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Drudge: WashPost to report US/Russian Team Seize 37-lbs of Highly Enriched Uranium ...
Drudge Report of WashPost ^
| Dec 23, 2003
| Drudge
Posted on 12/23/2003 5:59:30 PM PST by mikegi
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To: Prime Choice
Prime Choice says: "
As I plainly stated, the resulting plutonium would be scattered.."
Once again, the point is that there would be NO "resulting plutonium", because the reaction of "saturate the U-238 with free neutrons, thus changing it to Plutonium" NEVER OCCURRED. There was not enough time. You need days for the U-238 to Pu-239 reaction to occur and you've only got nanoseconds in that bomb.
--Boot Hill
201
posted on
12/24/2003 4:14:08 AM PST
by
Boot Hill
(Entropy Kills!!!)
To: Boot Hill
Then perhaps you can explain the increase of explosive force and lingering radioactivity present in the aftermath of a fission-fusion-fission bomb which is not present in the fission-fusion (thermonuclear) bomb.
At your insistence, this should not be possible.
202
posted on
12/24/2003 4:18:49 AM PST
by
Prime Choice
(Americans are a spiritual people. We're happy to help members of al Qaeda meet God.)
To: Prime Choice
Prime Choice suggests: "
Then perhaps you can explain the increase of explosive force..."
Good question with an interesting answer. U-238 is not a fissile material, meaning that it is not fissionable by slow neutrons, but that doesn't mean it can't be made to fission with very energetic (high speed) neutrons. Such neutrons are created in a fusion reaction. Those energetic neutron from the fusion reaction ignite a fission reaction in the U-238 shell. No plutonium involved in that reaction.
--Boot Hill
203
posted on
12/24/2003 4:31:55 AM PST
by
Boot Hill
(Entropy Kills!!!)
To: mikegi; RussianConservative; Grampa Dave; Squantos
We did wish each other a Merry Christmas, Mr. Russian Conservative. And I think Saint Nicholas delivered us both a
Christmas present of superb anti-terrorist cooperation between Russia and the USA. It sounds like a public relations stunt to announce it in such dramatic terms, but it's better to amplify this kind of drama than face the results of failing to acquire support for continuing such efforts.
The uranium was flown aboard a Russian AN-12 cargo plane to Dimitrovgrad, in the Volga region of Ulyanovsk about 520 miles southeast of Moscow. A facility there, which is undergoing comprehensive upgrades due to be finished in the next couple of months, will blend down the uranium until it can no longer be used in a nuclear weapon, officials said. At that point, it could be sold for use in commercial nuclear power plants, officials said.
--WP article
In any case, let's hope for a very happy new year to all peoples of both of our countries, and may they each have long and free -- and healthy lives.
204
posted on
12/24/2003 5:33:12 AM PST
by
risk
To: Rebelbase
How much would 37 lbs. of Uranium weigh? - lol! good one. I bet the avg. lib couldn't get that one right! :-)
To: Bon mots
Now that I think about it, though, I suspect that what they will ultimately say is that it is "enriched" but not bomb grade. Probably the non-bomb grade material that they use in nuclear plants.
To: FreeAtlanta
How much would 37 lbs. of Uranium weigh? - lol! good one. I bet the avg. lib couldn't get that one right! :-)Now that's tricky. When you figure it out perhaps you can tell me who's buried in Grant's tomb.
207
posted on
12/24/2003 7:07:14 AM PST
by
1Old Pro
(Madeline Halfbright claims we have OBL on ice ready for display before election??!)
To: Prime Choice
The Beryllium/Polonium combination emits neutrons to help get the reaction started.
208
posted on
12/24/2003 7:07:17 AM PST
by
snopercod
(CAUTION: Do not operate heavy equipment while reading this post.)
To: mikegi
Dirty bomb? Highly-enriched uranium is what they used in the Little Boy nuclear bomb that devastated Hiroshima.
