Uranium find in Russian dump

[emad]

The Times
Jeremy Page reports from Moscow
Tramps who found radioactive material and tried to sell it sparked security alert


Snip
RUSSIAN security forces have seized two containers full of highly radioactive uranium-238 that were found by tramps at a waste dump in central Russia and taken to a scrapyard to sell. Radiation levels at the dump in Saratov, a town on the River Volga, were 358 times higher than normal, officials said.

Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is usually found, can be used to make nuclear “dirty bombs”. The find will renew fears that radioactive material at dozens of poorly-guarded sites around Russia might fall into the hands of terrorist groups.

The United States and other countries have been pressing Russia, which has the world’s second biggest nuclear arsenal, to do more to protect its atomic sites since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

One of the few points on which President Bush and his election challenger, Senator John Kerry, agreed in recent television debates was that the possibility of terrorist groups acquiring nuclear material was the biggest threat to the United States.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1319505,00.html

[LibLabUK]

1. Quality science reporting from The Times... not!

"Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is usually found, can be used to make nuclear “dirty bombs”. "

The paper's science editor has been smoking something recently, the quality of the science in The Times is now just barely above that of The Sun.

[shaolinmonkey]

3. Uranium 238 is the most common isotope of Uranium.

Uranium 235 is the stuff used in reactors and bombs and very, very difficult to purify.

Not that it's a good idea to leave it laying around in a dump.

[LibLabUK]

4. The article says...

that you can use depleted uranium to make a radiological dirty bomb.

This really isn't the case.

That's what I was suggesting was bad reporting.

[emad]

5. Radiological dirty bombs can be made with any radioactive

material. Collection, storage and redeployment of depleted uranium may be technically feasible but only with the right expertise.

[shaolinmonkey]

6. Sorry for the confusion, I wasn't suggesting you were wrong,

just posting a fact for other folks. People hear "Uranium" and get freaked. I think U238, as far as your radiological materials go, is pretty stable.

[Heyo]

7. You could I s'pose..

... but the radiation levels would only be enough to make some geiger counters click a bit... not much else.

For people who don't understand the science though, it could cause mass panic.

Heyo

[reprobate]

9. Here you are talking about the great mass of americans.

[clydefrand]

2. But I only heard Kerry say he was concerned about

nuclear proliferation...and this certainly falls into that category IMHO.

Those poor people who found it are now damned to have radiation sickness/cancer in addition to having to look through the dump for their needs.

[LibLabUK]

8. Hmm

"Those poor people who found it are now damned to have radiation sickness/cancer"

Not necessarily, it would depend on their exposure.

[Javaman]

10. Dirty bombs...

If there actually ever is a dirty nuke used, basically, it's more of a psychological weapon. Unlike fallout which can be breathed in, unless the dirty nuke is highly sophisticated, it will do little physical harm. The actual blast from the bomb that scatters the material will probably do more damage. People hear nuclear material and that's all they have to know to be scared.
The reality is, if one was detonated, it would be localized. It's not a large scale weapon. Clean up would be relatively quick, but the mental affects would last a lifetime.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. And * cut funding to the program that tracked Russian nuclear

material?

Boy, doesn't this make him look silly.