Are 'suitcase nukes' a genuine concern?
On the 7th September 1997, 60 Minutes broadcast an alarming news item featuring the allegations of former Russian National Security Advisor, General Aleksander Lebed. Lebed claimed that the former Soviet Union had not only manufactured but had lost track of perhaps 100 of a very frightening weapon: a nuclear bomb in a casing which made it appear to be a small suitcase. The claim was hotly denied and none of these weapons have never surfaced, but that hasn't stopped the idea of "suitcase nukes" gaining a grip on the public imagination through popular fiction and TV shows. So is it even possible to fabricate a nuclear weapon so small? If so, is it likely that such devices exist and are even missing?
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