyone as 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:40.920 you would say, that was right in my wheelhouse. I 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.200 was ten at the time and thinking of making my 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.320 own nuclear weapons. Well, right, it's at the same time 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:48.040 as war games, which we'll get to in a minute. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.600 Oh we will, yes, right, oh yeah. Seeing the agenda 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.680 that you have war games written down a well, this 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.680 one is rife with movie and TV references. So Chuck, 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:01.760 let's talk about stealing a nuclear weapon. Um, how easy 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.440 is it? Well, there's a first of all, we should 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.880 go ahead and say it's probably impossible to steal a 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:14.080 nuclear warhead. Okay, I'm not gonna go along with that. Really, yeah, 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.800 it would be really, really difficult. It would not be difficult. 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:24.560 Let's say you're Iran and uh it's and you're in 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.679 contact with a bunch of kb KGB officers or maybe 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.440 some Soviet military generals. The coups just happened. There's no 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.200 longer USS are maybe your friends with somebody in Kazakhstan. 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.440 All of these people had access to strategic and tactical 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.760 nuclear arms. Actually, there was a huge question over what 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.240 was going to happen with the former Soviet unions twenty 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:52.720 seven thousand tactical and strategic nuclear weapons when the when 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:56.040 the Soviet Union dissolved, what happened to him? Actually, there 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.520 was a really good effort that was made by the 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:04.800 former Soviet republics like Kazakhstan, UM and Ukraine and and 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.640 all of these groups that actually we're already in fighting 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:12.600 with Russia, UH and the Russian government to move all 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.400 of these nukes into Russia. And I think they did 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:19.000 it with pretty amazing speed. There were U n resolutions, 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.800 there were talks between UM, the U S and the 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.839 U and in Russia and these former Soviet republics, and 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.880 everybody got their nukes back into Russian borders in Russian control. 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:32.560 To see that. I read a Reuter's article when I 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:34.680 was researching this, and that is one of the scenarios 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:38.120 they pose as one way it could happen is during transport. 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.919 That's when they're probably most vulnerable. Yeah, you would think so, 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.880 intot but let's say you're in Iranian official, you got 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.640 the you got the money, you got the means, And 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.760 not to pick on Iran here, maybe we should go 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:51.799 with Jamaica. I don't want to take off anyone in Iran, 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.160 but let's say you know, you're a Jamaican official, You've 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.800 got tons of cash, and um, you want a nuke. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.960 There's a huge coup going on, there's the dissolution of 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.159 a former superpower, and there's twenty seven thousand nukes out there. 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:08.719 If you got the money to to purchase one and 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:10.359 the means of getting it out of the country and 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.920 back to Jamaica, my friend, you have a nuke. Yeah, 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:14.800 I guess I was thinking in terms of these days, 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:16.520 it's a lot more difficult than it would have been 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:21.800 in so well, I think UH security has been tightened 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.160 down somewhat. Do you think since ninety you're about to 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:28.600 shoot me down? Right? You know not? From what I 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:30.520 could tell from reading up on this is that it's 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:32.880 more likely that someone could steal the components of a 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.880 nuclear weapon and resembol it themselves, rather than load you know, 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:38.880 thirty ft bomb on the back of their truck and 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.479 drive it through borders, right Chuck, Which makes people with 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.400 the information in their heads of how to assemble a 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:48.920 nuclear bomb from all these various parts or you know, 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.320 more to the point, what parts you'd need to make 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.279 a nuclear bomb incredibly valuable. Absolutely. Have you heard of 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.960 a q con? I have, but I know you're the man, 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:02.240 the con man, nice one. Uh. Well, Khan actually is 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.880 the father of Pakistani nuclear proliferation, which is a country's 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.599 program that we're pretty worried about. Well, yeah, they well 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.480 they have the bomb. India has the bomb. Uh. He 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.040 also was under house arrest for five years from two 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:21.680 thousand four until February two thou nine because he admitted 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:28.240 to being involved in nuclear pro proliferation. Illegal nuclear proliferation. 