This is old cold-war spin, and it has been refuted so many times, yet it still surfaces.
Read "The curve of binding energy", and you will learn from Ted Taylor, one of the worlds best nuclear warhead designers, that you can make the simplest atomic bomb by dropping one piece of fissile material on another, provided they are big enough to become a critical mass.
It won't be tens of megatons, but it will be a perfect terror weapon, spreading panic, making a large-ish area uninhabitable and costing a fortune and many years to clean up.
If the terrorists are smart enough bring a couple of sacks of salt, it makes the mess much worse.
There are damn good reasons to go out of the way to prevent access to the funny end of the periodic table.
Read "The curve of binding energy", and you will learn from Ted Taylor, one of the worlds best nuclear warhead designers, that you can make the simplest atomic bomb by dropping one piece of fissile material on another, provided they are big enough to become a critical mass.
It won't be tens of megatons, but it will be a perfect terror weapon, spreading panic, making a large-ish area uninhabitable and costing a fortune and many years to clean up.
If the terrorists are smart enough bring a couple of sacks of salt, it makes the mess much worse.
There are damn good reasons to go out of the way to prevent access to the funny end of the periodic table.