The U.S. Is Unable To Account For 36k Pounds Of Weapons Grade Uranium And Plutonium

Originally posted by primoaurelius
..getting arrested for trying to split atoms in his kitchen

I can't believe it.
A meltdown on his stove

This seems to fly in the face of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. There doesnt seem to be much you could be doing with this kind of material that wouldnt be against international treaties. I have a wiki that explains the premise of the treaty.

en.wikipedia.org...

So the only thing that you could use highly enriched uranium for would be weapons, naval propulsion, and research uses. Thats just what I have found on the wiki above.

en.wikipedia.org...

The second link provides information on weapons grade material of all sorts including plutonium. Plutonium , according to the sources I can locate only lists the same information as the Wiki, and provides no information on alternative uses for it.

Of all the things to worry about ,the plutonium is the more troubling due to its sole useage. There do not appear to be any research uses for it. In my opinion , handing these materials out without moment to moment tracking of the material amounts to a treaty infringement.

I could be wrong about that, but even if I am not mistaken, nothing will become of it.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Since when did the US comply with any treaty or convention? Weapons, war crimes, nuclear, they ignore them all but that doesnt stop them whining when someone else does it.

reply to post by SilentNoise
That is true, but the material could be used in a dirty nuke. It doesn't take but a few isotopes in your body to wreak havoc. If someone were to break it down into powder form, and release it from a plane or small explosive, it would be unfortunate for a great many people.....

reply to post by jamieastronaut


All the unrest, and a call of help from Israel is all the excuse we need. We will defend Israel at all costs I think. Lets just hope war does not visit our shores. We need a better excuse than Irans Nukes or some staged attack. We will have a fight with someone and Iran will come to their aid at which point it is on like donkey kong.

We must keep Russia and China out of this after all.

Originally posted by Propulsion
reply to post by SilentNoise

 

That is true, but the material could be used in a dirty nuke. It doesn't take but a few isotopes in your body to wreak havoc. If someone were to break it down into powder form, and release it from a plane or small explosive, it would be unfortunate for a great many people.....

Pitch blend (Uranium) is abundent in nature. I have no clue what keeps dirty bombs from blowing up on our shores. It is most certainly not homeland security or the patriot act.

11.9.18
the "36K lbs" goes back to the early 1950s Eisenhower administration (from the wired article
"Starting in the Eisenhower administration, the US sold 17,500 kilograms, or 38,5000 pounds, of fissile material overseas, mostly to help with civilian nuclear energy programs.
But 12,400 of those 17,500 kilograms can’t be returned. It’s mostly in the hands — and reactors — of close allies like Germany, France, and Japan." ref

This does not even begin to address the amount of lost/misplaced soviet nuclear material especially with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990. ref2

Sounds to me like the US is a threat to Israel, thus the entire world and Canada.. that missing nuke stuff could end up in the hands of terrorists!!. the obama regime is "linked" to al-queada via Libyan 'rebels'.. OMG!! (screams)...

See what happens when al-queada linked mad-men and despots control nuke material?.. where are the sanctions, demand for UN investigators, armed search of US ships.. and all that fake outrage?.. lol.

Yes.. I know, Iran is scary because they start fake wars, topple governments, support terrorists who killed 'our' heroes, and send Iranian troops 1000s of miles from Iran to occupy democracies until they accept a tribal lifestyle..

The news seems very bad on the face. But following things need to be considered.

1. Who were the recipients.
2. Over what period did this was transferred and for what purposes.

If bombs are stolen, it is very very bad.

I think uranium/plutonium decays over time (This is why they have to replace A-bomb cores). So this item is somewhat time limited.

.

reply to post by silent thunder


I think the threat that a basement nuke could be manufactured (untested), and somehow shipped into this country and all the way into a major population center is over rated. Hi yield criticality is a difficult thing to produce in your average cave, let alone evading all the security measures in place in the US.. The risk is to great that all the effort would be for naught because some bomb sniffing dog at a border crossing or ship yard hit on the hi explosives needed to provide containment. Or that some rad detector would sniff a trace of plutonium on the out side of the shipping container.

I know, I know, there are multitudes of theories regarding stolen or lost materials, production of a deployable device, and sneaking it into a major harbor or city here in the US.

