[RightWhale]

Isotopes? Like tritium and deuterium?

Right, but you need to consider the problems of collecting isotopes. If they form a liquid or a solid it's not so bad, but if you get a gas it will be hard to handle. If you need to collect some iron-56 you could plate the stream onto a substrate. If you get deuterium, you will also get the gas drifting around and mixing with other gaseous isotopes. It's the kind of problem a chemist might enjoy.

[Darksheare]

Egads...
And if they DID have tritium or deuterium, they could jump straight to thermo-nukes.
(I kinda got a strange feeling that there is a nuke or so sitting in the sand there somewhere... but it's impractical to drag a 'nuke detector' allover the sand.)

I was kinda hoping I was wrong on that one RW...
*chuckle*