On the Efficiency of Festive Firecrackers and the Cobalt Bomb

In the attached note, the situation is considered in which terrorist organizations or states supporting terrorism may attempt to create stationary thermonuclear charges using a nuclear device based on U-235 to initiate thermonuclear fusion. It is shown that the refusal to use Pu-239 in a thermonuclear charge makes it possible to radically simplify the procedure for creating thermonuclear devices. The possibility of stationary use of thermonuclear installations, without the need for their transportation, allows terrorists to achieve their goals without creating delivery vehicles for thermonuclear weapons. The absence of a need to produce weapons-grade plutonium simplifies the production of thermonuclear weapons. Likewise, the absence of a need to build a reactor eliminates the risk of control by the IAEA. The possibility of creating and using thermonuclear devices in a stationary design does not require the logistics of the finished device, which eliminates the possibility of tracking delivery means and also prevents such devices from being neutralized while approaching a target. The potential use of a stationary uranium-based thermonuclear device exclusively for the production of long-lived radioactive isotopes may be of particular interest to terrorists due to its relative simplicity. This raises additional requirements for international control and monitoring in order to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation.