Posted by
michael
on from the just-had-it-a-minute-ago dept.
jyuter writes "Apparently, Japan has lost 206kg of plutonium, enough to make 25 nuclear bombs. The official position is that it's not stolen, just 'unaccounted for.'"
There are a number of issues with this article. First of all, the only thing they are going on seems to be that they are 3% short of the estimated amount of plutonium.
I recall that there have been issues in the past with Japan's nuclear plants, so why is this any surprise?
Exactly. The article mentions that discrepancies of 1% are normal as the plutonium is in liquid form and can easily be dissolved in other substances. 3% is a bit higher than usual, but could still just be an error in the estimate.
Also, Japanese authorities estimated that 120 of the 206 kg were lost to the usual processing losses, leaving only 86 kg that are really missing. That's just about 1% of the total expected amount. A bad estimate seems to be the most reasonable explanation.
Slashdot Mirror
There are a number of issues with this article. First of all, the only thing they are going on seems to be that they are 3% short of the estimated amount of plutonium.
I recall that there have been issues in the past with Japan's nuclear plants, so why is this any surprise?
Even if Japan is on the level, some of their neighbors are not.
I'd much rather like Japan to know where it is rather than not because of the fact that they are on the level.
Blaze a trail to the New World