> firmly in either category. With that said, if the thing is
> intrinsically fail-safe

IF

And in whose hands?
A pebble bed may not be capable of runaway by itself. But, could
outside help change that? Are people sure of the quality of the
answer?

>(let's say non-fail-catastrophic) and you can
> bury it in a hole and throw 100 tons of concrete blocks on top to
> prevent

prevent?
Slow down maybe.
Or, change the method which may otherwise be used.
eg replace digger with C4 or  Amatol or Ammonium Nitrate
The latter with a power augur and some diesel (fuel oil) would
probably allow unburying in 10's of minutes at most.
Energy can be very very large at very modest cost and scaled up as
required. Efficacy is high. A very standard technique for *rapidly*
unburying extremely intractable objects.

The messiness may be part of the desired end result.
About here VERY rapid response black helicopters start getting desirable.

>people from messing around with it, what's the problem?

Let's see ... :;-)

> I tend to believe Vitaliy

terrorists will be pleased :-)

> ; if you're a terrorist and you have to rent a large
> mobile crane and spend 3 days trying to steal a couple pounds of
> insufficiently enriched uranium, wouldn't it be easier to "hit" some
> easy target or steal/acquire some other terr'st tool?

I assume that trying to think as terrorists do is not certain of success.
I also assume that 3 days can probably be reduced to 10's of minutes
once you get a bulk deal going.
Said Uranium may not end up available but it could be well shared with
many people.

If you don't care how much stuff gets thrown around then there are
quicker ways to get stuff from down there to up here.
And just doing it may produce the desired result.
Say you hit say 20 of these simultaneously (or 10, or 3 or even 1) and
redistributed their contents over the immediate area - even quite
locally. Regardless of actual effect, how would that influence future
paths?. If a few jetliners can change the world so much, what can a
few cracked pebblebeds do?



           R
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