Drudge: WashPost to report US/Russian Team Seize 37-lbs of Highly Enriched Uranium ...

Drudge Report of WashPost ^ | Dec 23, 2003 | Drudge

[mikegi]

US/Russian Team Seize 37-Pounds Highly Enriched Uranium from Bulgarian Plant, WASH POST Planning To Report On Weds... Developing...

[JustPiper]

Angel please ping me if Drudge ever actually puts a story with this, this is the third blurb today, all different & important stories, he has yet to link to anything more

[Kozak]

Was not Fermi's work on a controlled nuclear reaction? The bomb is anything but.

Actually it's very controlled. You want the reaction to occur over the target, not before...

[Central Scrutiniser]

Howard Dean: "The Seizure of 37 lbs of highly enriched uranium that could be used in a devastating bomb that could kill many thousands, does not make America safer..."

God, I hope he is the Dem nominee...

[Angelus Errare]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25861-2003Dec23?language=printer

[Prime Choice]

Actually it's very controlled. You want the reaction to occur over the target, not before...

Cute. Nothing worse than (ahum) premature reaction.

[ChadGore]

37-Pounds ?!?! That's a LOT!!

[freebilly]

How much would 37 lbs. of Uranium weigh?

About the same as updoc. And what's updoc, you ask....

[freebilly]

Properly used that is enough to make a device that could level Manhattan

Will The Dark Lord, Hillary, be there...?

[Bon mots]

If it were plutonium, it would take even less...
The photo above is of the "Davy Crockett", good old US technology from 1954. The actual bomb itself is just the little "bomb-shaped" piece at the front. The rest is the launcher.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Someone is finally doing their job.

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

Always, screen trash from across the borders! Especially the ones from the un-profiled centuries past!

up-yours muslamie faggot!

SCREW MECCA.....

MECCA =S@#T

:) RILV

[AdmSmith]

No, this an inflated report. This operation was just rutine and this is not weapon grade, just 36 percent enriched, so it can not be used in a bomb without further enrichment.

Furthermore, it is less than the critical mass required, i.e. not sufficient for a terrorist group to manufacture a bomb.

[Boot Hill]

Prime Choice says:   "...encasing it all in a U-238 shell so that the fusion reaction will saturate the U-238 with free neutrons, thus changing it to Plutonium..."

Not going to happen. The U-239 half life is ~24 minutes and the Np-239 half life is ~2.4 days, meaning that the process of converting the U-238 to Pu-239 takes far longer to complete than the nanoseconds needed for the fission and fusion to be completed.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas...

--Boot Hill

[eno_]

I just saw a mock up of one of those in the "heavy weapons" gallery at the West Point museum. The explanatory note said something like "by 1970 the limitations of the Davey Crocket were clear and it was withdrawn." Like, having it only (at most) 2000 yards away when it goes BANG? Ya think?

That picture make it look like a rocket. The one at West Point was described as being launched from a recoilless rifle of about 150mm IIRC. The person in the background also make the supercaliber part look bigger than it really is. The one I saw was definitely hand luggage size.

[Prime Choice]

I beg to differ. The first thermonuclear bomb detonated in 1954 was a three stage fission-fusion-fission bomb.

The core of this weapon was a fission bomb (A-Bomb) which served as the second stage's trigger. The second stage was the fusion (hydrogen) bomb comprised of deuterium and tritium (which, when exposed to the high temperatures of the fission reaction, yielded helium and high-energy neutrons).

The third stage was a shell of U-238 which, as a direct result of the high-speed neutrons from the fusion reaction, did undergo fission, albeit sans chain reaction.

The consequence: sufficient energy to cause fission of the uranium nuclei in the outer (third) shell increased the explosive yield and also contributed appreciably to the radioactivity of the fallout.

[Boot Hill]

Prime Choice says:   "I beg to differ...The third stage was a shell of U-238 which, as a direct result of the high-speed neutrons from the fusion reaction, did undergo fission, albeit sans chain reaction.."

You may very well be fissioning the U-238 shell, but that is different than your contention in post #58 were you claimed that "the fusion reaction will saturate the U-238 with free neutrons, thus changing it to Plutonium".

The fact is that it is not physically possible to convert U-238 to plutonium in the manner you suggest, because there is not nearly enough time for that process to occur before the fission/fusion process is complete.

--Boot Hill

[Cate]

My best guess of where it came from and who it originally belongs to. I think the title should read that the US TEAM TOOK THIS FROM THE RUSSIAN TEAM. My money is that the Russians own it and got caught, and we, thru a backdoor negotiation, are saying that a US/Russian team found it. And then Putin will speak up next week and agree to drop the Iraqi debt. Wow- how was that for a conspiracy theory?

[Prime Choice]

You may very well be fissioning the U-238 shell, but that is different than your contention in post #58 were you claimed that "the fusion reaction will saturate the U-238 with free neutrons, thus changing it to Plutonium".

I'm not sure what you're argument is here. As you did point out, when U-238 has an additional neutron introduced, it becomes U-239 which decays into Neptunium-239 which in turn decays into Plutonium (Pu-239).

I'm getting the sense that you're only arguing with the dumbing-down I did for those who aren't familiar with things nuclear.

[Boot Hill]

Prime Choice says:   "I'm not sure what you're argument is here. As you did point out, when U-238 has an additional neutron introduced, it becomes U-239 which decays into Neptunium-239 which in turn decays into Plutonium (Pu-239)."

My point is really quite simple. Yes, under neutron bombardment U-238 will convert to Pu-239, but not in nearly enough time to become part of the fission/fusion reaction, as you claimed it would in post #58.

--Boot Hill

[Prime Choice]

My point is really quite simple. Yes, under neutron bombardment U-238 will convert to Pu-239, but not in nearly enough time to become part of the fission/fusion reaction, as you claimed it would in post #58.

Um...here's what I wrote in #58:

"Don't forget deuterium...and an order of magnitude more sophistication in detonation timing...plus the core fission bomb to generate enough heat to start the fusion reaction...and, just for color, try it in a fission-fusion-fission configuration by encasing it all in a U-238 shell so that the fusion reaction will saturate the U-238 with free neutrons, thus changing it to Plutonium which is then scattered across several miles."

Please point out where I said it became "part of the fission/fusion reaction." As I plainly stated, the resulting plutonium would be scattered. Doesn't say a thing about it being "part of the fission/fusion reaction."

Are we going to ping-pong this dialogue the whole day now? It was boring two messages ago.