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Question About Nuclear Proliferation


statsman

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Have all the nuke nations had to develop their weapon technology on their own, pretty much? I know that Russia had spies in the US program (Lavrenty Beria was the Soviet overseer), but the US was definitely not trying to help them. 
 
Did the nuclear powers pretty much tell their Allie’s trying to develop nukes, “you’re on your own, buddy”? The US knew Israel was developing nukes, and turned a blind eye to it, but we didn’t help, right?

Did the USSR assist the PRC? Did the PRC assist NK?

Thanks, and I’ll hang up and listen. 

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6 hours ago, statsman said:


Did the nuclear powers pretty much tell their Allie’s trying to develop nukes, “you’re on your own, buddy”? The US knew Israel was developing nukes, and turned a blind eye to it, but we didn’t help, right?

 

We didn't help the Israelis.  The French helped the Israelis.  Or, perhaps more accurately, the Israelis helped the French.

The French conspired with Israel to develop nuclear weapons, thinking that Israel's involvement would be able to attract some of the Jewish physicists who had worked on the Manhattan Project.  The Dimona facility was built with French designs and expertise, and France and Israel had a full information-sharing deal comparable to our collaboration with the British during the Manhattan Project.

  • Hook 'Em 1
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The challenge is the materials, not the knowledge. It's incredibly difficult and energy intensive to enrich uranium, so much of the focus on non-profileration has been on controlling the movement of the raw materials and equipment. 

Errbody want that (yellow) cake!
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22 hours ago, Bevo said:

This should take you down lots of rabbit holes:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Qadeer_Khan

 

My favorite celebrity encounter story is that I flew on a PIA flight from Islamabad to Karachi with AQ Khan. Same business lounge but he had a Pakistani military escort and that discouraged small talk. 

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