Depleted Uranium Forums (DU-BBS)

Here is some testimony presented to and published by the infamous Council on Foereign Relations. Note the comment on depleted uranium. It seems it is a dangerous substance in the hands of terrorists, although the same body probably agrees that it is fine for use in the defense of democracy and other Western ideals.

Link is here.

Quote:

Prepared Testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security

Author:
Michael A. Levi, Fellow for Science and Technology

July 27, 2006

Chairman Kyl, Senator Feinstein, thank you for inviting me to speak with you about U.S. efforts to detect smuggled nuclear weapons.

...

Unfortunately, material used in nuclear weapons need not be highly radioactive, and hence may not emit many neutrons or gamma rays, making detection difficult. Much has been made of the difficulty of detecting highly-enriched uranium, a challenge to which I will return later. It is important, though, not to focus narrowly on this worst-case threat. Many materials that terrorists might transport as part of a nuclear plot emit considerably more radioactivity, providing greater opportunities for detection. (There is no reason to believe that terrorists can be selective, rather than opportunistic, in acquiring nuclear materials, at least without making themselves more vulnerable to defeat.) These materials include highly-enriched uranium that is below weapons-grade, that it not metallic, or that has been extracted from used nuclear fuel (as much Russian nuclear-weapons material has been). They also include plutonium, in both metallic and non-metallic forms. And stolen weapons may incorporate large masses of depleted uranium, which substantially increases radiation emissions. Detectors that can spot some but not all potential weapons or materials�an accurate description for many detectors�can be valuable.

This is another link related to the issue of dirty bombs falling into the hands of people (ie. terrorists) who might use them. It isn't specifically a DU problem, but the fact that people are worried about nuclear waste in general as a terrorist option for making dirty bombs implies that DU is definitely an insidious substance.

Link is here.

Quote:

Still, research reactors such as Vinca tend to be less heavily protected than power plants, and experts like Durst fear terrorists shown willing to sacrifice their lives in other situations might do so as well to secure the material. And while building a full-blown nuclear device is technologically daunting, terrorists could easily use the material such as that in the rods to construct a dirty bomb.

With just one dirty bomb, "you could hit Broadway, and you couldn't decontaminate it for years," says Obrad Sotic, Vinca's former operations manager.

And there are concerns other than raids on Vinca. While no nuclear material is known to have gone missing employees speak openly of the potential temptations of selling some on the black market as a way supplementing monthly incomes of less than $750.

There's a lot to steal _ old medical and industrial equipment, and tons of material inside the reactor or in two rickety corrugated metal sheds. There are bags of irradiated grass, containers of depleted uranium ammunition fired by NATO during its 1999 Kosovo campaign, and several tons of yellowcake _ processed uranium ore of the kind Iran plans to process and enrich in what the U.S. says is an attempt to make nuclear arms.

The Serbian Science Ministry, which is responsible for Vinca, has a budget of less than $90 million for this year. That wouldn't cover the cost of upgrading security, shipping the spent fuel back to Russia and dismantling the reactor.

Yes, governments have beeen declaring for years that radioactive materials are not safe for 'us', but are safe for 'them'. Here's an older article.

RADIOACTIVE SCRAP
U.N. Warns of Possible Nuclear Thefts in Iraq

April 16, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/intern...6NUKE.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 - Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency has reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrap yards.

The International Atomic Energy Agency sent a letter to United States officials three weeks ago telling them of the findings. The information was also sent to the Security Council in a letter from the agency's director, Mohamed ElBaradei, which was circulated on Thursday.

Officials said the agency was awaiting a reply from the United States, which leads the alliance administering Iraq. Arms control officials fear that the war and the continuing unrest may have increased chances that terrorists may get their hands on materials used for unconventional weapons or that civilians may be exposed to radioactive materials.

According to Dr. ElBaradei's letter, satellite imagery shows "extensive removal of equipment and in some instances, removal of entire buildings," in Iraq.

In addition, "large quantities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transferred out of Iraq" from sites previously monitored by the agency.

In January, the agency confirmed that Iraq was the likely source of radioactive material found in a shipment of scrap metal in Rotterdam Harbor.

The material, natural uranium ore, probably came from a mine in Iraq that was active before the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

The material was uncovered on Dec. 16 by a Rotterdam-based scrap metal company, Jewometaal, which had received it in a shipment of scrap metal from a dealer in Jordan. A small number of Iraqi missile engines have also turned up in European ports, agency officials said.

"It is not clear whether the removal of these items has been the result of looting activities in the aftermath of the recent war in Iraq or as part of systematic efforts to rehabilitate some of their locations," Dr. ElBaradei wrote to the council.

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