Turkish police seize weapons-bound uranium

Ireland Online ^

[eabinga]

Turkish police seize weapons-bound uranium 28/09/2002 - 11:04:38

Paramilitary police in Turkey have seized 15.7 kilograms of uranium and arrested two Turks who they said planned to sell the weapons-grade substance, the Anatolia news agency reported today.

Police, acting on a tip, stopped a taxi near the south-eastern city of Sanliurfa, Anatolia said. They found the uranium in a secret compartment under one of the car seats.

Police in Sanliurfa confirmed the arrests but refused to give further information.

Anatolia said the uranium was enriched for use in weapons. Police believe it was smuggled from an eastern European country.

The agency did not say when the arrests were made.

Sanliurfa, 480 miles from the capital Ankara, is close to the Syrian border.

[eabinga]

Curiosity: What does Turkey do with the uranium they have seized in this incident, and in prior seizures?

Now that is a really good question!

[piasa]

Good question. Since they're a NATO country and have had our nuke missiles in their country before, it's not something I'm worried about if it's in their hands.

[JimSEA]

Now is the time to discuss the economy -- with a smoking hole in place of NCY or Washington perhaps. What would the death of 500,000 + citizens and a major city do to the Democratic hold on the Senate? That is the really important issue. (/sarcasm)

[piasa]

The Turks have a nuclear program of their own.

[R. Scott]

Re: post 23
If NYC or DC were hit, the dems would lose a lot of voters.

[Imal]

Gee. Who could possibly be interested in buying weapons-grade uranium in that part of the world?

[piasa]

fyi

[Nita Nuprez]

<< What I recall offhand is 1 kilogram of fissile material equal one kiloton of explosion... >>

How many kilotons did we drop on Japan? Anyone?

[piasa]

fyi

[Ed_NYC]

Nicknamed 'Little Boy’—a reference to Roosevelt—the bomb was 3 m. (9 ft. 9 in.) long, used uranium 235, had the power of 12.5 kilotons of TNT, and weighed 3,600 kg. (nearly 8,000 lb.).

[johnny7]

What would the death of 500,000 + citizens and a major city do to the Democratic hold on the Senate?

But didn't you hear Senator Byrd stress that we didn't have the money to attack Iraq?

Surely we must be fiscally prudent and sit back and wait for the next 911.

Then we can go to the UN again and ask for it's help.

RAAALLLLPHHH!!!!

[Nita Nuprez]

Thanks.

[DB]

My bet is Saddam already has at least one nuke.

I pray we don't find out the hard way.

Saddam will be a hero to 90% of the world if he successfully blows one off killing thousands of our troops. Then the Dems will be screaming it is all Bush's fault and that he shouldn't have gone in... What fools.

[ClancyJ]

Funny, we always seem to have the money for the pork he wants for his state. We always have the money to pay for another social program so that they can lure voters to support them.

What are a few more American deaths to democrats - you see they don't have the money to defend us - only the money to use to buy votes.

Very interesting to see who wants to protect American citizens and who believe American citizens can take the risk that they are correct and there is no danger.

[Cvengr]

That seems to be the pregnant question not addressed,...So what did the paramilitary police get for the uranium or is it still on the market? Might offer a mechanism to fish for terrorists. One report says 15 lbs, another 33 lbs. Likely terrorists would probably be attracted to follow such leads.

[Cvengr]

Either 20 or a 100kT in WWII, if my memory serves me correctly.

[piasa]

There's no "15 lbs," it was 15.7 kilograms.

[genefromjersey]

Enough for one weapon ??

Last I heard, critical mass was somewhere around 2 kilograms. If my recollection is correct, this is enough for 6 of the "primitive" Hiroshima-style bombs.

[NukeMan]

The U-235 content of Little Boy was < 25 Kg (55 lbs). Most of the weight was in the gun barrel and casing. It was inefficient in many ways, and todays bombs are much smaller. With a levitated, composite (both U-235 and Pu-239), spherical, reflected, implosion-driven core it would be less than 20 kg for sure.

When they say weapons-grade, I wouldn't sweat just yet. The U-235 enrichment to be useful has to be very high (probably > 50%). I wonder if they meant depleted uranium, also used in weapons for its density.

[backhoe]

They were estimated to be 20 kilotons each, but I have seen later assertations that the actual yield was less, in the 10-18 kiloton range. FWIW!