[DBrow]

"The dangerous form of unranium is isotope 238, not 235."

BillyBob, you have it backwards. U238 is less radioactive and has a longer half-life than U235. U238 cannot support a chain reaction (nuclear explosion) and U235 can- which is why they separarate U235 from the U238. The 235 goes into bombs and the 238 goes into aircraft ballast weights, shielding for irridium radiography sources, and Warthog tank-killer munitions. There is lots more 238 than 235.

Even then uranium is not that radioactive. I used U238 bricks for shielding in a cobalt-60 cell and each brick was about 5 mREM per hour, not hot compared to dental X-rays.

A dirty bomb made up of a delayed critical U235 assembly would be quite dangerous, though.

[Smogger]

Uranium 235 and other goodies can be acquired at the Turkish Nuclear Bazar:

The 18 incidents are listed reverse chronological order.
CNS cannot confirm the veracity of these reports.
Click on date of incident for details and sources.

Material(s) seized	Date of Incident	Origin of Material(s)	Reported Destination	Location of Seizure	Suspects
“A certificate for the purchase of U-235;” 2.4kg lead  container with U-235; exact quantity of uranium in the container not reported	28 May 1999	Moldova	Not reported	Dounav Most, Bulgaria  (Bulgarian-Turkish Border)	One Turkish national
100g enriched uranium or 5g uranium	2 Feb 1999	Azerbaijan	Greece	Bursa, Turkey	Four Turkish nationals
4.5kg "nonactive" solid uranium and 6g "active" plutonium	7 Sep 1998	Russia or Ulba Metallurgy  Plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan	Not reported	Istanbul, Turkey	Four Turkish national, three Kazakh nationals (including a Kazakh army colonel), and one Azerbaijani national
13 cylinders of uranium marked "UPAT UKA3 M8"	1 Jul 1998	Iran	Istanbul, Turkey	Van, Turkey	Five Turkish nationals and one Iranian national
850g uranium dioxide	26 May 1997	Not reported	Not reported	Bursa, Turkey	Four individuals (nationality not reported)
osmium (quantity not reported)	1 Apr 1997	Romania	Not reported	Turkey	Three individuals (nationality not reported)
509g "raw" uranium	4 Mar 1997	Georgia	Not reported	Ipsala, Edirne, Turkey	Three Turkish nationals
17g low-enriched uranium	Mar 1996	Golcuk, Kocaeli, Turkey	Not reported	Antalya, Turkey	Eleven individuals (nationality not reported)
20kg uranium	Mar 1996	Russia	Not reported	Antalya, Turkey	Five Turkish nationals
1.2kg uranium or  1.128kg uranium	26 Jan 1996	Georgia	Libya	Yalova, Turkey	Two Turkish nationals
12g highly enriched uranium	22 Jan 1996	Georgia	Libya	Zurich, Switzerland	One Turkish national
1.7kg "red mercury" and 1kg "black mercury"	24 May 1995	Not reported	Turkey	Constanta, Romania	Two Turkish nationals and three Romanian nationals
750g weapons-grade or enriched U-238	19 Oct 1994	Baku, Azerbaijan	Turkey	Istanbul, Turkey	One Azerbaijani national
12kg uranium	19 Jul 1994	Unspecified country of the FSU	Not reported	Istanbul, Turkey	Seven Turkish nationals
uranium (quantity not reported)	22 Apr 1994	Not reported	Russia	Istanbul, Turkey	One Turkish national, one Azerbaijani national, and a Russian national
4.5kg uranium	27 Nov 1993	Not reported	Not reported	Bursa, Turkey	Three Georgian nationals
2.5kg uranium enriched to 2.5-3.5 percent U-235	5 Oct 1993	Russia	Iran	Gayrettepe, Istanbul, Turkey	Four Turkish nationals and four Iranian nationals (suspected secret service agents)
6kg enriched uranium	Mar 1993	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Istanbul, Turkey	Not reported	Not reported

* For sources and further details, see Sandi Arnold, "Factsheet on Reported Nuclear Trafficking Incidents Involving Turkey, 1993-1999," July 1999, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies.

[Congressman Billybob]

D*mn. I'm dealing from memory from Bill Porter's advanced physics class in 1960, but I was sure the U-238 was the nasty stuff, not the U-235. I know I'm right about the flourine gas diffusion, since it was such a fascinating way of solving a problem that had no chemical solution.

Thanks for the correction. I'm a bit embarrassed by the mistake. I was the second-ranked physics student in all of Mryland, Virginia, Delaware and D.C. in 1960. Other than a few touchups in college, I've been away from the subject for 39 years. We all get rusty.

Billybob