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Building a nuke requires purified uranium or plutonium. Making that is a massive industrial operation. Then comes casting, machining, etc. Only a determined nation-state has a chance of success, in spite of movies. Given that, design hasn't been a obstacle for decades.

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Design is still a major obstacle for advanced multi-stage hydrogen bombs. How they work exactly is still a major secret that isn't public knowledge AFAIK.

Yeah, but you don't need that to get people's attention. Any nuclear bomb at all is a Big Deal.

If your going for attention you don't even need to go critical. A dirty bomb should be enough for that.

Not exactly. A good primer on multi-stage design was published in a magazine called "The Progressive" in 1979.

http://www.progressive.org/images/pdf/1179.pdf

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