How to Listen for the Sound of Plutonium

NY Times ^ | January 31, 2006 | DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD

[neverdem]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 — In March 2004, the science and technology directorate of the Central Intelligence Agency called a secret meeting of hundreds of the government's top experts in nuclear intelligence to address a problem that had bedeviled Washington for decades: how to know, with precision, when a country is about to cross the line and gain the ability to build an atomic bomb.

The aim of the two-day conference was to reinvigorate the nation's atomic espionage efforts, not with spies on the ground or satellites in space but with a new generation of advanced technologies meant to detect the faintest clues of nuclear activity.

The meeting, said an official who attended, "was to galvanize people to say, 'We recognize this is a big problem and we need to get everybody thinking about it.' "

"There was a hope that, out of this, promising new approaches might be identified," the official continued.

The experts discussed a range of potential tools, including new ways to monitor electric power lines for the signature of high-speed centrifuges as they purify uranium and lasers that can track radioactive dust. Also on the agenda were more fanciful items, like robotic butterflies that can monitor an atomic site while appearing to flutter by innocuously.

Nearly two years later, federal officials and scientists say that meeting and other secret actions have accelerated the government's efforts to develop new atomic espionage technologies. The research focuses on better detection of four basic, but inconspicuous, signatures that covert nuclear facilities and materials can emit: distinctive chemicals, sounds, electromagnetic waves and isotopes, or forms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons, a subatomic building block.

Now, the Iranian crisis could pose a big test of how far that technology has come. On Thursday in Vienna, the board of...

[neverdem]

[flying Elvis]

I'm so glad we have the Times so we can make sure the other guys get a fair shot. :(

[lesser_satan]

In 1991, the research began focusing more intensely on uranium, the other main path to building nuclear weapons. This came about when United Nations inspectors discovered, after the gulf war, that the United States and its allies had vastly underestimated Iraq's progress on developing a uranium bomb.

?????????

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

That participant, like many other scientists and officials, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the effort's secrecy.

What will it take to make these people take seriously their secrecy obligations? Don't they think our enemies can read? The NYT takes such adolescent pride in divulging classified information, as if all of our national security secrets are nothing more than the Pentagon Papers all over again. Fools. Justice Department, pay attention.

[kcmom]

they discovered it before they didnt discover it....

[lesser_satan]

lol

[hipaatwo]

NY Slimes releases more secrets, now from the CIA.

[wideminded]

This came about when United Nations inspectors discovered, after the gulf war, that the United States and its allies had vastly underestimated Iraq's progress on developing a uranium bomb.

?????????

This is old news. After the first Gulf War, the inspectors discovered that Saddam had had most of the technology and plans he needed to build an atomic bomb. Supposedly they dismantled or destroyed everything he had. The question was whether he tried to reconstruct this in the next decade.

[lesser_satan]

This is old news.

I know. I was just amazed to see the NYT bring it up in any way, shape, or form.

[Sic Luceat Lux]

government's efforts to develop new atomic espionage technologies.

Right off-hand, I'd say simply re-examine how Clinton and the Democrats signed waivers and switched around some governing agencies areas of responsibility:

U S Congressional Record/Senate
106th Congress
June 23, 1999
pgs. S7483-S7486
The Clinton National Security Scandal and Coverup
Senator James Inhofe
(top right hand cornor)

[Sic Luceat Lux]

Good one/ exactly. bttt

[JudgemAll]

The electromagnetic is the way the North Koreans did us in. We thought their nuke powerplant produced electricity, it did not. It were consuming it. The powerlines were to it, not from it.

[neverdem]

I'm so glad we have the Times so we can make sure the other guys get a fair shot.

I'm not worrying about the basic science that should be understood with a proper high school education.

[neverdem]

The electromagnetic is the way the North Koreans did us in. We thought their nuke powerplant produced electricity, it did not. It were consuming it. The powerlines were to it, not from it.

That's quite interesting. Do you have a link?

[jwpjr]

It's arrogance and ego that make these people behave this way. They want attention and they since on their own they don't have anything that would demand attention they use what they know to get it. Somehow they have convinced themselves that if the aren't named that no damage is done. It's not who they are that requires secrecy obligations, but what they know. The delude themselves into thinking that they are the important part of the equation and a press that suffers from the same delusions of adequacy are only to happy to go along with them.

The sad thing is that by divulging this information they make it MORE like than less likely that we will have to use a lot more force to deal with our enemies.

This will stop only when one or more of these people are arrested, tried and convicted and sentenced to prison terms. The sooner we get on with that task the better. I for one would much rather see our resources being used to make those with sensitive knowledge STFU than getting six month prison terms for white collar 'criminals'. I know that white collar crime is a definite threat to us, but I consider a nuclear or biochemical attack on one of our major cities to be a much bigger threat right now.

[Anti-Bubba182]

I know the NY Times does not care in any case, but I have to believe the Iranians know all of this.