The Nth country experiment

[VCheng]

What a fascinating piece of history, called the "Nth country experiment":


nh8_1 by vcheng552000, on Flickr

from: Nuclear History at the National Security Archive

Document Eight: Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, "Summary Report of the NTH Country Experiment," W. J. Frank, ed., March 1967. Original classification: secret. [extract of heavily excised document]

This report describes an experiment that took place at a time when policymakers wanted to know how difficult it would be for a non-nuclear power to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory paid two newly-minted physicists, with no access to or knowledge of classified information, to "produce a credible nuclear weapons design." After three "man-years", the two physicists had a design for an implosion nuclear weapon. The report's conclusions remain classified, but apparently the experiment was a success: it showed that any capable physicist could design a nuclear weapon.

The redacted version of the full report can be found at:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20030701/nth-country.pdf

 

[indiatester]

What a fascinating piece of history, called the "Nth country experiment":


nh8_1 by vcheng552000, on Flickr

from: Nuclear History at the National Security Archive



The redacted version of the full report can be found at:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20030701/nth-country.pdf

The problem is not just the weapon design. It also should involve two other critical components
1) Weapons grade Fissile material.
2) Miniaturize the weapon design to mate it with a delivery system.

These are very difficult to solve for folks wanting to do it and easier to detect/block for folks trying to prevent it.

 

[VCheng]

The problem is not just the weapon design. It also should involve two other critical components
1) Weapons grade Fissile material.
2) Miniaturize the weapon design to mate it with a delivery system.

These are very difficult to solve for folks wanting to do it and easier to detect/block for folks trying to prevent it.

Yes, that was one of the conclusions of the experiment. The design is relatively easy, so access to the materials and tools must be restricted. This conclusion laid the grounds for future non-proliferation and technology control policies.

 

[Arsalan]

The problem is not just the weapon design. It also should involve two other critical components
1) Weapons grade Fissile material.
2) Miniaturize the weapon design to mate it with a delivery system.

These are very difficult to solve for folks wanting to do it and easier to detect/block for folks trying to prevent it.

Agree with the access to material part.
As VCheng said, this point was concluded from this experiment. It was established that designing a N-Weapon is not such a difficult task and any capable physicist could design a nuclear weapon. For this very reason, it was sought to restrict the availability of materials involved in building one. Perhaps this was the foundation stone of non proliferation treaties we know today!

AS for Miniaturize the weapon design to mate it with a delivery system, not a big issue. People with dirty minds and terrorist organization wont need ballistic missiles to carry there bomb as they don't have a specific target nor do they care of civilian damage.
If they can get to develop a N-Bomb, no matter what the size or shape it is, delivering it in form a a dirty bomb will do it for them!!

Yes, this can be considered for a country that for them, they need to shape and size it to fit there delivery platforms and this is what every Nuclear power is doing. We have all heard about Pakistan Battlefield Nukes etc. But these nuclear power might never be using these in war. these are just counter weights required for today's Geo political balance nothing more!
The real concern are proxy organization, false flag operation and terrorist and for them the second point is not that important.

best regards!