Mike Carrell writes: >population did to itself. 3,000 dead? What about the 30,000+ lives lost and >families disrupted by highway deaths every year?
Good point. The reaction to 9/11 was far out of proportion to the damage. > "Risking the lives" is >not *lives lost* Hiroshima and Nagasaki recovered after direct use of well >engineered weapons, not toys cobbled together to frighten people. I believe most experts do not fear a homemade nuclear device or dirty bomb, but rather a stolen Russian weapon. Modern thermonuclear fusion bombs are small and portable, as you can see in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum display of ICBM missiles. Modern bombs range from 100 to 300 kilotons, whereas the WWII bombs were 15 to 20 KT, so the effect of a stolen bomb would be immeasurably worse than the Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I think it is extremely unlikely that terrorists will ever assemble a homemade nuclear device, but I have heard that the Russian bomb storage facilities are wide open. They are protected by rusting barbed wire and drunk soldiers who are seldom paid -- an invitation to bribery. This problem is being addressed with at joint U.S.-Russian program, but unfortunately the administration has cut back on the funding and it is dragging the program out much longer than originally planned. - Jed
