Customs fails to catch smuggled uranium -- AGAIN!

[Silicon]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/Primetime/sept11_uranium030910.html


ABC News again smuggles a container of depleted uranium into the country. It goes uninspected.

But that didn't stop Homeland Security from using tough-guy tactics to try and quash the story from being broadcast.

SHAME on you, Tom Ridge. Shame on you Ashcroft. And shame on you, Mister President.




Federal agents showed up outside the gates of the ABCNEWS bureau in Los Angeles at
midnight on Sept. 2 demanding access to ABCNEWS personnel and the depleted uranium,
which had already been shipped back to New York at the time.

....

U.S. agents also sought, without warrant or subpoena,
to obtain ABCNEWS field tapes. Two agents showed
up at night at the San Diego home of a freelance
cameraman, Jeff Freeman, who worked on the project.
"They first identified themselves as FBI agents, which it turns out they weren't," said
Freeman. "They wanted to know if I still had the tapes I had shot for ABC and if I could turn
them over."

[Aoidoi]

Disturbing on several levels, but: The ABCNEWS project involved a shipment to Los Angeles of just under 15 pounds of depleted uranium, a harmless substance that is legal to import into the United States. The uranium, in a steel pipe with a lead lining, was placed in a suitcase for the shipment.Er, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't DU roughly as radioactive as lead? How would you possibly detect it without opening the case, and even if you did how would you tell what it is? I mean, a steel cylinder could be anything, they'd probably have to do a chemical analysis or spectography or something to determine what it actually is.

Anybody with more knowledge feel free to correct me, but I think the basic thrust of this is that it's more or less impossible to detect a small amount of enriched uranium in a shielded container. Aside from demonstrating that Homelard Security (you know, that was a typo but I like it so I'll leave it) is a bunch of friggin idiots for dealing with the story the way they did, I don't think it's really a surprising result.

[Silicon]

According to the article, it gives off the same amount of radiation as weapons-grade stuff, if the weapons grade stuff has a little bit of shielding, which easily could have fit in the same container.

It's not as radioactive as lead, unless you're talking about some radioactive isotope of lead!



http://www.geocities.com/pwdyson/du1.html

1 g of Uranium in Yellowcake emits around 25600 alpha particles every second.
1 g of newly created DU emits around 14600 alpha particles every second.
So immediately after the enrichment process DU is 57% as radioactive as Yellowcake Uranium. However, DU's radioactivity increases in the first year after enrichment, and increases again after 10,000 years. This is because Uranium produces many other radioactive substances that must also be taken into account. For example the radioactive Thorium present in DU is 97% as radioactive as that in Yellowcake.

[Agammamon]

The other question is even if customs figured out what it was, is it illegal to have DU?

[pgwenthold]

Keep in mind that the depleted part of the DU is the _fissionable_ nuclide. There is not a huge difference in the alpha decay rates of the different nuclides.

The isotope that is taken out is not removed because of its alpha decay, but because it is fissionable.

[Silicon]

No, it's not illegal to possess DU. I'm assuming there's a permit, and safe handling regulations, as it is radioactive.

But the stuff, in the canister it was in, was impossible to tell the difference without opening the canister.

They didn't open the canister. They didn't open the case the canister was in. They didn't open the crate full of furniture that the suitcase was in.

They didn't even question why the canister of radioactive material was being shipped inside a furniture box. From Jakarta. A week before Al Qaeda blew up a 12 people there.


Could it get more ridiculous? They should have had a return address from a Mr. Osama Bin Ladin written on the box.