Radioactive Materials Missing in Georgia

AP ^

[Dallas]

TBILISI, Georgia --

Three small containers containing radioactive materials are missing from a Georgian military base, officials confirmed Monday.

The containers of cesium-137 disappeared in December from the Vaziani military base in this former Soviet republic, military prosecutor Mamuk Tsaav said. Authorities don't know exactly when the materials disappeared, so they have been unable to determine who was on guard duty at the time.

Georgian officials did not say how much of the material was stolen or whether it was high-grade. Cesium-137 has a number of industrial and medical applications. It is often cited as one of the most likely substances that could be used in a so-called "dirty bomb," in which a conventional explosive device spreads radioactive material.

Soso Kakushadze, head of the radiation security department of the Georgian Environment Ministry, said his department learned of the theft Monday and sent in experts but they were not allowed on the base.

Kakushadze said the containers held calibrated instruments fueled by cesium. The instruments are used to measure radiation levels.

Since the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991, there have been numerous thefts and attempts to smuggle out radioactive materials.

[The_Victor]

I am reminded of a Tom Lerher (sp?) song called "Who's Next?".

Last line of the song goes:

We'll all try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb.
Who's next, who's next, who's next?

[MHGinTN]

I wonder if the stolen truck of boric acid would be used to shield the transport of this material to the target here in America?

[Stand_Up]

Cs137. This is commonly used in scientific time keeping and frequency standard instruments.

[jgrubbs]

I used to put a penny on the ground and come back later in the day to see how fast the Kudzu would grow.

[SeeRushToldU_So]

....Vaziani military base

Uh, I don't recognize this base. It must be up North in the hills.

[KSCITYBOY]

The country of Georgia has a Islamic jihadist problem..


The world has the same problem. As for the material I pray it is found before terrorist use it.

[L`enn]

Bingo. We have not laid a good thumping on the various piss-ants that jab their thumbs in our eyes since WWII and we are reaping the benefits. Of all the huff-and-puff the US does, very little gets turned into positive force. The problem is not that we are bullies, but they have no fear of us. They need to get some fear forthrightly. Even when one of our allies gets some cajones (Israel) we bind their balls up with rubber bands hoping we might get liked as "honest- brokers" . New-flash! IT AIN'T WORKING! Time to make it work and ignore the pacifism incitors and create some fear. The peace maggots just might end up cowering theirselves back into the corner that they belong. We may just get some order out of the equation

[Ichneumon]

We'll all try to stay serene and calm When Alabama gets the bomb.

Historical note: At the time this song was written and released (1965), this line was even funnier, because it was obviously a reference to the confrontational Governor of Alabama at the time, George Wallace. Wallace was then famous for his "stand in the schoolhouse door" two years earlier, where he personally blocked two black students from entering a school to which they had been assigned by federally-mandated desegregation. Wallace's speech at that time sidestepped the racial issues and focussed on the unconstitutionality of federal interference in state matters.

Lehrer's line about being nervous over the prospect of "Alabama getting the bomb" was a joke about what Wallace might do in his war against the feds if he had his own nuclear weapons, and a wry observation that if any governor might actually *want* a bomb, it would be Wallace.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Very funny comments about Georgia... but on a more serious note, check this out ~from Free Republic~ posted in 1999 (the "Clinton-Gore" Administration):

Finding Russia's Lost Radioactive Luggage
Suitcase nukes may be in the hands of America's enemies

Crime/Corruption Opinion (Published) Keywords: TERRORISM
Source: The National Post
Published: Dec 21, 1999 Author: Deroy Murdoch
Posted on 12/21/1999 10:17:20 PST by Jumanji
Tuesday, December 21, 1999
Deroy Murdock
National Post

RADIOACTIVE LUGGAGE: Eighty-four Soviet-era 10-kiloton nuclear weapons transported in suitcases have disappeared, and the U.S. doesn't seem to care.

What could be more devastating than two jars of nitroglycerine and more than 100 pounds of other explosives smuggled across the Canada-U.S. border by a suspected Algerian terrorist? Try a suitcase-sized atomic bomb. Better yet, try 84 of them.