But lets say all that is accomplished and the resulting mushroom cloud blooms on the horizon. The signature of the nuclear material used is like a DNA test for the source. Unique too the manufacturer, the end users would be traceable through a world wide effort to determine who produced and sold the bomb making material.

If I was a terrorist bomb maker from say Iran or Pakistan, I would think twice about exposing my entire country to the ensuing wrath of the Americans. Look what we have done over 911.

A more likely scenario to my mind is a single Nuke somewhere in the Middle East coupled with a "terrorist" suicide attack by people wandering US cities infected with Small Pox. That oughta do it.

reply to post by silent thunder
So basically, the US is now the number 1 proliferater of weapons grade nuclear material. The US is number one agent in supplying the materials for WMD to 'terrorists'. Oh lovely!

Bug above gave you the information

DOE, NRC, and State are not able to fully account for U.S. nuclear material overseas that is subject to nuclear cooperation agreement terms because the agreements do not stipulate systematic reporting of such information, and there is no U.S. policy to pursue or obtain such information. U.S. nuclear cooperation agreements generally require that partners report inventory information upon request, however, DOE and NRC have not systematically sought such data. DOE and NRC do not have a comprehensive, detailed, current inventory of U.S. nuclear material--including weapon-usable material such as highly enriched uranium (HEU) and separated plutonium--overseas that includes the country, facility, and quantity of material. In addition, NRC and DOE could not fully account for the current location and disposition of U.S. HEU overseas in response to a 1992 congressional mandate......... GTRI officials told GAO that, of the approximately 17,500 kilograms of HEU exported from the United States, 12,400 kilograms are currently not eligible for return to the United States. Specifically, GTRI reported that over 10,000 kilograms of U.S. HEU are believed to be in fuels from reactors in Germany, France, and Japan that have no disposition pathways in the United States and are adequately protected. In addition, according to GTRI, 2,000 kilograms of transferred U.S. HEU are located primarily in European Atomic Energy Community countries and are currently in use or adequately protected. GAO suggests, among other things, that Congress consider directing DOE and NRC to compile an inventory of U.S. nuclear material overseas. DOE, NRC, and State generally disagreed with GAO's recommendations, including that they conduct annual inventory reconciliations with all partners, stating they were unnecessary. GAO continues to believe that its recommendations could help improve the accountability of U.S. nuclear material in foreign countries.

Bug's reference from above

reply to post by pthena


There is a reason for that... Weapons grade plutonium and uranium have signatures that can be traced to the source of origin.

The US goverment has a team of radiological forensics experts that can trace to the source such materials in the aftermath of an attack.. If we've provided the weapons grade materials that is even easier to control, you can quickly eliminate many potential sources and look for others.

Ah, but what the hell do I know?

reply to post by Fractured.Facade

The US goverment has a team of radiological forensics experts that can trace to the source such materials in the aftermath of an attack..

And if a nuke went off somewhere, and the POTUS already had someone in mind to blame, would the forensics experts even be sent, or would they be told to just sign an already prepared report as to where it came form?

reply to post by pthena


Not that it really matters at this point in time now... But if you are willing to believe that your government is that evil, it would be more likely that they could covertly obtain such materials from the source they want to blame and see that it ended up in the hands of someone that would use it.

Really, neither will ever happen... But it is good to know that IF we were attacked with a terrorist nuke tomorrow, this team is capable of identifying the source of it.

Originally posted by silent thunderhave no accountability and the U.S. has no way to enforce control.

Safe!

Go back to bed America, your Government is in control again!

Originally posted by pthena
reply to post by Fractured.Facade

The US goverment has a team of radiological forensics experts that can trace to the source such materials in the aftermath of an attack..

And if a nuke went off somewhere, and the POTUS already had someone in mind to blame, would the forensics experts even be sent, or would they be told to just sign an already prepared report as to where it came form?

You don't see the US government giving radiation reports of what is coming over from Japan.
You don't see a radiation report of the WTC after 9/11.

they should talk to enron, i think they had a similar problem with losing stuff

reply to post by uggghhh


Good find. Any updates from authorities on this one? I mean its only the most important issue before our country:
wether or not materials and or sleeper agents are establishing cells in this country in order to wreak havoc, just like the french underground before D Day?