It's not like it's hard

When I was in 8th grade, our substitue math teacher, who had once fought in WWII, taught us all how to build an atomic bomb. Yup, that's right. It took about 45 minutes, and he drew it on the chalkboard.

At the time, you could find the theoretical instructions in textbooks. When I was a freshman in college, you could look it up online - and I did (for a class). By the time senior year rolled around, I again needed to write up a discussion (historical) about different types of nuclear material, what is used for weapons, what for fuel, etc. To my surprise, all the websites (generally from other universities) had been pulled off the web.

Now, I'm not arguing in favor of nuclear proliferation. But seriously? Once information is in the public domain, we do no one any favors by removing it. Being able to understand the makeup and consequences of dangerous substances allows us to make better decisions about when, how, and why to use them. These websites don't show you where to buy nuclear material, or how to finance such a project, or even the mechanics of making it work. They articulate the science and theory behind a very politically sensitive source of energy. Limiting information limits the effectiveness of democracy, and lowers the tone of political debate. And we all know how I hate that.

In the meantime, as a corollary to some interesting constitutional musings, Japan's foreign minister noted that Japan "has the technological know-how to produce a nuclear weapon but has no immediate plans to do so." Um, ya think? Who's surprised that a nation so focused on science, mechanics, etc, has the ability to make a bomb? I think it'd be a pretty fair assumption that Japan probably figured it out a while ago.

What's interesting is their choice not to build one. There is history there, and politics, and a whole host of other factors. I just hope they don't let North Korean belligerence and American incompetence change their minds.

In any event, here's the WashPost article about it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901641.html