Deterrence may be the only way to avoid WWIII.

Five billion is a tentative estimate. I haven't checked the price of 235U and 239Pu on AliExpress.

  • TankieTanuki [he/him]
    ·
    18 hours ago

    I was under the impression that enrichment becomes more difficult as the purity increases and requires special hardware, but I'm also no expert.

    You're correct!

    the same technology that can produce LEU for reactor fuel can also be used to produce HEU for nuclear weapons. There are no technical barriers to prevent countries with enrichment capabilities from using them to enrich uranium to the higher levels required for nuclear weapons, only legal prohibitions.

    https://tutorials.nti.org/nuclear-101/uranium-enrichment/

    Now I'm wondering why every nation doesn't have nukes.

    • Utter_Karate [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      16 hours ago

      Same reason Iran doesn't. The political costs are really bad. Never mind that the US is already sanctioning Iran, deciding to get nuclear weapons would not be a popular move with Iran's allies and probably not with its own population if it was done when there is no pressing need for it.