Nuclear Pits: Death in Its Most Concentrated Form Even more than
biological weapons such as anthrax, one drop of which may kill
thousands, nothing kills more with less volume than a strategic
nuclear weapon (as opposed to the smaller tactical, or
battlefield, version). At only about five centimeters in radius,
the nuclear pit -- the core of the weapon which contains the
plutonium -- could be characterized as death in its most
concentrated form ever. At Focal Points, I frequently about the
CMRR-NF, a proposed nuclear facility at Los Alamos said to be
intended for the manufacture of nuclear pits. A friend of mine
recently took me to task for operating under an unconfirmed
presumption. This individual, who worked at Los Alamos on, among
other areas, nonproliferation, asked us exactly how we knew that
the CMRR-NF was intended for the manufacture of nuclear pits.
Turns out, a little research reveals, that, while figuratively
speaking it may be, technically it's not. We found our first
clue at the website of the Lo