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This is exactly the confusion that I am talking about that stalled nuclear power technology. Nuclear weapons are bad to have floating around and getting the cur
by njarboe 9y ago
This is exactly the confusion that I am talking about that stalled nuclear power technology. Nuclear weapons are bad to have floating around and getting the current stockpiles down to low levels would be great, but building a nuclear weapons is very hard to do. Separating out U235 from U238 to make and easy to build gun-like nuclear weapon takes a nation state level of power and dedication. Getting enough pure plutonium 239 is at the same order of difficulty and building a plutonium bomb is very difficult and dangerous.
Fuel in nuclear reactors do not have to be a weapons grade levels and only a few research reactors are (or were, as they are being phased out).
Also, one or two (or a dozen) of small nuclear bombs set off by some small group is not going to wipe out humanity and most of the worlds ecosystems. Horrible, massive death and destruction for sure, but not an existential threat to life on the planet.