| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Dumped U-238 found in Russian scrapyard |
| 2004-10-19 |
| Edited for brevity. Russian security services seized two containers filled with highly radioactive material at a scrap yard in central Russia, Interfax news agency said on Tuesday. Radiation levels at the scene in the Volga town of Saratov, where the containers with uranium-238 were discovered, were 358 times higher than normal, Interfax said, citing regional emergency officials. Nuclear officials in Moscow could not immediately confirm the report. Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is usually found, can be theoretically used to make nuclear "dirty bombs." Interfax said homeless people brought the containers to the scrap yard. It quoted regional nuclear experts as saying officials at the scene had also found an empty container normally used to transport uranium. Uranium-238 is a highly dense and toxic material mainly used in gun ammunition and armor. "That type of uranium looks very much like lead so I would not be surprised if someone had simply mistaken it for it and dumped at the scrap yard," a spokesman for the Russian Atomic Energy Agency said. "This lead sure is pretty! Look how it glows!" |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #9 If I recall it burns pretty well. Lots of nice radioactive dust to breathe in. Your skin stops alphas nicely, but if the source is inside your lungs already . . . |
| Posted by: James 2004-10-19 10:39:32 PM |
| #8 Oh man I have to discuss this crap at work... DEPLETED means the U-235 isotope has been filtered out. It's safer than NATURAL uranium. The average human is more radioactive by an order of magnitude than processed (read DEPLETED) U-238. BAN HUMANS? It's also safer than lead. It's heavier than lead too, that's why they use it as keel ballast on ships. Imagine the average filthy rich lefty 'expert' (i.e., Theresa Heinz-Kerry) complaining about how awful DU is on a cruise ship.... |
| Posted by: Crereper Angimble7529 2004-10-19 7:09:03 PM |
| #7 But it's only slightly radioactive But, but, but... U-238 will stay radioactive practically forever! It'll only lose half its radioactivity in (digs out Rubber Bible) four and a half billion years! (The same amount of lead would of course remain toxic forever, but that's beside the point.) It's always possible that the article had the story totally garbled, and the material in question was (a) spent fuel, or (b) DU that had been used to shield a neutron source, thereby becoming Bad Stuff. |
| Posted by: Eric Wilner 2004-10-19 7:07:31 PM |
| #6 Anyone trying to build a "dirty bomb" from depleted uranium is going to end up getting laughed out of town. Depleted uranium is called "depleted" because it's just that: depleted. It's the U-238 you have left over after you've removed the U-235 reactor/bomb stuff from naturally occurring uranium, and the main danger from it is that being one of the "heavy metals", it'll screw up your chitlins something terrible if you somehow manage to ingest enough of it. But it's only slightly radioactive, and the main component of its radiation output is alpha particles, which have little penetrating power. Radiation-wise, it's about as dangerous as concrete. Steven Den Beste has some good articles on depleted uranium, with more technical info. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-10-19 6:41:27 PM |
| #5 "But, but it's uranium something or other! That's really really bad, right?" -Rooters |
| Posted by: .com 2004-10-19 6:19:02 PM |
| #4 Like SPoD said, BOOLSHEEET! |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-10-19 6:16:24 PM |
| #3 Hmmm. Depleted uranium-238. I bet a Google search for that turns up all kinds of moonbat crap before you get to the facts. Depleted means it's not to radioactive. Toxic I don't know about but I wouldn't be putting lead and lots of other things in my in my mouth either. It's as I suspsected. After a Foogle search I went through 2 and a half pages of moonbat junk science before I started seeing real science. this article lays to read what utter crap this article from Ruters is. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-19 5:38:59 PM |
| #2 Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is usually found, can be theoretically used to make nuclear "dirty bombs." Er, what? I'm not up on that theory. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2004-10-19 5:16:17 PM |
| #1 mmmmmmm luminous |
| Posted by: Shep UK 2004-10-19 3:38:28 PM |