Quote:
Originally Posted by Rico
Apparently so. I guess the thousands upon thousands of nuclear weapon we already have aren't enough. I wonder how many times over we should be able to wipe out the whole earth before we realize we have enough nuclear weapons?
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It isn't really like that in the "real" world of our nuclear arsenal.
We do have the ability to deploy thousands of nukes, however since the break up of the Soviet Union we have pulled more stuff out of the "ready to use" inventory than we have left in.
As an example, the nukes deployed around the area I grew up were upgraded in the 1980's to carry the MX style multiple warhead payload. These have all been down graded to carry just a single warhead on each missile. The extras have been disassembled for storage and testing purposes.
We no longer manufacture nuclear weapons from scratch. The exact processes are a closely guarded secret, but according to
www.fas.org (a bunch of "peaceniks" but still an excellent source of info) it appears that the US is mainly into recycling plutonium these days.
Also, if we were to "ban" the manufacture of weapons grade fissile material wouldn't that mean military action by us to enforce such a ban? That would mean war with Iran and North Korea right off the bat for an Obama administration. Is he really up to that?
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