So, the people who came up with the idea were never able to assemble such a device, but Government scientists, presumable those with a knowledge of chemistry and/or bomb making, were able to to do so in a lab. That doesn't really demonstrate the viability of the plan.

The techniques these idiots were purported to be looking into may indeed be viable methods for creating explosives and detonators in a laboratory environment. But when assessing the viability of the plot, the real question is whether any of them had the requisite knowledge, skills, or experience to create, transport, smuggle, assemble, and detonate such devices in the real world.

More likely, they'd blow themselves to spaghetti sauce while attempting to create the chemicals, or while attempting to transport them. They might also get caught, delayed, or otherwise prevented from making the rendezvous with the others, resulting in an incomplete and useless device.

These days, they'd just smuggle the explosives and detonators in palettes of Deer Park and Coke Zero bound for the local Hudson News.