Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

INL specialists left plutonium in their car. In the morning, it was gone
www.idahostatesman.com ^ | July 16, 2018 | By Patrick Malone And R. Jeffrey Smith

Posted on 07/16/2018 1:21:39 PM PDT by Red Badger

Two security experts from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory drove to San Antonio, Texas, in March 2017 with a sensitive mission: to retrieve dangerous nuclear materials from a nonprofit research lab there.

Their task was to ensure that the radioactive materials did not fall into the wrong hands on the way back to Idaho, where the government maintains a stockpile of nuclear explosive materials for the military and others.

To ensure they got the right items, the specialists from Idaho brought radiation detectors and small samples of dangerous materials to calibrate them: specifically, a plastic-covered disk of plutonium, a material that can be used to fuel nuclear weapons, and another of cesium, a highly radioactive isotope that could potentially be used in a so-called “dirty” radioactive bomb.

But when they stopped at a Marriott hotel just off Highway 410, in a high-crime neighborhood filled with temp agencies and ranch homes, they left those sensors on the back seat of their rented Ford Expedition. When they awoke the next morning, the window had been smashed and the special valises holding these sensors and nuclear materials had vanished.

More than a year later, state and federal officials don’t know where the plutonium — one of the most valuable and dangerous substances on earth — is. Nor has the cesium been recovered.

(Excerpt) Read more at idahostatesman.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 201703; calibrationsamples; cesium; isolatedincidents; oops; plutonium
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-48 last
To: Yaelle

“;^)


41 posted on 07/16/2018 3:20:08 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Take a look out there folks. Can you see evidence of a Left Wing Hate Group, perhaps fascist too?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

If no urban youths turned up cooked from radiation exposure it was no mere smash and grab in fact it sounds oddly like the suspicious “thefts” of laptops that have occurred over the course of attempts to investigate associates of Hillary Clinton, implication being that it was not in fact a theft but a drop.


42 posted on 07/16/2018 3:20:24 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fido969

You mean the degaussers?


43 posted on 07/16/2018 3:28:46 PM PDT by CJ Wolf (Free)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Fido969

Now that you mention it I-remember the pacemaker. The eraser not so much


44 posted on 07/16/2018 3:31:14 PM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Any reason they couldn’t simply rent a vehicle that has a TRUNK? Or is that asking too much?


45 posted on 07/16/2018 4:29:11 PM PDT by BobL (I drive a pick up truck because it makes me feel like a man)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hal ogen

Their bonus was selling it to the highest bidder, just a thought.


46 posted on 07/16/2018 9:25:13 PM PDT by Guardian Sebastian (God Bless President Trump and Keep Him Safe)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: BobL

It’s a guy thing.................


47 posted on 07/17/2018 6:07:49 AM PDT by Red Badger (July 2018 - the month the world discovered the TRUTH......Q Anon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: Hoffer Rand

I am thinking no government employee with an expense account would be frugal and miss an opportunity to stay in a hotel in a low crime area.


48 posted on 09/14/2019 6:20:51 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-48 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson