[ucm_edge]

Also the Scorpion wreck has been surveyed twice and imaging shows the nuclear weapons are still there in the wreck. Wreck is ~3k meters deep, so no one is going down there to get themselves a 1960s vintage nuke whose only value is the fissile material.

An entity capable of executing that recovery operation is capable of making their own, buying one from a less savory nation state, etc.

[alex_sf]

I would hope even small nation states have greater resources than James Cameron.

[throwaway4aday]

If you think about it, the actual disposable wealth of a lot of small nations is probably less than what Cameron himself could marshal and spend if he wanted to. A nation in the best case needs to get the buy in of its people and administrators in order to spend a large sum of money on an expensive project. The budget for that project has to compete with all of the other expenses and ambitions that the nation has.

[7952]

The difference is that for James Cameron's projects could rely on buying existing expertise from contractors. A small nation has to build that themselves in secret.

[moffkalast]

One would, but well he is James Cameron.

[londons_explore]

Any determined nation could take that.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if someone hasn't already taken it, and left a dummy weapon in its place.

Sure, deep sea exploration by humans is hard... But using unmanned craft, they're mostly impervious to pressure.

[jl6]

They could be nice honeypot locations for the US to continuously monitor, to see who turns up with robotic submersibles. An early warning system for identifying actors with nuclear aspirations.

[devoutsalsa]

Why bother? You could get uranium much more easily from other sources.

[londons_explore]

It's already enriched and comes with a working design.

For a non-nuclear nation, that would be all they'd need to become a nuclear nation.

Then blow it up in a test explosion to show the world, and then they could work slowly on making another bomb while bluffing that they have lots ready to go.