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.'"
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
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.
Physics, Cosmology and