Is building a nuclear weapon tougher than some people think?

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*puts drone remote away*

Nukes are boring, anyway. Proper supervillainy demands a quantum of theatricality.

It depends greatly on a few factors. Most people simply do not have the right skills to get the job done without killing themselves in the process.

The process to separate isotopes of uranium can be challenging. Only the U-235 can undergo fission (not counting the very rare U-233), as U-238 does not do this process. The separation during the Manhattan Project was done by making UF6 molecules and then using miles of piping to do a separation via slight differences in weight between the two isotopic compounds. The ones containing U-235 weighed less, so they would travel slightly faster in the pipes. Once separated, the uranium can be reduced back to the metal. This same separation-enrichment process can now be done with the same radioactive gasses traveling across several layers of specialized membranes. One of the world experts on this process was killed by a drone strike in Iran nearly a decade ago.

Once the correct amount of nuclear fuel is accumulated, one has to keep it in small amounts to prevent it reaching an unintended critical mass. As the uranium atom undergoes splitting, it gives off particles that can start a cascade effect. It will force other fissionable isotopes to break into smaller pieces. In a nuclear reactor, this process can be controlled by a moderator. However, it is much harder to stop if it reaches critical mass before a moderator is in play. The core can heat up until it literally starts to melt (ie. meltdown) or even burn (in the case of plutonium) if it does not explode in the process.

Tooling the fuel to fit a particular pattern for an explosion is another tricky part. If one machines the fuel, some of the material becomes airborne and contaminated everything around it. Even if done in a dry box, this part is hard to do. This process greatly increases your radiation risk. Certain isotopes are easier to work with, but they tend to not pack the punch of other isotopes. Look up Rocky Flats for an example of this issue, as they were processing plutonium-239 at that site. It is still contaminated in the soil after remediation was done to it.

As for putting that together to make a weapon, I will stop short at that part intentionally. There is no need to push this subject further for others to try. I simply do not recommend it.

Awwww.....

Ya mean...It's THAT hard for an amateur private individual like me to make my own nuke!

What a bummer!

Well...you're a real killjoy!

Sorry about that, it is in my nature to do so.

Personally, I would rather have a working annihilation reactor than a nuke. It would be the best way to dispose of trash by completely turning it back into the electromagnetic radiation that it came from. Kinda like a Kansas backyard burn barrel, except much, much hotter. Now if I could just make it small enough to fit on the back of a Delorean, my power problems would be solved.

Just to make it clear to SOME readers on this autism website: I was being totally sarcastic.
The fact that ordinary schmucks like me can NOT easily make nukes is GOOD news to me!

Sorry, there are times where sarcasm is lost on me. My bad...

As for playing with nukes:

Back when I was being bullied in my youth, I studied all I could find about nuclear materials as an outlet. In the 1980s, you could not just go to the internet to search for such things. However I knew someone who had a connection to the WWII Manhattan Project. He loaned me some nuclear books that would not normally had been available to a kid in a small town rural library. He probably thought I was foolish to read them, as he did not understand what I was after. It was not my intent to ever use a nuclear weapon, but to have the ability to possibly build one was leverage that I could use against my aggressors. The mere thought that I could do something to that level drove my bullies nearly insane, as they could not compete in that arena. Sometimes just owning the knowledge is enough.

I eventually went to the university interested in making a career out of nuclear chemistry. Unfortunately, that school did not have the right nuclear program, as I had to double major in nuclear engineering and chemistry to try to get where I wanted to go. The nuclear engineering side was just not interesting enough, as I did not want to just learn how to operate a power plant, I wanted to be able to use one for research purposes. So, I made the gradual choice to go fully into chemistry instead.

Could I have made more money if I went the nuclear engineering route? Yes, but I would have been unhappy in life I the end.

Hmmm.... so it all got started because you got tired of school bullies stealing your lunch?

Talk about "over kill". Lol!

And by the time you finished your degree you had outgrown high school.

Sounds like you started out a lot like the "nuclear boy scout" in the above Utube video.

I only wish it was about stealing my lunch. I could have dealt with it. It went far darker than that. There was a long history of violence that perpetuated at that school. I fell deep into that hell and lost part of myself there.

Gosh!

Sounds like they had some real gang type violence in your school.

At least you didnt turn into Columbine type killer, and manage to grow up, and to become a successful scientist.

Yes, but the past always haunts me no matter how far removed that I become from it. I wish I could erase that part of my life. It corrupted the way I see things with the world. I have the guilt of that knowledge hanging over my head. That is not a good thing to have to deal with everyday.

When Columbine happened, I understood it much differently than anyone around me. I could see what can lead up to that incident from a different perspective of being severely bullied and losing your sense of life. Still it does not justify what happened though, as any act of violence is wrong.

Oh okay. What about the whole electro-magnetic pulse bomb, that has been popularized in fiction such as the show 24. Some friends of mine actually think that this technology exists, but does it, without being able set off a nuclear bomb in order to get the EMP?

I believe non-nuclear EMP weapons are actually being developed by several countries right now. It would be a real tactical advantage to cripple an enemy's infrastructure and military vehicles without crossing the line into nuclear war. Also, lightning is a kind of naturally-occuring EMP- it can disrupt electronics, though it isn't optimised to do so. This article looks helpful, with a possible design for a non-radioactive EMP "bomb": https://science.howstuffworks.com/e-bomb3.htm

There's a nuclear device you can legally build in your garage. The Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor is a fun project Fusor

"This article 'is missing information about safety'. Please expand the article to include this information."

Would someone please fix this wikipedia page! However, I understand the safety concerns are much less than your neighbor will imagine when he hears what you're up to .

I am working on designing special computer chips that would be impervious to all EMP weapons. They need no extra shielding as it is built into the chip itself, yet is smaller than a regular computer chip. The key is in what it is made of.

EMP pulse weapons can be made with certain anti-matter particles. The catch is in making them in a controlled way and in containing them before usage. Charged particles can be stored using high field magnets, but not the neutral ones. So, no luck in using anti-neutrons for this process.

FYI - Anti-matter particles do exist and can be created under certain conditions. There are some radioactive isotopes that will undergo beta + decay, whereby they release an anti-electron (positron) from the decay process. As soon as the anti-electron comes into contact with an electron in the environment, they undergo annihilation and become two 511 KeV X-rays. This process is a clean conversion from matter to electromagnetic energy process. Before you think I am just spouting Star-Treck stuff, this is used in PET scans in the medical fields. PET stands for Positron Emission Topography and is a way to move the x-ray source to inside the patient’s head. It is risky, but usually the patient having this procedure does not have long to live either way.

Yes it exists and has existed for many years. It is not used due to agreements between countries.