Georgian Sting Seizes Bomb Grade uranium

[lligrd]

Can you walk around with this stuff in your pocket?

Georgian sting seizes bomb grade uranium By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer
7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - It was one of the most serious cases of smuggling of nuclear material in recent years: A Russian man, authorities allege, tried to sell a small amount of nuclear-bomb grade uranium in a plastic bag in his jacket pocket.

The buy that took place last summer, it turned out, was a setup by Republic of Georgia authorities, with the help of the CIA. Their quiet sting operation _ neither U.S. nor Georgian officials have publicized it _ is an unsettling reminder about the possibility of terrorists acquiring nuclear bomb-making material on the black market.

No evidence suggests this particular case was terrorist-related.

"Given the serious consequences of the detonation of an improvised nuclear explosive device, even small numbers of incidents involving HEU (highly enriched uranium) or plutonium are of very high concern," said Melissa Fleming of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency.

Details of the investigation, which also involved the FBI and Energy Department, were provided to The Associated Press by U.S. officials and Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili.

Authorities say they do not know how the man acquired the nuclear material or if his claims of access to much larger quantities were true. He and three Georgian accomplices are in Georgian custody and not cooperating with investigators.

<<more>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/uranium_sting

[Syrinx]

1. "No evidence suggests this particular case was terrorist-related."

What other purpose would there be? I guess the guy just wanted to commit suicide via cancer?

[lligrd]

2. Or Like The Guy Who Spilled The Mercury In LA Subway

(that he found in the trash), he just found it an wanted to make a buck. :sarcasm:

[Porcupine]

3. It's not enough to be a threat to anybody....

Any amount of pure uranium 235 you can carry in a pocket will not be enough to initiate a chain reaction with other materials or supply a bomb. This stuff is incredibly heavy.

The real question is where he got it; that means there is a leak from somebodies fuel supply.

[MadHound]

4. Something smells about this.

Namely the fact that the perp was carrying around bomb grade uranium in plastic baggy:wow: Gee, what is his health like these days. Hell, for that matter how's the health of law enforcement personell?

You don't carry around bomb grade uranium in your pocket without suffering significant health issues, if not death. Something about this whole setup stinks.

[bananas]

5. I don't have a reference handy for uranium

but I was just reading this about plutonium on msnbc.com:

“You can carry weapons-grade plutonium around in your hands for hours and you’re not going to sustain a severe radiation injury. And it only takes maybe 10 pounds to make a nuclear weapon.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16304749/page/2/

[MadHound]

6. I used to work in a nuke reactor

And this goes against everything I was taught. I know for a fact that high burn weapons grade plutonium is quite hot, and no, you can't carry it around in your hand. 2.9E-7 grams of this will emit much more than the 50rem limit that leads to critical organ failure. Now MSNBC might be talking about low burn plutonium, which is cooler, but I still wouldn't carry it around in the palm of my hand, it would be a death sentence, albeit one that would take some time in coming. But consider that a person's max exposure rate is 5R/yr, you would get about double that dose within minutes:shrug: Don't believe everything you see on TV.

Highly enriched uranium is also quite lethal. No, you won't keel over dead right away if you're toting this stuff in your pocket, but you will be getting radiation burns, sickness and death, all within aprox 2 hours. And an exposure time of just minutes would indeed condemn you to a short, painful life, only to have it ended via some really nasty cancers or similar affliction.

There is a great deal of this sort of misinformation being spread in the media, and I think that it is all part of corporate pressure to reinvigorate the nuclear industry in this country. It was shut down with the TMI incident, and no new reactors have been built since. GE(parent corporation of MSNBC) is a big player in the nuclear industry, and they are chomping at the bit to start making money building new reactors.

[maddezmom]

7. Russian: Georgia uranium was weapons-grade

MOSCOW - A top official at a Russian state scientific institute confirmed Friday that Georgia had sent Russia a sample of uranium allegedly seized in a sting operation and that it was weapons-grade, Russian news agencies reported.

However, Igor Shkabura, deputy director of the Bochvar Inorganic Materials Institute, said the size of the sample provided by Georgia was too small to determine its origin, the RIA-Novosti and ITAR-Tass news agencies said.

Shkabura's statement was the first public comment by a named Russian official to claims by Georgia that it arrested and jailed a Russian man last year for trying to sell weapons-grade uranium to an agent posing as a rich foreign buyer.

The reports that emerged Wednesday, confirmed by U.S. officials, raised renewed concern about security at Russia's array of nuclear facilities. Shkabura said the uranium sent by Georgia "could be used for military productions, including nuclear weapons," according to ITAR-Tass.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070126/ap_on_re_eu/russia_uranium_sting