
A truck driver uncovers secrets about the first nuclear bombs (2008) - haomiao
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/15/atomic-john
======
tjradcliffe
It's worth remembering this the next time you hear some hysteria about Iran's
"nuclear program" which they have been supposedly working on for the past 30
years without actually producing a bomb.

Basic nuclear weapons are really, really simple to build. This is especially
true of uranium bombs. Is there any case of a weapon being deployed
operationally without ever being test-fired, other than dropping Little Boy
over Nagasaki? That's how simple uranium bombs are.

Gas centrifuges (when not being sabotaged) make uranium enrichment pretty
simple, and they have been around since the '80's as a fairly well-understood
technology. There were warnings back then that they would lead to a wave of
proliferation, which to an extent they have.

So the only plausible way Iran could have been "working on" nuclear weapons
for 30 years without producing one is if they aren't working very damned hard.
Their economy is about half the size (GDP per capita) than the US economy was
in the early '40's but much more concentrated in terms of the state's ability
to control it.

So it isn't lack of resources that is holding things up. It is most likely
lack of political will: Iran would like to be seen to be working on a Bomb,
but for whatever reason isn't actually doing much toward building one. If they
were, they would have one by now.

A team of competent high school students with a billion dollar budget could
manage it in a year.

[Edit: this is not a defense of the theocratic monsters that run Iran, I just
don't think they are as big a nuclear threat as is commonly assumed.]

~~~
turbojerry
Iran's Supreme Leader: "Using Nuclear Weapons is Un-Islamic" -

[http://www.dw.de/irans-supreme-leader-using-nuclear-
weapons-...](http://www.dw.de/irans-supreme-leader-using-nuclear-weapons-is-
un-islamic/a-2043328)

'Mr Bush expresses anger that US intelligence agencies played a role in
removing the option of military action against Iran over its nuclear
programme.

He describes the "eye-popping declaration" in the 2007 National Intelligence
Estimate (NIE) judging with "high confidence" that Iran had halted its nuclear
weapons programme.'

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-
canada-11722375](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11722375)

~~~
dscrd
That's showing incredible restraint (and, might I add, virtue) from them,
considering that their ideological enemy, Israel, has nukes and is more than
willing to use them.

~~~
user9756
Oh No no no! That _does_ sound like a "a defense of the theocratic monsters
that run Iran"!

Remember that Iran has suppressed dissidents who question how the rich 1%, the
banks and corporations run the country!

Those monsters in Tehran have preemptively attacked other states and destroyed
their infrastructure! Iran has occupied territory and is killing civilians
indiscriminately! Even bombing schools and hospitals!

Also they support various dictators in the World like Saudi Arabia in the ME.
And they helped neo nazists take power in Ukraine. Oh god the evil. And I'm
barely touching the surface.

The only thing they have going for them is that they accept homosexuals. Which
we all know is the litmus test for a free and non-monstrous regime.

------
theoh
Wow, I don't usually have a problem with the New Yorker, but this is a really
patronising and naive profile. He drinks too much Diet Coke? Well, Bill Gates
and Karl Lagerfeld also drink too much Diet Coke.

Worse than that, apparently he's not expected or, really, allowed, to apply
basic logic and arithmetic in his research without being subject to ridicule:
"It was a typical Coster-Mullen moment: he treats the world’s most destructive
invention as an ordinary clocklike mechanism, made of simple parts that must
fit together according to readily discernible laws."

Seriously, if there's one thing you can say about the Manhattan project, it is
that it was an entirely positivistic, scientific activity. The lack of moral
or ethical qualms that might be lamented in retrospect doesn't change the
nature of the weapon. The mechanical aspects of the bomb are just that,
mechanical.

Kenneth Goldsmith would probably excuse the style of this article as twee, but
it feels worse than that. It is corrosively anti-geek.

~~~
zdean
I think HN adds to that tone by including "truck driver" in the title of the
post. I suppose the inference is that truck drivers are not very smart;
therefore, giving the title an interesting contrast. But the reality is that
people become truck drivers (as well as any other profession) for any number
of reasons.

~~~
Ancorehraq
Not being very smart accounts for some of those reasons. Do you feel there is
a significant category of people who are intelligent enough to be nuclear
physicists, but decided to drive trucks instead?

~~~
zdean
Whether the number is significant or not is irrelevant. The fact is that being
a truck driver does not in any way disqualify one from being intelligent. A
less loaded but more helpful title might have been something along the lines
of "Man who isn't a nuclear scientist uncovers secrets about first nuclear
bomb." It might help to understand the problem I'm describing if you replace
"truck driver" in the title with a race.

~~~
Ancorehraq
I don't think that helps understand the problem at all. Are truck drivers a
protected class?

Can you provide some evidence regarding intelligence of truck drivers?

~~~
nmrm
> Can you provide some evidence regarding intelligence of truck drivers?

Sure. This very article. Some non-truck drivers were apparently pretty
impressed with the truck driver's book:

 _The review, written by the eminent atomic historian Robert S. Norris, began,
“For many years, Coster-Mullen has been printing his manuscript at Kinko’s
(adding to and revising it along the way) and selling spiral-bound copies at
conferences or over the Internet.” Norris clearly considered Coster-Mullen’s
understanding of the bomb superior to his own._

 _My own copy of “Atom Bombs” soon arrived in the mail, along with a sheet of
testimonials from Harold Agnew, the former director of the Los Alamos
Scientific Laboratory, who was aboard the Enola Gay when it annihilated
Hiroshima (a “most amazing document”); Philip Morrison, one of the physicists
who helped invent the bomb (“You have done a remarkable job”); and Paul
Tibbets, the commander and pilot of the Enola Gay (“I was very much
impressed”)._

Incidentally, can you provide some evidence regarding the intelligence of
software engineers?

See how that feels?

~~~
Ancorehraq
Ok,
[http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx](http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx)

Doesn't feel like anything at all.

~~~
nmrm
> Ok,
> [http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx](http://www.iqcomparisonsite.com/occupations.aspx)

Ironically, software engineers aren't even listed here except for in an
aggregate group (possibly many) which undoubtedly includes many other
occupations.

It's pretty lucky I don't make sweeping generalizations about your
intelligence based upon a single data point :-)

Just to be clear, negative stereotyping "backed" by statistics is still wrong.
There's plenty of scientific evidence "justifying" racism. Even if that
scientific evidence were completely correct, racism would still be morally
abhorrent.

> Doesn't feel like anything at all

I think you've profoundly missed the point (point: empathy).

Anyways, when your hobby project is upheld as fantastic research by physicists
and leaders of national labs, you can be condescending toward other
occupations.

 _end troll feeding_

------
ChuckMcM
I bought one of his books on Amazon. Its a lot of fun. And it is interesting
to see some of the pictures in his book that were edited in other sources. I
can easily recommend it as worth adding to your library on nuclear weapons and
their development.

------
mkreef
Remarkable story about a remarkable man. If not on HN, I don't think I would
have stumbled across it. Thank you.

------
schrodingersCat
I had not caught this article when it was originally published. Thanks for the
share! I really like how one man, with a lot of time on his hands, could
reverse engineer the designs of some of the most secret weapons ever created.

------
dbh97
Asperger's?

~~~
hacknat
I prefer "on the spectrum", because, let's be honest, everyone is.

