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.'"
Buy it back
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 3, Funny
One bomb costs 1 million dollars, why don't they buy it back? Shouldn't be much of a dent in the budget of a land like Japan.
Re:Buy it back
by
Simon+Field
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Does it bother anyone that most of the the
missing plutonium is thought to have been lost in
the waste water and "dissolved in other elements"?
It is bad enough that the waste is radioactive.
But plutonium is also very poisonous.
If the controls on the plutonium itself have 3%
error rates, how about the controls on the waste?
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.
Flux copacitors, Lybians, and Time Machines
by
Mick+D.
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Boy are those terrorists going to be upset when they realize the nuclear bombs they wanted were really made of used pinball machine parts.
And you only need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts to power the flux copacitor, besides, if you are going to build a time machine you might as well do it with style.:)
--
Is this the end yet?...How 'bout now...how 'bout now...how 'bout now?
The obvious answer
by
blacklite001
·
· Score: 2, Funny
They're using it to power their army of giant robots to take over the earth.
Duh.
Lessee - where might it be?
by
0x69
·
· Score: 5, Funny
"Dear N. Korea, If the mere 1/5 ton of Pu that we leaked was "missing" doesn't clue you in, please rest assured that you'll bitterly regret any nuclear mistakes in our direction. Your loving neighbor, Japan"
In other news, scientists have discovered a new species of glow-in-the-dark fish near the Oopsiliki Nuclear Facility...
Auditers caught 'em half-way between using fudged-upward numbers (to make productivity look good) and fudged-back-down numbers (to account for what actually ships). (This kind of stuff has happened in the U.S.A.)
Measuring & accounting so sloppy that there's no way to tell if the "missing" stuff ever existed...or if much more is missing.
Stolen by __________, who then did ___________with it
It's an off-the-books loan to CowboyNeal.
-- It's easy to make up & spread cool- and credible-sounding stuff. Finding & checking hard facts is hard work.
Not feelng much better.
by
sporty
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The official position is that it's not stolen, just 'unaccounted for'
Wait.. lemme get this right.
It's either not a problem since it's just somewhere around, like your car keys
or
It's like someone car keys, someone else took it out for a ride, but we don't know who and if it is ok.
-- A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
It's obvious what happened
by
GuyMannDude
·
· Score: 3, Funny
C'mon people, this is Japan we're talking about here. The most realistic answer is that Godzilla ate more plutonium than they realized on his last ramage across Japan. Since he attacks Japan so damn often, it's not surprising that their inventory counts get off once in awhile. Just relax, everyone. Everyone knows Godzilla only attacks Japan. The rest of us don't really have to worry.
The Sky is falling
by
Yokaze
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Since a non-neglectable percentage of the readership tends to skip reading the article, and the poster suggest a major mishap, I feel obliged to post a summary:
There is a large discrepancy between the projected output and the registered amount of output.
Partly, this is considered to be due to some less dramatic unaccounted ways of leaving the factory than through the hands of north-korean spies, like dillution in waste-waters and diffusion into other materials.
There is still a large amount left, which cannot have left the factory by these means. Still, it is most likely not 'lost', since it might have not been produced at all. It is a discrepancy between actual and projected numbers.
These discrepancies do always occur since no measurement is perfect. An error margin of 1% can be attributed to the measurement alone. The factory had a discrepancy of 3%.
Both numbers aren't very reassuring. But actually, I'm more afraid of the things that aren't reported.
-- "Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
their government has it
by
zogger
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
--although they as the recipient of the only nukes used in anger have a "public" position of being 'against" nuclear weaponry, it strains the bounds of credulity that they don't have their own weapons. Of course they do, I've taken that as a gimmee for a long time now. A nation that large, and with their level of technology simply has to have built last ditch contingency weapons, they have no choice in the matter.
You really do want them to have it.
by
kippy
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
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.
And it will be used to make one Hell of a KatoffleKannon (sp?) or Potato Gun or whatever.
I do find it odd though that missing Plutonium makes the science Pages and Kotoflekannon (sp) made the main page.
Priorities I guess
-- D.A.K.D.A.E.---- Deny all Knowledge, Destroy All Evidence
What they were able to account for:
by
Schroedinger
·
· Score: 4, Funny
In its place they found a mixture of green dish detergent and some glitter.
Tonnes are "missing" in the U.S.
by
radtea
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Tonnes of plutonium are "missing" in the U.S. for pretty much the same reason. Process accounting is just not all that accurate, and keeping track of things at the 1% level means that there's lots of opportunity for error.
All this story is saying that that the measured amount is 3% lower than the estimated amount, and for anyone who has ever tried to calculate the results of a complex process with an accuracy of 1%, this is not a big surprise.
On the other hand, these sorts of "accounting losses" do provide an opportunity for terrorists to get their hands on the stuff secretly. This is very much like "coin clipping" back in the days when money was made out of gold or silver--get a coin, pare a bit off the edge, pass it on at face value, and eventually you've enhanced your wealth by a significant amount. Milling of coin edges was introduced to prevent this practice, with indifferent success.
