U.S. unable to account for 16,000 kilograms of exported enriched uranium

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story
By Eric W. Dolan



The United States could only account for 1,160 out of 17,500 kilograms of Highly-Enriched Uranium (HEU) -- weapon-usable nuclear material -- exported to 27 countries in response to a 1992 congressional mandate, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last week.

"The world today is dramatically different than when most U.S. nuclear cooperation agreements were negotiated," the report said. "Many new threats have emerged, and nuclear proliferation risks have increased significantly."

In another disquieting revelation, the GAO pointed out that in the 55 visits from 1994 through 2010, U.S. teams found that countries who received nuclear components met international security guidelines only about 50 percent of the time.

"The agencies have not systematically visited countries believed to be holding the highest proliferation risk quantities of U.S. nuclear material, or systematically revisited facilities not meeting international physical security guidelines in a timely manner," the GAO report warned.

More at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/13/u-s-unable-to-account-for-exported-enriched-uranium/

[FiveGoodMen]

1. So, over 17 tons of it

What could possibly go wrong?

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

2. Maybe climate change is not the most important issue.

Hmm.

[Countdown_3_2_1]

3. Translation: Its part of a secret operation.

And you'll never know where it went.
Just your friendly National Security have some radioactive fun.

[TheWraith]

6. Uh, no. Read the article.

In this context "can't account for" means "we haven't checked on it," not "we don't know where it is."

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. What could go wrong????

:nuke:

[gratuitous]

5. Yes, yes, all very disturbing, I'm sure

Now, please take off your shoes before we let you board this flight. You don't want to be the victim of some terrorist attack, do you?

[Esra Star]

7. It is probably necessary to at least read all of page 2

in the GAO report

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11920.pdf