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...

[Boot Hill]

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

[Prime Choice]

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.

[Boot Hill]

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

[risk]

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.

[FreeAtlanta]

How much would 37 lbs. of Uranium weigh? - lol! good one. I bet the avg. lib couldn't get that one right! :-)

[Brilliant]

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.

[1Old Pro]

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.

[snopercod]

The Beryllium/Polonium combination emits neutrons to help get the reaction started.

[mvpel]

Dirty bomb? Highly-enriched uranium is what they used in the Little Boy nuclear bomb that devastated Hiroshima.

[RussianConservative]

If politicians not spinning then they not working.

[TexKat]

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.

[Lazamataz]

How much would 37 lbs. of Uranium weigh?

37 lbs.

[riri]

37 lbs, 2 oz if you count the box it's in?!?

[Lazamataz]

"37 lbs, 2 oz if you count the box it's in?!?"

Contents may have settled during shipping.

[RadiationRomeo]

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.

[sarasota]

I will now sleep content!

[RussianConservative]

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.

[RussianConservative]

Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?

[Southack]

"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...

[Grampa Dave]

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.