You have a technical expertise just close enough to, but firewalled from the actual doe nk physics, where maybe the same image couldn't be released by anyone with doe clearance.
But the guy a few buildings over just doing 'hypothetical' center of gravity modeling? Doesn't necessarily have to live by the exact same rules or go through the same release/declass process as someone with actual weapons schematics.
It leaves a lot still unanswered- but explains away some of the seemingly self- contradictory Sandia policy discussed in the article.
In industrial speak: inside-the-fence vs outside-the-fence regulatory framework, or something similar.
Sometimes the guy outside the fence 'gets away with things' because those things are OK to do outside the fence.
The people doing the bomb, the physics package, would be very much removed from the weapon delivery people designing the actual warhead. The warhead people probably see no more detail than the mass numbers for the bomb. The warhead is essentially a very fast gliding aircraft with a literal kill switch.
You have a technical expertise just close enough to, but firewalled from the actual doe nk physics, where maybe the same image couldn't be released by anyone with doe clearance.
But the guy a few buildings over just doing 'hypothetical' center of gravity modeling? Doesn't necessarily have to live by the exact same rules or go through the same release/declass process as someone with actual weapons schematics.
It leaves a lot still unanswered- but explains away some of the seemingly self- contradictory Sandia policy discussed in the article.
In industrial speak: inside-the-fence vs outside-the-fence regulatory framework, or something similar.
Sometimes the guy outside the fence 'gets away with things' because those things are OK to do outside the fence.