You technically could build a nuke with enough enriched uranium. The recipe for a nuke is literally:
take half of the amount of the enriched uranium required
smash the other half into it
boom, Hiroshima.
You need a particular kind of nuclear reactor to create the enriched uranium, though. But for example in Ukraine, the Chornobyl reactor was built exactly for that.
That said, the US, the UK and France are the only three NATO countries allowed under international agreement to build nukes.
You need a particular kind of nuclear reactor to create the enriched uranium
*plutonium. Enriched uranium comes from taking natural uranium and enriching the content of a specific isotope (235U), typically with centrifuges, gaseous diffusion and/or magnetic separation in a synchrotron. The enriched uranium can be used in a weapon, or it can be used as fuel for a nuclear reactor to make 239Pu from 238U.
France and the US are the only two NATO countries able to build nukes.
Theoretically the UK are able to build nukes too but not without US support.
The Montebello Islands disagree.
You technically could build a nuke with enough enriched uranium. The recipe for a nuke is literally:
You need a particular kind of nuclear reactor to create the enriched uranium, though. But for example in Ukraine, the Chornobyl reactor was built exactly for that.
That said, the US, the UK and France are the only three NATO countries allowed under international agreement to build nukes.
*plutonium. Enriched uranium comes from taking natural uranium and enriching the content of a specific isotope (235U), typically with centrifuges, gaseous diffusion and/or magnetic separation in a synchrotron. The enriched uranium can be used in a weapon, or it can be used as fuel for a nuclear reactor to make 239Pu from 238U.
Thanks, my nuclear chemistry was a bit rusty.