How long before a nuclear attack occurs?

[Wildcat Willy]

Originally posted by MrHotDice:
When the Shaw was in power them having the technology was not as big a deal as some ISIS nut job. But Jimmy Carter backed the wrong horse and now you see what has happened in the Middle East. IMHO Obama is Jimmy Carter II

Yup, the Middle East was just a big peaceful beach party before Jimmy and the Shaw got everybody riled up.

 

[BoulderCat]

Just my take of course. Tomorrow, or in a 100 years, eventually though it will happen. Plutonium is hard to make or obtain, and we should all be glad. It no longer the technology of the know-how, it's just the resources needed. Human history suggest it will happen. Such power is tantalizing to some among us. The real question in my mind isn't whether it will happen, but what the response will be. Around the world the nuclear power's that stand have enough to lay this planet to waste, and most everyone and everything on it. Will cooler heads prevail, or will they all, or at least attempt to be used. My answer is the latter. Both will happen, and the result will be something akin to the great, biblical flood. Sort of like the restart button. Hopefully none of us ever live or die to see that day.

 

[d2atTech]

there was a semi-famous documentary about this. here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCpjgl2baLs

 

[GhostVol]

Originally posted by Comebakatz3:
I think a bigger concern would be a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility such as Oak Ridge. In just the past year a nun breached the security of the Oak Ridge Y12 facility. Luckily she was only an eco-terrorist and merely splattered blood on the walls rather than planting an explosive device. Other facilities such as the Savannah River Site in South Carolina may be even less protected, and are closer to the coast. Not sure that we can really measure the effects if there was a successful attack on one of those facilities.


If there was... the problem for the US, other than cleanup, would be the response. A nuclear attack on a terrorist cell would not be an appropriate retaliation because there wouldn't be a place to target just the terrorists. We'd be nuking an entire city and country just because it might have some terrorists. We could do as we've done with the response to 9/11 but that would be a rather long and drawn out response rather than a massive show of force. I'm not entirely sure that there would be an appropriate response that would be able to intimidate and show our might as well as target just those that are the aggressors. Hopefully it is a problem we don't have to face anytime soon.

SRS might well be a future target, but the high level stuff IS protected. Nobody uses the Savannah River for anything except shipping anyway, so even if a dirty nuke situation happens it'll just be messy.

 

[Zakk Wyldcat]

 

[VT/UK Rondo]

Nobody is going to bomb the US on a large scale. Half of the countries we worry about depend on the US either directly or indirectly for food, resources and support. People might hate and distrust the Govt but none are stupid enough to burn down the welfare office.

 

[Spica Orbit]

We (the US) have radiation monitors all over the place & a little known group called NEST (Nuclear Emergency Support Team) that is very good at its job. Nothing is foolproof, but I think Europe is a more likely target.

Spica Orbit

NEST

 

[IdaCat]

I'm not too worried. Now that Radio Shack is closing all those stores, it's going to be harder for these rogues to obtain the parts to build an adam bomb.

 

[ky8335]

Originally posted by Xception:
So what happens if an American city did get hit with a suitcase nuke by terrorists and nobody took credit for it , what should the response be and against whom . That's what makes this much more threatening than the Cold War , in that situation there was a static target (Russia) in place that knew a counter strike would come . Even if you knew which terrorist cell did it what is the response and what dominoes get set off by that response ?

I think the Tom Clancy book "Sum of All Fears" had a plot similar to this. Scientists were able to analyze the radiation/fall out which matched a uranium signature from blah blah blah.

 

[gracetoyou]

Better watch Russia. I read this Yahoo news article yesterday that made my skin crawl a little.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-doctor-military-sciences-says-181400470.html

 

[UK!!!]

The USA will be in a war with Russia in the next 10 years, China will call up the national debt, America will withdraw from World War III, we will no longer be the only super power in the world. Our term as world police will end, life will go back to normal, everything will be great, until the World War IIII.