Is it legal to make your own nuclear bomb?

A nuke would be a destructive device under the NFA so you’d need to get permission from the ATF. You’d need a license just for the fissile material alone (never mind building it into a weapon), one that you won’t receive because you aren’t a government-sanctioned laboratory.

Can you make a bomb from smoke detectors?

If you get a bunch of smoke detectors tehn it can contaminate a larger area – but you’d need hundreds of thousands of smoke detectors to make a dirty bomb that would start to have an impact (health or economic). So – yes – you can make a dirty bomb using smoke detectors.

Are fire alarms radioactive?

Ionization chamber smoke detectors contain a small amount of americium-241, a radioactive material. They react quickly to fires that give off little smoke. Ionization smoke detectors expose people to a tiny amount of radiation—about 1/100 of a millirem per year.

Why is AM 241 used in smoke alarms?

Ionization smoke detectors use americium as a source of alpha particles. Alpha particles from the americium source ionize air molecules. This makes some particles positively charged and some negatively charged. Because of this shielding, the smoke detector poses no radiation health risk when they are properly handled.

Is it legal to build a nuclear bomb in the US?

It’s no more legal for you to build a nuclear bomb than it is any other kind of bomb. That said, you could not build a nuclear bomb out of fire alarms. The best you could build is a dirty bomb, but you’d need some kind of conventional explosive.

Is it possible to build a nuclear bomb out of fire alarms?

That said, you could not build a nuclear bomb out of fire alarms. The best you could build is a dirty bomb, but you’d need some kind of conventional explosive. To build an actual nuclear bomb that would explode in a nuclear explosion, you need something called Special Nuclear Material (SNM). This is basically Uranium and Plutonium.

Can a private citizen own a nuclear weapon?

In the US there are a couple of laws preventing a private citizen from owning a nuclear weapon: Possession of any radiological weapon is prohibited by 18 U.S. Code § 832 – Participation in nuclear and weapons of mass destruction threats to the United States (specifically paragraph (c))

How many smoke detectors would it take to make a bomb?

To make a conventional fission bomb, you would need many billions of smoke detectors. And then you would have to build the nuclear bomb, a difficult feat using the preferred conventional nuclear materials, and an engineering nightmare of the first order with Am-241. Good luck, right?