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:33.080 I can't say that, uh, in other countries like Libya, Iran, 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.800 he was basically selling his knowledge to the highest bidder 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.279 for their own nuclear program. Doesn't surprise me. So, I mean, 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.840 it may be hard to steal. Actually, it's incredibly hard 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.279 to put together a nuclear bomb. It's very hard to 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.600 steal one. But if you really look at it, using 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.200 maybe Akam's razor or something like that, it would actually 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.640 probably be the easiest thing to do, would be to 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:57.880 just go in and steal a nuclear bomb than stealing 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.080 the parts. What's the easiest part to steal too when 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.839 you want to assemble a nuclear bomb? Well, the easiest 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.720 part would be the explosive mechanism, the T and T, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.800 which you need a lot of. You know, enrich uranium 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.760 doesn't do much on its own. You need to explode it, sure, 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.680 as they say, and that would be the easiest part. 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.440 Um you'd have to build a casing for it, which 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:21.840 wouldn't be super easy, but it's at least something you 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.080 can manufacture yourself. And the hardest thing would probably be 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:30.920 to get the enriched super enriched uranium plutonium if you 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.400 could find doc. Yeah, that that would be tough. Do 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.480 you know why you would want plutonium or highly enriched uranium? 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.680 What kind of bomb or why I would say to 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.640 go back to the future or to build a bomb? Yes, 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.400 specifically a fission bomb. Okay, Now what's the difference? I know, 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.440 you know the difference between FISSI and TU. You know that? Well, 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:51.080 I'm a smart guy, because I don't know, and I 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.560 hope one of us does, do would you like to know? Okay, So, 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.960 a fission bomb is where you're taking a really heavy, 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:01.800 dense material the nuclei are heavy, right, Uh, the atomic 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.440 weight is heavy. And what you're doing is you're stripping 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:12.480 the nuclei of neutrons, okay, which in turn releases more 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:17.240 neutrons and so on. Right, So you have a chain reaction, 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:22.400 and once it's highly sustained, it's called supercritical mass. You've 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:27.920 reached supercritical mass because neutron neutron is knocking neutrons from 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:29.520 nuclei and so on and so on and so on, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:31.760 and it's happening really quickly and it raises this huge 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.960 amount of energy. And now going back at that point, No, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.160 and like you're saying you need t N T to 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.440 start this chain reaction and um with a with a 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.480 fusion bomb, you're actually doing the opposite. You take a 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.040 very light substance like hydrogen, and you take a tremendous 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:51.640 amount of heat and you know from a explosion of 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.480 T N T and you smash the stuff together and 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:57.840 that creates another very big explosions. So which one is 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.959 more likely scenario for stealing one? I would imagine a 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.920 fission bomb because it's the easiest to make. But the 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:07.240 problem is is getting highly enriched uranium or plutonium is 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.000 very difficult, although you can find a lot of it 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.560 in Russia and the US. Right, Yeah, there's a lot 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.199 of it that's um un accounted for, which is kind 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.880 of scary. Yeah, or left over? Did you read that 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.600 thing about Robert Gates from two thousand and eight now 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.520 he uh, He basically came out and accused Moscow of 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.440 not knowing where a lot of their plutonium and highly 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.440 enriched uranium was. Well, I could see that because when 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.400 the Soviet Union dissolved, there was a lot of chaos 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.640 and disorganization going on and a lot of this excess 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.599 nuclear material floating around, right, So there's no way that 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.000 they could account for all of it. Well, he was saying, like, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.560 we have no problem with the tactical nukes or the 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.880 strategic nukes. You want to know the difference between this two. Okay, 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:54.000 So a strategic nuke, this is right up my alley. 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.199 A strategic nuke is say, like a long range intercontinental 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:02.440 ballistic missile, right, um and uh. A tactical nuke would 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.280 be maybe attached to a missile on a bomber. And 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.080 the real distinction I read someone put it was a 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:12.880 strategic nuke is meant to prevent war. A tactical nuke 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.040 is meant to end a war, to win a war, right, 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.640 so you have mutual destruction. Those are strategic nukes. If 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.199 somebody goes in and drops the bomb in Hiroshima, that 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:24.319 would be a tactical nuke. Right, Look at you, you're 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:30.200 a regular Philip Oppenheimert Robert Oppenheimer. By the way, for 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:33.000 those of you who are paying attention, let's see father 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.040 of the Adam Bomb, not Philip. He was the director 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.440 of the Manhattan Project, right, And Philip was his brother 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.640 who was from what I understand, didn't do much with 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:45.480 his life. Philip was played by John Lithke. Okay, that's good. Uh, 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.000 you want to talk about security a little bit? I do. 