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> Arguably it's the refining that's by far the most difficult process I think a large part of what makes it difficult is not the logistics, or even the refinem
by icepat 3y ago
> Arguably it's the refining that's by far the most difficult process
I think a large part of what makes it difficult is not the logistics, or even the refinement process. It's the other states looking over and thinking "these guys are making atom bombs", then putting a stop to it. Much like the Iranian attempt where the US injected a worm into the centrifuges that caused them to spin themselves to death.
- akiselev 3y agoThat kind of dramatic industrial espionage just isn’t very common outside of fiction. Uranium enrichment really is that difficult due to the precision required to build gaseous centrifuges and the nasty hydrofluoric acid chemistry involved. ITAR and other restrictions on sale of advanced machinery has much more effect than espionage - the latter is more likely to spread the technology like with Dr Khan and Pakistan/North Korea On top of that, uranium is naturally 99.3% is non-fissile so you need tons of yellowcake to produce a small amount of weapons grade uranium, which requires crazy amount of power for the centrifuges.
- icepat 3y ago> That kind of dramatic industrial espionage just isn’t very common outside of fiction. I was making specific reference to Stuxnet, and Operation Merlin. There's been several cases of this happening, so I'd say it's hardly fictional.
- akiselev 3y agoI didn’t say it was fictional, I said it wasn’t very common outside of fiction.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- aliyfarah 3y agoThe effects of the stuxnet virus is highly overrated. Within a few months they were replaced with a new generation of centrifuges.