Posted on 06/20/2007 5:48:56 AM PDT by PapaBear3625
Georgian [the country south of Russia, not the US state ] customs officers sent a car carrying a mixture of plutonium and beryllium back into Azerbaijan after foiling an attempt to smuggle the materials over the border, Georgian television reported.
Customs officials found the materials, which can be used in nuclear bombs, in what appeared to be a routine check as the car was driven over the border from Azerbaijan, the Imedi television station reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
You encounter a vehicle containing plutonium and you tell them to just turn around and go back?!?!?
Probably no HAZMAT suits at the border post.
Georgian customs officers sent a car carrying a mixture of plutonium and beryllium back to Azerbaijan after foiling an attempt to smuggle the materials over the border, Georgian television reported on Tuesday.Customs officials found the materials, which can be used in nuclear bombs, in what appeared to be a routine customs check as the car was driven over the border from Azerbaijan, the Imedi television station reported.
"Georgian customs detected a high level of radiation while checking one of the cars," Imedi reported. "They discovered plutonium-beryllium."
There were scant details about the find.
The car was sent back to Azerbaijan although smuggling nuclear materials is a crime under Georgian law. It was unclear if Azeri authorities had been informed.
"The decision to send it back was made," Soso Kakushadze, head of the environment ministry's radiation department, told Reuters.
"It was the right decision as it would have been very expensive to keep it in Georgia and special conditions are needed," he said.
Reports did not indicate where the plutonium and beryllium was from. Interior ministry officials declined to comment.
Plutonium is used in most nuclear weapons, but several kilograms are needed to make even a primitive atomic bomb.
Beryllium, a toxic metal, can be used to form a neutron initiator that triggers a nuclear explosion. It can be used to moderate nuclear reactions.
Georgian special services foiled an attempt by a Russian citizen to sell weapons-grade uranium for $1 million in Georgia in February 2006.
Radioactive materials were used to generate power in remote areas in Soviet times but during the chaos that accompanied the fall of the Soviet Union many devices were abandoned.
Ok, detain the entire car until and Nuke/Bio/Chem team can arrive. No way should that stuff been allowed to just drive off.
From the article update: "It was the right decision as it would have been very expensive to keep it in Georgia and special conditions are needed."
I get the feeling it's going to be much more expensive dealing with it down the road rather than the state it was currently in.
Border Guard: Anything to declare?
Driver: Just 5 cartons of cigarettes and a couple cases of plutonium and beryllium.
Border Guard: Sorry but we’ve got to confiscate the cigarettes.
Why would they even consider that? You do know that both countries are Islamic and the final product is intended for Russia don't you. This incident was simply a message to Russia. Very likely the words run along the lines of:
"The freedom fighters in Chechnya have new options"
Semper Fidelis
also ping to Freema
Guess they already have their own supply.
Well, it is a stronger stance than what would have been done at our border.
Agreed. You are 100% right on target.
What the hell are they thinking ? The car should have been impounded and the people arrested !
Maybe they wanted to see where the car would go once it went back?
From CIA Factbook on Georgia: Orthodox Christian 83.9%, Muslim 9.9%, Armenian-Gregorian 3.9%, Catholic 0.8%, other 0.8%, none 0.7% (2002 census)
Most likely, the car had a device with a small neutron source, like a nuclear gage of some sort. Some lead detectors have sources in them.
They may have been sent back because they didn’t have the paperwork exactly right. The border folks would have no authority to seize a commercial source.
When you want neutrons, you mix Pu and Be (most likely Pu238, used as an alpha source, it cannot be used in a nuke) and neutrons come out. Nicknamed PuBe sources.
PuBe sources are not too dangerous, but if you had a sensitive nuke detector at a border, you’d pick up the neutrons coming from it. The common ones are safer than a source used for weld radiography, for instance.
Journalists should learn a little science; on the other hand it’s hard to scare people with hysterical articles if you look stuff up first. Just putting the word plutonium up gets a reaction from folks.
Here is a patent that makes use of either a PuBe source, or AmBe, for borehole neutron activation logging. Lots of N borehole loggers use a neutron generating tube, this patent is for a borehole logger that uses an isotope source.
Ping to #4
“Plutonium is used in most nuclear weapons,”
Plutonium 239 is used in nukes. There are other isotopes that cannot be used at all in explosives, but have industrial uses.
The quoted statement is akin to saying that cow patties can be used to make a fertilizer bomb, like the one that almost collapsed the World Trade Center.
Dirty bomb requires much smaller amounts to pollute or contaminate, so even small amounts can be deadly in terrorist hands.
Also EMP (electro-magentic pulse bombs) I believe can use smaller amounts but would like to hear more from those who know.
Plutonium is it? Well, my mine produces uranium, so it wasn’t my stuff. That beryllium is tough, too, although I don’t know that it is particularly thermonuclear.
Um - that completely overlooks the "expense" of allowing them to bring it in at some other point and time under the "special conditions" of terrorists! Reminds me of Freddie Prinze character who said, "It's not my job, man!" Unbelievable!
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