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.360 The US says whenever there's a large arsenal weapons they 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:57.360 have barriers, guards, surveillance cameras, motion sensors, and of course 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:01.199 background checks. Seemed like enough to you, No, because at 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.319 Reuter's article I read was talking about. The other scenario 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:09.200 I talked about, besides being a hijacked and transport, was 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:13.040 that potentially a Taliban or al Qaeda member could gain 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:18.280 employment at a at a nuclear facility despite background checks. Sure, well, 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.920 very few of them have like a member of Taliban, 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.080 you know, two thousand two to present, and you would 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:24.840 think that someone could get in there. But you also 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:26.880 wouldn't think that someone could take lessons on how to 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:29.880 fly a plane uh here in the United States and 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.000 fly them into buildings. That didn't seem likely either. So 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:37.200 it is likely or not likely, but possible. It is possible, agreed, um. 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:42.640 And there's also another real threat that's probably the most prominent. 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.120 And I guess we should probably say here maybe a 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:46.840 little too late. We don't mean to stir up any 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:51.120 paranoia among anybody. It's just an interesting question. We meant 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.439 to stir up paranoia about Florid, but not this one. Um. 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:57.920 The probably the most realistic through it would be a 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.920 dirty bomb, right yeah, which is made from what they 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:06.360 call nuclear junk, which is not highly enriched uranium and plutonium. Correct, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:11.320 it's a lesser quality, no, I think, Um, it's it's 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.359 a nuclear bomb lacking a device to properly detonate it. 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.839 It is so you don't have the material needed or 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.520 the energy needed to create like a supercritical mass. But 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:23.840 let's say you blew it up with a bunch of 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:29.040 TNT that was less than critical or super critical um. 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:32.400 You're still spreading radioactivity. Okay, I didn't know if you're 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.080 talking about depleted uranium. Did you hear about the Russian 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:39.400 guy that was caught who the guy who poisoned Lucchenko 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:41.920 or No? This is in two thousand two, and this 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:43.760 is one of those deals where I couldn't find a 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.160 lot following up. In two thousand two, a Russian man 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:51.880 was busted smuggling twenty seven tons of enriched uranium at 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.360 a Siberian border checkpoint. I did a little follow up 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.560 and they said it first, oh, no, this was just 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.800 a regular shipment because we send um depleted uranium to 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.959 UH to Kazakhstan so it can be made into nuclear 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:08.480 fuel to be sent back to Russia. That's all it was. 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.600 And then they came out with a second UH statement 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.920 that said, oh, I'm sorry, it wasn't enriched exactly depleted uranium, 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:18.320 and so it wasn't really a big deal. And I 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:21.600 couldn't find anything else after that. Twenty seven tons, though, 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.239 that's scary. Well, this proves there's a black market for it. Oh, definitely. 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.360 You know we're using a depleted uranium is tank piercing 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.840 bullets or artillery, right, and apparently there's a real growing 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:38.000 concern among Iraq veterans in Afghanistan veterans that they're around 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.440 this and handling this this ammunition, right, like, what's going 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.000 to happen? You know? And I radioactive and we're gonna 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.560 be able to have kids. It's probably going to be 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:50.920 the next agent Orange is depleted depleted uranium shells. Yeah, 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.280 but apparently they go right through a tank. Well, I 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.760 would imagine. So, yeah, you want to talk about Los Alamos, Sure, 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:02.000 go ahead, you go ahead. November two thousand six, Los 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:06.920 Alamos National Laboratory there was a security breach and officials 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.920 were worried that an employee past information concerning special access 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:15.440 controls that would detonate a bomb. So uh, it wasn't 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.480 a whole device, but important and valuable information and secrets 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.720 were being sold. Yeah these pals right, Yes, Okay, so 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.120 pal I checked out there. It can be what what 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.320 John Fuller, who wrote this fine article, mentions is that 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.240 you know it takes two people to enter a code 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:35.040 at the same time war games exactly. Go ahead. Well 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.120 what's that called. It's called permissive action link. Yes, and 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.400 if you remember the very first scene of the movie Wargames, 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:44.600 A young Michael Madison was actually one of the security guards. 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:49.160 You can buckle dal little dog. That was excellent. Wow. 