Article

2005-05-12 Arabia

Saudi oil fields set with 'radioactive bombs'

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Posted by Steve 2005-05-12 12:49:13 PM|| || Front Page|| [9 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Lol - too much, heh. Silly drivel from the fad hack master of pulpy toilet reading material / backup tissue.

Posner's gig, apparently, is to pick some topic in which "public" interest (read: fools and loonies) is rising, then milk it with just enough cherry-picked fact to slip a trainload of innuendo and bullshit past his carefully targeted and willingly complicit audience - the Natl Enquirer / Star / The Nation / NewsWeak / et al folks, methinks. He's a hero to the conspiracists and Moonbats... That Huffenpuff thinks he's a wizard sorta helps bracket his tripe.

Indeed, Steve, the expat engineers who spend a LOT of time out in the field at the plants, the exact people I worked with at Aramco, would've noticed "packages" attached to important bits of the production, refining , or distribution systems. Sheesh. But it'll sell in Blue America, I'm sure. Hmmm. Does he mention Halliburton, anywhere?

Posted by .com 2005-05-12 13:23|| 2005-05-12 13:23|| Front Page Top

#2 Dot,

Right on. The dirty bomb thing is also a dead giveaway. In order to have enough radioactive material (say Cobalt-60) to make this doable, you'd either have to put up an enormous amount of shielding or risk all your workers dropping dead from radiation sickness. And, since Co-60 has a half-life of 5.2 years, you'd be perpetually scurrying around replacing your dreaded radioactive crud.

Posted by Dreadnought 2005-05-12 13:41|| 2005-05-12 13:41|| Front Page Top

#3 .com
Good take. You got Gerald Posner's number. His target audience is the liberal elites of the NorthEast and those who wannabee in other parts of the USA, such as Berkley, San Fran, Ann Arbor, Madison. His target audience is NY Times readers. But I will admit others also buy his books.

Posted by sea cruise 2005-05-12 13:45|| 2005-05-12 13:45|| Front Page Top

#4
From Little Green Footballs site --->>>

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=15814#c0077

#77 Kenneth 5/11/2005 01:13PM PDT
The alleged Saudi plot to booby-trap their oil industry with dirty bombs is an interesting theory, until you start to think about it. Here are a few reasons why it's nonsense.

Firstly, the threat is rather overblown. The isotopes cited all produce low energy beta radiation and are dangerous only if ingested or inhaled. Their presence might be hazardous and likely to cause panic in a city with a large population, but not at remote oil wells and pipeline installations, where the few workers required for service could easily be protected.

Secondly, the logistics don't make sense. Assume a small oil installation of 1 square kilometer. 1 tonne of material dispersed over that area would result in a concentration of only 10 micrograms per square centimeter, barely greater than background radiation levels. The entire Saudi oil infrastructure would require hundreds of thousands of tonnes of these isotopes. Is there any evidence such quantities have been obtained by the Saudis? I don't think so. In any event, the contamination would not stay in place due to wind errosion (it's a sandy desert out there!) I would be more worried about a getting a sun burn, than the effect of 10 micrograms of Sr 90 on my shoes.

Finally, petroleum is not chemically reactive to Sr, Cs or Rb. If the materials were introduced to the oil reservoirs, the isotopes could easily be removed during the normal refining processes. In fact, Sr & Cs both bind readily with sand, which is a rather effective filtering material especially plentiful in Arabia. On the other hand, Rb ignites in air and reacts violently with water, making it easily retrievable.

In short, the risk of such "dirty bombs" is minimal, the amount of material required is unrealistic, & the contamination will just blow away. Which is, I believe, what the author is trying to do: huff & puff and blow away at a junk-science political thriller.

Posted by sea cruise 2005-05-12 13:47|| 2005-05-12 13:47|| Front Page Top

#5 What nonsense.

The Saudi's are not going to booby-trap their cash cow, certainly not while there are nutcases running around who might set off the self-destruct on their own, for their own reasons.

Posted by mojo">mojo 2005-05-12 14:03|| 2005-05-12 14:03|| Front Page Top

#6 DN / sc - Thanks (!!!) for the detailed info - proving the notion is absurd on its face. Way past my expertise, lol! *applause*

Posner will probably go after nano-tech next...

Posted by .com 2005-05-12 14:05|| 2005-05-12 14:05|| Front Page Top

#7 mojo - Dead right - the Saudi Royals are beyond paranoid, one of the seeds of truth that conspiracists like Posner start with, and have no other income sources. Would they endanger it intentionally? No, not ever. They'll spend a good fraction of the income it produces to protect it, however, and have. How effective that protection is - well - that's another issue, lol! The human components are questionable, while the physical impediments are substantial.

Posted by .com 2005-05-12 14:10|| 2005-05-12 14:10|| Front Page Top

#8 More importantly, will radioactive gas foul my spark plugs?

Posted by Cassie 2005-05-12 14:18|| 2005-05-12 14:18|| Front Page Top

#9 No, but it will make you a boffo hit at parties.

Posted by .com 2005-05-12 14:23|| 2005-05-12 14:23|| Front Page Top

#10 I'd like a fine blue glowing exhaust for my ride.

Posted by Shipman 2005-05-12 17:00|| 2005-05-12 17:00|| Front Page Top

#11 Great conspiracy stuff, but yeah, it's all pretty silly. On the other hand, since that feckless crapweasel Nail Al-Jubeir flatly denies it, I'm almost ready to believe.

Posted by SteveS 2005-05-12 17:44|| 2005-05-12 17:44|| Front Page Top

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