Curve II.

This is coolbert:

Curve - - Ted Taylor.

Continuing with the serial of blog entries based upon extracts from the book by John McPhee - - "Curve of Binding Energy", the question which was asked back in 1973/1974 - - can a terrorist group or even the lone "mad man" construct a field expedient but workable atomic bomb - - detonating in the fashion of the weapons as dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki!

John McPhee, an acknowledged master of the literary genre' of creative non-fiction, a narrative ["Curve"] based upon conversations and discussions with authorities and experts in the field of nuclear materials, processing of same, and those individuals most knowledgeable in the design of nuclear ordnance.

"Creative nonfiction (also known as literary or narrative nonfiction) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives."

In large measure "conversations and discussions" with that one person having the greatest insight and background regarding the possibiloity of the field expedient atomic bomb being the late American physicist Ted Taylor.

[Taylor having died only recently, recall that "Curve" was written in 1973/1974!]

Ted Taylor for a period of about a decade in the aftermath of World War Two working in the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratories, responsible for the theoretical design of fission weapons in the style of Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombs, but much more efficient and elegant! Designs and development of fissionable weaponry ranging from the very large to the very small, across the spectrum, running the gamut as they say!

[NOT only miniaturization but efficient!!]

"Theodore B. Taylor, a relative unknown man man who has been on of the most inventive nuclear scientist of our time . . . he conceived and designed the largest-yield fission bomb [Super-Oralloy] ever exploded by a nation."

"He designed Davy Crockett, which in its time was the lightest and smallest fission bomb ever made . . . He designed Hamlet . . . [which] was the most efficient fission bomb ever made in the kiloton range"

"'His trade basically, was the miniaturizing of weapons' . . . 'He was the first man in the world to understand what you can with three or four kilograms of plutonium, that making bombs is an easy thing to do, that you can, so to speak, design them freehand.'" - - Freeman Dyson.

As to the feasibility of a terrorist group or even the lone "mad man" fabricating their own field expedient atomic weapon, if anyone would know, you would have to assume TED WOULD KNOW!!

coolbert.