A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that it was pretty easy to determine whether someone had stabbed themselves, or been stabbed by someone else. Someone left a comment to the effect that you could find out pretty much anything online, so I shouldn’t have been so coy (but if you can find anything online, it shouldn’t be too hard to find out that information elsewhere, so stop complaining!). It’s essentially true, however. And one of the things you can now find online is the plan for one of the first atomic bombs (via /.). Specifically, it’s a diagram representing the construction of “Fat Man”, the bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki.
It should be pointed out that, just because the plans are available, doesn’t mean you can actually make the bomb. Unless, of course, you can get your hands on some uranium 238, plutonium and polonium. And I’m sure there are plenty of other things you’d need to know in order to construct it all properly. As the Wikileaks article points out, nothing in the design is particularly secret, and the public availability of the document isn’t likely to lead to terrorists building atomic bombs.
The real problem about building one of these designs is the rarity (at least outside of NWS nuclear facilities) of plutonium and polonium, as well as the ability to fabricate sophisticated high explosives to exacting specifications. We’re not talking about IEDs here. To build a nuclear weapon requires a state.
Still, it’s elegant proof that pretty much any information you’d want is available online somewhere.
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