According to Curt Weldon, a Republican congressman, the former Soviet Union produced 132 10-kiloton suitcase nukes. Today, Russia can account for only 48. Where are the other 84? The Clinton-Gore administration doesn't know and, outrageously, doesn't seem to care.

Many hawks correctly advocate a ballistic missile defence system to protect the United States from incoming nuclear rockets. These could be launched deliberately or accidentally by Russia, China, Pakistan or by smaller renegade nations such as North Korea, Iraq or, someday, maybe even Iran. If an ICBM hurtled toward San Diego, Denver or Washington, for instance, Americans could do little more than click on the carnage on CNN..... [etc.]

[myrabach]

...again

[Robert A Cook PE]

No.

Boric acid (boron actually) absorbs nuetrons rather strongly, but against gamma rays (emitted by the Cesium) it's only slightly more effective that plain water.

I don't remember the energy of the gammas emitted by Cs137, but suspect that the "truck walls" would greatly attentuate the rays.

Not all gamma's are highly energetic; some just barely get through paper and skin cells.

Other gamma rays get through several feet of lead and concrete. Your dose depands on time exposed, energy you're exposed to, and closeness and quantity (nbr of rays actually getting into your body: in this case, the amount (quantity emitted) is very low.)

Example: you can a tremendous quantity of low energy rays, and get little effect.

Or have a huge quantity of high-energy rays, but be a long way away (several hundred feet) and shielded by a building or small hill, and get almost no dose.

Or be very close to a very small source and get very little effect: a few micrograms in your pocket for a few minutes isn't going to emit "enough" in a short period of time to matter.

[Darksheare]

"I'll make you squeal.."
That's an image that brings fear to my heart..

[Jordo]

Cs-137 is commonly used in laboratories to calibrate radiation detectors. Small Cs-137 calibration sources are sealed in plexiglas; the Cs can't get out, but the radiation can. A few facts I looked up (not willing to trust my memory for the numbers):

Cs-137 half-life is 30 years. It decays by emitting beta particles (electrons), yielding barium-137. Ba-137 is not radioactive.

Approximately 6.5% of the time, Cs-137 decays to the lowest-energy state of Ba-137, so the electron (approximately 1.2 MeV energy) is all you get. About 93.5% of the time, the Cs-137 decays to the 0.662 MeV excited state of Ba-137. That excited state has a half-life of 2.55 minutes, and decays mostly to the lowest-energy state, emitting a gamma ray of 0.662 MeV energy. Other, lower-energy gamma rays are emitted less often.

That 0.662 MeV gamma ray is what makes Cs-137 a useful calibration standard.

Typical laboratory Cs-137 sources have a strength of a few microcuries. Since the article above didn't tell us how much went missing, we have no clue whether it is dangerous or not. 10 microcuries in a sealed source would be pretty harmless. A curie would be very dangerous without serious precautions.

[The_Reader_David]

As I understand it, old Soviet make nuclear weapons did not have nearly as highly enriched fissionable material as American ones. It was thus necessary to "recharge" them periodically with new fissionable material--particularly delicate ones like suitcase bombs which work by using shaped charges to compress what would normally be a subcritical mass into a small enough space to yield a chain reaction.

Probably the 84 bombs, now useful only as source of radioactive material for dirty bombs, have been sold for a handsome sum, and some ex-KGB types are living it up on the proceeds.

Doubtless in the days before 9/11 the knowledge that they didn't have a long shelf-life as nukes was the reason for the Clintonista's sanguine attitude (You can't get your VP or wife elected if a major city full of your supports has been nuked on your watch, so even though they didn't give a damn about anything except their own powere, Clinton et al. would have cared if they believed them workable.)

The trouble is, plutonium makes an even nastier dirty bomb than cesium, so now, even in their decayed state, they are definitely something to worry about.

[rs79bm]

Radioactive Materials Missing in Georgia

What, you mean Ted Turner left?

[TexConfederate1861]

Do you mean the "Peoples Republic of Atlanta"..hehe :)

[Robert A Cook PE]

The original documents (real world, not newspaper "summary")are not available, but indicated that the radioactive sources are intended to be portable (carried with or kept with the detector for calibration (as you indicated, using the low energy)).

Thus, I believe these sources are the tiny, low energy ones.