Why are nukes a thing of the past?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I'm particularly interested why nukes are no longer a factor as a terror weapon used by organisations and régimes that are not above ignoring the principles of common sapient international decency?

No longer? They never really have been.

Luckily for us the fact is nuclear explosions are *hard* to set off. Presumably there are still optimistic terror groups who attempt this. But since they are almost certain to fail even if nobody was trying to stop them, and plenty of people with very good surveillance technologies are trying to stop them, it just isn't considered a very serious threat compared to stuff people actually can manage to do without the backing of a national budget, an engineering college faculty and a bunch of materials being watched by 10 different intelligence services.

Most large nations in 2100 could presumably build a nuclear weapon if they really wanted. But nukes aren't a weapon you can conceal the use of, and despite what goes into everybody's propaganda, very few regimes are actually insane. A nuclear arsenal may discourage somebody else from pushing you into a situation where you have nothing left to lose - which may help explain why almost no borders have moved in 150 years - but isn't much use otherwise. If there are 90 members of the nuclear club instead of 9 but still nobody crazy enough to use them offensively, well, not much has actually changed.