IP: how to make an A-bomb

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Jay Solomon <rsolomon () dsl cis upenn edu>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 13:27:01 
To: dave () farber net
Subject: how to make an A-bomb

Not sure if "make an atomic bomb without difficulty" is the correct 
phrase, but you wonder if bureaucrats ever pay attention to what 
they're doing....

> April 15, 2002
>
> A - Bomb Guide Available in Britain
>
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> Filed at 8:40 a.m. ET
>
> LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Ministry of Defense has made public a 
> step-by-step guide on how to build an atomic bomb, a newspaper 
> reported Monday.
>
> According to The Daily Telegraph, the previously classified files 
> released to the Public Records Office provide details on the 
> construction of Britain's first atomic bomb, code-named Blue Danube 
> and built in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
>
> According to the newspaper, the files contain complete 
> cross-sections, precise measurements and full details of the 
> materials used to make the bomb.
>
> The newspaper said the ministry had also released papers describing 
> ways such a bomb could be smuggled into the country. The plans were 
> in papers released to the Public Records Office during the past five 
> years.
>
> The Ministry of Defense had no immediate response Monday to the report.
>
> Retired engineer Brian Burnell, who according to the newspaper 
> worked on the British atomic weapons program, said the plans would 
> enable a terrorist to make an atomic bomb without difficulty.
>
> ``These documents should never have been declassified and since the 
> events of September 11 there is a case for removing them from public 
> access,'' the newspaper quoted him as saying.
>
> The defense spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party Bernard 
> Jenkin told the newspaper the files were a ``monstrous free gift to 
> terrorists.''

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