I understand the technology is difficult. My question is more about how is it that some countries have achieved a nuclear arsenal and other countries are still trying? You’d imagine if the scientists and engineers of one country could manage it, those of another country would eventually get it too. Seems an odd convenience that the most dangerous weapons on earth are prohibitively difficult to make. So few humans are smart enough to make them that only 9 countries have achieved it?
In: Engineering
Nuclear weapons require the synthesis of nuclear fuel.
There are basically two ways to do this:
1. Huge factories which consume large amounts of energy
2. Have some preexisting nuclear fuel and use it to ‘breed’ more in a reactor
Breeding nuclear fuel is difficult without a significant supply of existing fuel to experiment with, and hiding huge power-hungry factories from American meddlers is even more difficult.
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