what stops countries from secretly developing nuclear weapons?

Question

What I mean is that nuclear technology is more than 60 years old now, and I guess there is a pretty good understanding of how to build nuclear weapons, and how to make ballistic missiles. So what exactly stops countries from secretly developing them in remote facilities?

In: Other

Answer 1

Not an expert, but with the current technology (satelites etc.) and the level of intelligence that the Great Powers have access to, it would be impossible to do it secretly.

Developing a nuclear weapon may not be technically difficult nowadays, but it still requires a great deal of infrastructure that is very hard to conceal. Not to say it requires testing, which is obviously impossible to do in secret.