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.200 Uh yeah, young Michael Madison was one of the two 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.720 uh security personnel and the silo that was supposed to 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:57.640 turn the key at the same time. So it's a 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.840 two man operation. One person cannot set off the bomb. 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.080 So it's a pretty good measure. That's well, that's one. 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.720 That's one type of pal. There's also um quantum encryption 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.400 UM to create all sorts of different UM codes. And 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.560 he basically, if you can't just press a button, any 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.120 barrier between you and pressing that button, any step you 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.360 have to take to launch a nuclear weapon is a 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.840 permissive action link. So when you hear the fingers on 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.240 the button, that's really two fingers on two buttons. And 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.920 it took at least several steps to get to that point. Thankfully, Um, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.840 there's another way you can get a bomb. And I realized, Chuck, 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:38.240 I never um, I never finished a sentence. Earlier, I 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:41.120 went off on a tangent about the difference between tactical 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:46.120 and strategic right. Um, the the what Gates was talking 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.920 about when he said that he was accusing Moscow of 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.480 not knowing where all their stuff was. Um, there's a 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:57.000 whole bunch of nuclear minds, nuclear artillery shells, basically nuclear junk. 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.200 Um that he suspects Mosque has no idea where it is. 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:03.640 That's the stuff that would likely it make its way 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.080 into a dirty bomb, which is why it's a bigger threat. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:07.840 I could see that for sure. I'm glad I got 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.520 that off my chest. You know, one official we're talking 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.320 about Pakistan earlier, one US officials said that if they 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.600 can smuggle out the amount of heroin that they smuggle out, 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:20.160 then they could smuggle out nuclear materials pretty much. Although 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:24.920 I suspect that, Um, there is tested approval of heroin 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:29.880 smuggling in Afghanistan as far as the US goes. Yeah, 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.440 I've read articles on it. US generals are just like, 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:34.800 we're not even paying attention to that. There's nothing to 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:36.680 do with what we're here for. Right, I could the 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.800 d A's over there like pulling out their hair, right, Yeah, 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.280 thanks a lot. Sure. Well. One thing I was going 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.680 to mention too is if this weren't a concern, legitimate concern, 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:50.080 then there probably wouldn't be an official name for this. Yeah, 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.160 by the US the Navy. Right, Yeah, the Navy um 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.440 calls it a broken arrow, which is from the John 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:58.000 Well not from the John Wu Move John Move. I 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:00.160 think got it from the Navy. But that is the 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.320 name for the seizure, theft, loss or loss of a 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.879 nuclear weapon or component. So component is kind of the 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.120 key component. Yeah, or if you steal the whole thing. 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:14.040 If Jamaicas stole one or bought one, that would be bad. Right. 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:15.959 I love your idea here. I want to see this 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.359 like a Jamaican guy on a flatbed with a nuclear 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.320 bomb in the back of it. So, Chuck, there's another 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.040 way you could get a nuclear weapon if you wanted to. 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:29.040 You could travel to Tybee Island, Georgia. Yeah, there is 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.960 a fifty one year old nuclear bomb, Thermo nuclear weapon 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:35.400 somewhere off the coast of Tybee and not too far 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:38.200 off of it. They could get right off of the coast. 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.600 You have no idea where it is. Yeah, so close 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.359 that they can't find it. Yeah, distressing. You know what 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:47.360 else is distressing? What? The Department of Defense recognizes that 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.879 at least one serious nuclear accident has occurred every single 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.520 year since the atomic age began. Distressing, I don't know 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.879 what's more unsettling that once happened every year they qualified 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.600 it with at least, right, you know, one or more. Yeah, 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.840 should we talk about some of these accidents, Yeah, totally 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:08.080 reported accidents. Yeah, there's been a bunch of them. There have. Uh, 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.399 this one's good. Um in n B forty seven bomber 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:16.480 flying over Mars Bluff, South Carolina, accidentally dropped an atomic 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.160 bomb which left a crater st wide and thirty five 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:22.520 ft deep, And we've talked about that one. That was 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.840 the one that, um, they abandoned searching for that nuke 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.600 in off the coast of Savannah to go deal with 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.040 Oh is that what happened? Yeah? Okay, Yeah, So they 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.320 were looking for this nuke for about a month, couldn't 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.600 find it, and then one goes off for the the 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:39.160 TNT went a bigger problem and they all evacuated over 