209
posted on
12/24/2003 7:08:45 AM PST
by
mvpel
(Michael Pelletier)
To: risk
If politicians not spinning then they not working.
To: Brilliant
Weapons-Grade Uranium Taken From Bulgaria By VESELIN TOSHKOV
SOFIA, Bulgaria - U.S. and Russian experts recovered 37 pounds of weapons-grade uranium enough to develop a nuclear warhead from a closed atomic facility in Bulgaria, a government official said Wednesday.
Bulgarian special police assisted in the top secret operation meant to combat nuclear terrorism, said Emil Vapirev, the head of the government agency for nuclear regulation. The United States covered the $400,000 cost for the operation, which took place earlier this week.
Though details on the mission were sketchy, Vapirev said a cache of highly enriched uranium was trucked from the Institute of Nuclear Sciences just outside the capital, Sofia, to the airport of Gorna Oryahovitsa, some 150 miles to the east. A Russian AN-12 cargo plane flew the uranium to a Russian reprocessing center to be made into commercial nuclear reactor fuel.
The highly enriched uranium would have been enough to develop a small nuclear warhead, Vapirev said.
The latest U.S.-Russian effort is part of a larger nuclear materials security program that has been given new urgency after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Experts worry that terrorists or hostile nations may get their hands on enough uranium or plutonium to build a nuclear bomb from one of hundreds of research reactors around the world.
It was the third such operation. Experts conducted a similar mission in Yugoslavia in August 2002 and in Romania, three months ago.
The United States has focused on 24 reactors in 16 countries that were built and fueled with help from the former Soviet Union. The reactors are designed to use highly enriched uranium which can also be used to make nuclear bombs to create nuclear isotopes used for medical treatments and other peaceful purposes.
Such reactors are of concern because they would offer a ready source of precisely the material needed to create a nuclear bomb and security at some of them is frighteningly lax because of cost cutting that has accompanied security measures following the collapse of communism more than a decade ago.
The research reactor in Sofia was shut down in 1989, but the uranium remained there.
211
posted on
12/24/2003 7:48:22 AM PST
by
TexKat
(Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
To: Rebelbase
How much would 37 lbs. of Uranium weigh?37 lbs.
212
posted on
12/24/2003 7:49:47 AM PST
by
Lazamataz
(BadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM.)
To: Lazamataz
37 lbs, 2 oz if you count the box it's in?!?
213
posted on
12/24/2003 7:51:04 AM PST
by
riri
To: riri
"37 lbs, 2 oz if you count the box it's in?!?"Contents may have settled during shipping.
214
posted on
12/24/2003 7:51:53 AM PST
by
Lazamataz
(BadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadgerBadger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM.)
To: Orangedog
Here's one for you guys: What weighs more, a ounce of feathers or an ounce of gold? How about a pound of feathers vs a pound of gold?.
The answers: Ounce of gold weighs more, but a pound of gold weighs less.
Why?: Gold is measured in troy ounces which is heavier than a normal ounce. But a troy pound is only 12 ounces. Now you know.
215
posted on
12/24/2003 8:05:56 AM PST
by
RadiationRomeo
(Spreading useless knowledge for 40 years.)
To: RadiationRomeo
I will now sleep content!
To: RadiationRomeo
How can pound of gold weigh different from pound of feathers (if use same standard pound?) Weight is releveant measure. Now correct question is: which have more mass: pound of gold or pound of feather? Since molecular density different, feather have more mass then gold.
To: Lazamataz
Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?
To: Prime Choice
"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"
Cough...
219
posted on
12/24/2003 8:42:24 AM PST
by
Southack
(Media bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
To: risk
Yes, lets hope that we see more joint ventures this year and in 2004 to remove the ability of terrorists to harm so many innocents.
220
posted on
12/24/2003 8:48:37 AM PST
by
Grampa Dave
(Kaddaffi, "I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq. ")
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