POLICE SEIZE SMUGGLED RUSSIAN ENRICHED URANIUM IN ISTANBUL

deutsche presse via email, no url | 8/16/5

[NativeNewYorker]

Ankara (dpa) - Turkish police have arrested and charged two people with attempting to smuggle nuclear materials after they were allegedly found trying to sell 173 grams of enriched uranium smuggled from Russia, Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday.

The two men were arrested in the Istanbul suburb of Harem trying to sell the enriched uranium to undercover police officers for 7 million U.S. dollars, according to a statement released by customs police.

The men were later charged with smuggling nuclear materials.

Anadolu quoted police sources as saying that the uranium seized was enough to power New York City for a year.

Investigations by the Turkish Nuclear Energy Agency found that the enriched uranium was of medium-grade.

[Americanexpat]

Was the 173 grams just the enticer to prove they actually had the stuff and could deliver. Thought I remembered reading another thread a few months ago about the some guys in Turkey doing the same thing, only it was a lesser amount I believe.

[Paleo Conservative]

half-life meaning, that any location where this was scattered would be contaminated for that amount of years?

No, half the atoms would have decayed in that period.

[Paleo Conservative]

This amount is useful only for a dirty bomb.

Uranium would not be that useful for a dirty bomb. It's not very radioactive. It's daughter products ar much more radioactive, but you'd have to have a much larger amount of uranaium to have to worry about daughter products. Unless you have a water well that gets its water from an aquifer with a whole bunch of uranium or have a poorly ventiated house near a source of uranium you wouldn't get much exposure to its daughter products. Plutonium, spent nuclear fuel, or radioisotopes from medical equipment would be much better components for a dirty bomb.

[mikegi]

Uranium would not be that useful for a dirty bomb. It's not very radioactive. It's daughter products ar much more radioactive, but you'd have to have a much larger amount of uranaium to have to worry about daughter products...

Unfortunately, all that's meaningless once the MSM starts covering a "dirty bomb" attack. AQ detonates a small explosive with some radioactive material in it, then sits back and laughs while their useful idiots in the MSM do 99.9% of the terrorizing for them.

[RSmithOpt]

Nope. If you scatter 6 oz. of U-234 on a city block, in 247,000 you still have 3 oz. of radioactive U-234.

[bitt]

:(

shiver....

[theFIRMbss]

>POLICE SEIZE SMUGGLED RUSSIAN ENRICHED URANIUM IN ISTANBUL

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night

Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you've a date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works
That's nobody's business but the Turks

Istanbul (Istanbul)
Istanbul (Istanbul)

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
Why they changed it I can't say
People just liked it better that way

Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works
That's nobody's business but the Turks

So take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works
That's nobody's business but the Turks

[Paleo Conservative]

Nope. If you scatter 6 oz. of U-234 on a city block, in 247,000 you still have 3 oz. of radioactive U-234.

Assuming you could ever get your hands on that much U-234. U-235 is less than 1% of natural uranium. U-234 if it even exists in natural uranium deposits is only in trace amounts.

[7thOF7th]

Just a "simple" matter of scraping the top three feet of hundreds of acres of land off and burying it in Yucca Flats for say a million and a half years. No problem! (sarc)

[bayourod]

Or that it doesn't have to be refrigerated?

[evets]

Pssst... wanna buy some uranium?

[rapture-me]

Nope. If you scatter 6 oz. of U-234 on a city block, in 247,000 you still have 3 oz. of radioactive U-234.

And in 494,000 years you would have 1.5 oz. & in 741,000 years you would have .75 oz. & in 988,000 years you would have 3/8 oz. etc.....

[Eagles Talon IV]

Great tune. I have their "best of" CD.

[Cboldt]

In other words, this stuff would remain potent for a long long time.

"Potency" and "half-life" are opposing notions. Potency being the amount of radiation released per unit of time. There is a limited number of atoms to decay in a given mass. If the half life is long, that means that a given atom isn't likely to spontaneously decay.

Isotopes with short half lives are "hot" naturally. Isotopes with long half-lives can be brought to a critical mass and caused to decay "prematurely." This is what is referred to as thermonuclear fission, aka "kaboom" of "make electricity" if controlled.

"Contamination" is also a relative term, as we are bombarded by natural radiation.

http://www.uic.com.au/nip17.htm <- Homework reading

[RSmithOpt]

Good point. I was just thinking about the pure elements, that's all. ;)

[Feiny]

I used to love that song.....

[glock rocks]

Thank you.

[aculeus]

More details ...


http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/nuke-weapons/nonproliferation/39468.html