I'm pretty sure that a lot of electronic components are required to begin a fission or fusion process. You can't just split an atom by hitting it with a hammer, you know.

It'd be about as difficult has hot-wiring a car -- you basically just need to trigger the conventional explosive charge that slams the two pieces of uranium or plutonium into each other and create critical mass.

Kind of a twisted question especially for the times we are currently in there Osama!

I don't really know, Sak, but I hope it's hard as he**! I want there to be multiple fail-safes..I want humans to be involved at every step of the way and not a computer override at any point..I want there to be a last-second "STOP" button..I want many people to be involved at the site of the nuclear weapon, so all can be in agreement that it is the only option left..I don't want some "big boss" who is already over the edge of reality to be in charge. I know..I want I want I want. :(

It would depend on the construction of the device... If it was a 'Fission' bomb then there are two methods of detonating them: Firstly (the process used in the Hiroshima bomb) you can fire a 'bullet' of Uranium 235 into a core of the same material that is surrounded by Uranium 238 - the force of this impact begins the fission process and you're done. Secondly (the process used in the Nagasaki bomb) you can surround a core of either Beryllium/Polonium and Plutonium (in modern bombs at least) with explosives, which is itself encased in Uranium 238 again. The detonation of the explosives compresses everything and drives the plutonium into the polonium and presto; fission bomb. In the case of fusion bombs, it's much more complex... You have your second type of fission bomb above, next to (but behind a shield of Uranium 238) a device that consists of a plutonium rod in the centre surrounded by lithium deuterate, which is itself surrounded by Uranium 238. The detonation of the first fission bomb sets off a chain reaction in the second device that results in a significantly larger and more intense explosion. (All of this happens in something like 500 billionths of a second btw) These are the most modern sorts of bombs, with yields upwards of 10'000 kilotons (10'000'000 tonnes of TNT). ***** So in each case it is just a matter of detonating a basic (probably plastic) explosive, which could probably done with a sufficiently hot spark or a sufficiently powerful electric current (or whatever). ***** And seriously, you can find stuff like this out from a Google search : P no one is going to hunt me down and lock me up for know / saying all this (I knew how to build a nuclear bomb when I was 5 for heavens sake). The difficulty is in obtaining the materials and constructing the device - not figuring out 'how' the bomb works. ***** It is very easy to detonate a nuclear weapon.