Missing Russian Suitcase Nukes?

[BrewCityBuck]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Controversy (suitcase nukes)In 1997, former Russian National Security Advisor Alexander Lebed made public claims about lost "suitcase nukes" following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In an interview with the newsmagazine Sixty Minutes, Lebed said:I'm saying that more than a hundred weapons out of the supposed number of 250 are not under the control of the armed forces of Russia. I don't know their location. I don't know whether they have been destroyed or whether they are stored or whether they've been sold or stolen, I don't know.However Russian government immediately rejected Lebed's claims. Russia's atomic energy ministry went so far as to dispute that suitcase nuclear weapons had even ever been developed by the Soviet Union. Later testimony however insinuated that the suitcase bombs had been under the control of the KGB and not the army or the atomic energy ministry, so they might not know of their existence. Russian president Vladimir Putin, in an interview with Barbara Walters in 2001, stated about suitcase nukes, "I don't really believe this is true. These are just legends. One can probably assume that somebody tried to sell some nuclear secrets. But there is no documentary confirmation of those developments."The Russian government's statements on this matter have been contradictory. First they denied that such weapons had ever existed; then they said that all of them had been destroyed. However, the highest-ranking GRU defector Stanislav Lunev confirmed that such Russian-made devices do exist and described them in more detail [1]. These devices, “identified as RA-115s (or RA-115-01s for submersible weapons)” weigh from fifty to sixty pounds. They can last for many years if wired to an electric source. “In case there is a loss of power, there is a battery backup. If the battery runs low, the weapon has a transmitter that sends a coded message ? either by satellite or directly to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate.” According to Lunev, the number of “missing” nuclear devices (as found by General Lebed) “is almost identical to the number of strategic targets upon which those bombs would be used”. He suggested that they might be already deployed by the GRU operatives.Whether or not Russian "suitcase nukes" exist, the threat of the old Soviet nuclear arsenal falling into malicious hands has been behind many American and Russian joint-initiatives after the Cold War to bolster Russia's ability to keep its nuclear weapons secure and accounted for, while the amount of weapons is being scaled down as well.</div>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_bomb The 'missing suitcase nukes' story has been around for some time. It is the main story on this season of 24, and the main story in a fictional book I'm currently reading, and it's in a book coming out next year where an author believes islamic terrorists have purchased some of these suitcase nukes. I don't think these missing suitcase nukes exist personally. But it's a possibility. It is interesting.

 

[redneck]

I think the exist, infact I'm almost positive they do or did exist. I think the US probably has them, we've bought a lot of former Russian Nukes to take the Uranium out and use it in our nuclear power facilities. I think thats what happened to these nukes. I base this off a book I read a few years ago, were some physicist from New York said he personally distoried about 60 small Nuclear divaces which could have fit in his hand.

 

[BrewCityBuck]

Remember the book title?

 

[redneck]

Sorry I don't. it wasn't even my book, I just read it during reading class in high school.