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The Grand Turk
Radioactive material worth $72m seized from car in Turkey
2019-07-07
Possibly this belongs on Page 1: WoT — further information will inform us.
[Jpost] Anti-smuggling and organized crime police in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
have arrested five people after 18.1 grams (0.64oz) of the highly-radioactive element californium, were found hidden in a car.

The stash was discovered hidden under the gearshift, wrapped in a plastic bag, in a car stopped in the north-western province of Bolu, and police had to cut through the upholstery to retrieve it.

Police valued the material seized at $72million.

After seizure, the bag was sent to the Ottoman Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK).

Californium was first synthesized in 1950 at the University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, by physics researchers and can be used to help start up nuclear reactors and used in nuclear weapons.

The US and Russia are the only known producers of californium, leading to questions about the origin and destination of the smuggled element. Turkey is an important smuggling route due to its proximity to Africa, Asia and Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
Posted by:trailing wife

#9  Who knows I might wind up having kids one day.

A wonderful idea, jpal. The world needs more Rantburg kids, aware of the great, big, mean world out there, and the most effective ways to deal with it.

Thank you for answering, Mullah Richard. I know that here many of the answers I would like to have are not for me to know — for a variety of reasons. But on the other hand, y’all have taught me so much that I didn’t even know could be known, putting me so far ahead on balance that I haveno complaints whatsoever. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-07-07 23:33  

#8  any thoughts you can share about the potential buyer?

Sorry, clandestine folks like that are not in my field of expertise.

I am familiar with the substance only from a physics lab standpoint (in my distant past, similar experience to AP's as to safety measures taken) and I do know that it is used in medical research and for pinpoint treatment of some forms of cancer.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2019-07-07 17:55  

#7  Who knows I might wind up having kids one day.

You poor bastard.
Posted by: Skidmark   2019-07-07 16:31  

#6  Anything that requires wearing lead lined jockey shorts to handle is off the table for me. Who knows I might wind up having kids one day.
Posted by: jpal   2019-07-07 16:18  

#5  Everyone who came in contact is dead, according to one of my acquaintances in the AEC.

Plastic bags are not enough ti contain the radiation, it appears.

Mullah Richard, any thoughts you can share about the potential buyer?

As a side note, I see that one of the moderators decided this ought to be on Page 1. My thanks for that. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2019-07-07 14:38  

#4  Hard to take this at face value.

It might have been that the Californium was part of a mixture of decay products and, say, chloride to make it into a salt.

Also, the official price of Californium 252 is about $27M per gram which, if the Californium were pure would be more like $400M.
Posted by: lord garth   2019-07-07 14:13  

#3  Smuggling this large amount in a car is suicide

We'll know when their legs start to fester and skin slough off.

I feel sorry for the cops who found it, too.

Heard about this last week. Everyone who came in contact is dead, according to one of my acquaintances in the AEC.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2019-07-07 13:42  

#2  PIMF. lawn
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2019-07-07 13:06  

#1  Holy smoke!!!!! Californium 252 is a real neutron emitter. 1 microgram emits 2.3 MILLION neutrons per second! In my nuclear physics class at UC Berkeley we went to the radiation lab and viewed 3 micrograms of Californium dissolved in hydrochloric acid. Th chamber was 8 ft below the ground and saw the beaker and remote controls behind a window with 10 feet of water. The labware was changed once a month because of neutron destruction. A lawn was over the 8 ft of soil and the neutrons killed the own. Smuggling this large amount in a car is suicide
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2019-07-07 13:04  

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