Unfortunately, there's no practical defense against this kind of thing, which should make us just a little leary about the prospects of "peaceful" nuclear power. My own attitude is "nuclear power if necessary, but not necessarily nuclear power."
Slashdot Mirror
One bomb costs 1 million dollars, why don't they buy it back? Shouldn't be much of a dent in the budget of a land like Japan.
"I didn't lose my virginity, it's just unaccounted for."
206kg of lead was found where the plutonioum was last believed to have been.
--Shemnon
nope, not there.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Perhaps you haven't heard about the Yakuza.
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?
Boy are those terrorists going to be upset when they realize the nuclear bombs they wanted were really made of used pinball machine parts.
:)
And you only need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts to power the flux copacitor, besides, if you are going to build a time machine you might as well do it with style.
Is this the end yet?...How 'bout now...how 'bout now...how 'bout now?
They're using it to power their army of giant robots to take over the earth.
Duh.
"Dear N. Korea,
If the mere 1/5 ton of Pu that we leaked was "missing" doesn't clue you in, please rest assured that you'll bitterly regret any nuclear mistakes in our direction.
Your loving neighbor,
Japan"
In other news, scientists have discovered a new species of glow-in-the-dark fish near the Oopsiliki Nuclear Facility...
Auditers caught 'em half-way between using fudged-upward numbers (to make productivity look good) and fudged-back-down numbers (to account for what actually ships). (This kind of stuff has happened in the U.S.A.)
Measuring & accounting so sloppy that there's no way to tell if the "missing" stuff ever existed...or if much more is missing.
Stolen by __________, who then did ___________with it
It's an off-the-books loan to CowboyNeal.
It's easy to make up & spread cool- and credible-sounding stuff. Finding & checking hard facts is hard work.
Wait.. lemme get this right.
It's either not a problem since it's just somewhere around, like your car keys
or
It's like someone car keys, someone else took it out for a ride, but we don't know who and if it is ok.
*boggle*
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
"Have they looked down the back of the sofa?"
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
C'mon people, this is Japan we're talking about here. The most realistic answer is that Godzilla ate more plutonium than they realized on his last ramage across Japan. Since he attacks Japan so damn often, it's not surprising that their inventory counts get off once in awhile. Just relax, everyone. Everyone knows Godzilla only attacks Japan. The rest of us don't really have to worry.
GMD
watch this
Since a non-neglectable percentage of the readership tends to skip reading the article,
and the poster suggest a major mishap, I feel obliged to post a summary:
There is a large discrepancy between the projected
output and the registered amount of output.
Partly, this is considered to be due to some less dramatic unaccounted ways of
leaving the factory than through the hands of north-korean spies, like dillution in waste-waters and diffusion into other
materials.
There is still a large amount left, which cannot have left the factory by these means.
Still, it is most likely not 'lost', since it might have not been produced at all.
It is a discrepancy between actual and projected numbers.
These discrepancies do always occur since no measurement is perfect. An error margin of 1% can be attributed to the measurement alone. The factory had a discrepancy of 3%.
Both numbers aren't very reassuring. But actually, I'm more afraid of the things that aren't reported.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
--although they as the recipient of the only nukes used in anger have a "public" position of being 'against" nuclear weaponry, it strains the bounds of credulity that they don't have their own weapons. Of course they do, I've taken that as a gimmee for a long time now. A nation that large, and with their level of technology simply has to have built last ditch contingency weapons, they have no choice in the matter.
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
I had to, um...."borrow" it so that I can get back to the year 1985.
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
And it will be used to make one Hell of a KatoffleKannon (sp?) or Potato Gun or whatever.
I do find it odd though that missing Plutonium makes the science Pages and Kotoflekannon (sp) made the main page.
Priorities I guess
D.A.K.D.A.E.---- Deny all Knowledge, Destroy All Evidence
In its place they found a mixture of green dish detergent and some glitter.
Tonnes of plutonium are "missing" in the U.S. for pretty much the same reason. Process accounting is just not all that accurate, and keeping track of things at the 1% level means that there's lots of opportunity for error.
All this story is saying that that the measured amount is 3% lower than the estimated amount, and for anyone who has ever tried to calculate the results of a complex process with an accuracy of 1%, this is not a big surprise.
On the other hand, these sorts of "accounting losses" do provide an opportunity for terrorists to get their hands on the stuff secretly. This is very much like "coin clipping" back in the days when money was made out of gold or silver--get a coin, pare a bit off the edge, pass it on at face value, and eventually you've enhanced your wealth by a significant amount. Milling of coin edges was introduced to prevent this practice, with indifferent success.
Unfortunately, there's no practical defense against this kind of thing, which should make us just a little leary about the prospects of "peaceful" nuclear power. My own attitude is "nuclear power if necessary, but not necessarily nuclear power."
--Tom
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.