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:41.479 to South Carolina. Yeah, that's a good one. You want 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.680 you got another one for me? Yeah, this one is 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:48.639 kind of unsettling. In nineteen sixty, some guys were basically, 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.920 I guess, docking an airplane that had nuclear weapons aboard 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:55.679 on the U S S. Takondo Roga. I guess they 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.640 hit a wave and the airplane and its nukes rolled 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:04.960 off into the Sea of Japan. Transport, dude, Luckily, it 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:07.439 seems like all the accidents and and security threats to 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:11.159 deal with transport. Yeah, or what about the transfer from 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:15.400 a submarine onto the USS halland yeah, go ahead. Well 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.040 that's pretty much it, except for while they were while 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.280 they were moving the nuke from the submarine to the 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:24.280 USS halland uh, it started to fall seventeen feet and 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:27.640 somebody very quickly pulled an emergency brake and it stopped 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:32.440 right above the deck that was close a handbrake. Yes, 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:34.760 I'd like to see that. Yeah. Did the guy literally 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.280 like yank it up? Yeah? And I'll bet he was 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:41.200 treated two around that night. Yeah, but more than one. Uh. 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.320 You know, there's a U. N agency that is entrusted 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:48.680 with preempting this kind of thing, illegal proliferation, and they 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.040 said in two thousand seven they said that the theft 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:55.480 and loss of nuclear and radio material the radioactive materials 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.919 remains a persistent problem that the I A E. A. Yeah, 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.159 So they're every one is on record basically saying this, 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.320 this happens all the time. There are hundreds of cases 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.439 in Russia of people stealing or trying to steal this stuff? 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.360 What was it? J Philip Oppenheimer said when he saw 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.760 the first nuclear bomb explode, I have become death destroy 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.680 of world, world talk about Pandora's box, man, No kidding. 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:27.120 I've got some more stats if you're in need. There 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:31.080 were a hundred and fifty incidents of such such action 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:33.840 of of loss or theft in two thousand six alone, 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.640 And Josh, the majority of these involved sealed radioactive sources, 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.320 and in seventy three per cent of these cases, the 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.320 lost or stolen materials have not been recovered. That's fantastic. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:49.359 So basically what you're finding, what you're saying here is 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:52.960 that there is a lot of unaccounted for nuclear material 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.320 on the world market. Right. Well, there's no international treaty 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.800 for this. I found out. Oh yeah, yeah, they're there. 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:03.680 Um their treaties. There's the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:07.919 Treaty of nineteen, but it's all for domestic use, storage, 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.600 and transport. There's no international uh work going on here. Well, 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.200 the problem is in the post nine eleven world as well, Chuck. 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:16.639 I mean, we're not fighting people who honor treaties like 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:21.840 we're still looking at nuclear um nuclear non proliferation through 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:24.440 the paradigm of the Cold War, which is long over. 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.240 You know, it used to be we had, like I 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:30.320 said earlier, mutual a sure destruction where the USSR in 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.480 the US had so many nukes that they could wipe 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:37.479 out the world within seconds of one another launching, and 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:44.240 it kept anybody from doing anything about exactly. There's no 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.720 that that doesn't exist anymore. There's no polarization, and we 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:53.000 have to rethink this, especially if there's no accountability or 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:55.840 not enough accountability. It's almost less safe now than during 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.640 the arms race. And how do you get something how 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:01.960 do you take something out of existence when it when, 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:05.680 when it's already been created. I don't know, can it happen? 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:10.080 I it would take I don't think it can happen. 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:11.760 I think it could happen, but you'd have to be 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:16.359 really dedicated, and you would also have to be pretty 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:18.679 cool blooded because guy's like a q con would have 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:21.040 to get shot in the back of the head, and 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:22.920 not just a q com but all of our guys 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:25.600 to basically anybody who knows how to make a nuclear 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:29.760 bomb would have to be executed. So thanks for joining us. 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:32.800 If you want to know more, about nuclear anything. We've 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:34.600 got a bunch of it on the site. That's how 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:36.840 stuff works dot com. We are a handy search bar 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:38.719 for your convenience, so you don't have to troll from 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.320 the channel the channel page by page. Uh. And since 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:44.960 I said that and Jerry's eyes are crossed because she's 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:48.119