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Plutonium Shipment to France on the Way
duesi writes "According to BBC News a British vessel is carrying 140 kg of weapons grade plutonium from the US to France to turn it into nuclear fuel.
It doesn't take a nuclear physicist to see that this is a dangerous thing... Similar shipments have happened before, for example in 1999 and 2002
but BBC writes that this is the first time weapon grade plutonium has been shipped ever."
Or disguise themselves as veteran British seamen and seize the bridge.
Yeah, that's great, just tell everyone so they can go attack it. That's really smart. If I were the shipper or receiver, or any territory between which this parcel traveled, I would want it to be at least SOMEWHAT of a secret.
Oh well. Security through obscurity is better than no security at all.
Chris
The critical mass of plutonium is 10 - 100 kg. (I assume weapons grade plutonium would be more towards the 10kg range).
I would split it up into 5kg bars and do a few trips. If there is a crash or whatever it wouldn't go critical. And it's not enough for a bomb is someone nicked it.
5kg / 19,816 kg/m^3 in cm^3 is ~ 250cm^3 which is 5 by 5 by 10 cm.
Pretty strange that the entire consignment is smaller than a shuttle case.
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It doesn't take a nuclear physicist to see that this is a dangerous thing...
In other news, people do dangerous things every day... Like transport sulfuric acid in train tankers through residential neighborhoods. Some things are dangerous. That's life.
Environmentalists say it presents a major terrorist target.
Shouldn't environmentalists be worrying about the environment? How come the article doesn't say anything about *security experts* being worried about this? Couldn't they have found any?
Greenpeace says the plutonium should be disposed of as nuclear waste to avoid the transport and proliferation risks.
Right, because being stored in a hole somewere will be safer than reprocessing it and using it. We're much better off with all this weapons grade material sitting around than not existing....
this is the first time weapon grade plutonium has been shipped ever
It's the first time that the PUBLIC knows about it, but isn't necessarily the first time that weapon grade plutonium has been shipped.
Big difference.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
You gotta wonder what the brits got planned with those many TONNES of weapons grade PU they got in the bunker at Sellafield. That place aint no power plant!
Captain Malcolm Miller, head of international transport at BNFL, said they were the "safest sea transports" he had ever seen. A naval escort had not been requested and was not necessary, he added.
Can you say "Doomed?"
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Unreal. I find it ironic that it's the French who actually have the (insert body part) to actually use nuclear power. Everyone else is just too terrified to even mention the word nuclear, unless it's to make fun of people mispronouncing it.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Obviously it's a honeypot designed to lure in terrorists so they can capture them! The actual plutonium is being delivered by a lorry driven through the chunnel...
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With Plutonium, it burns in oxygen much like Magnesium does. To make a dirty bomb with weapons grade plutonium you don't need critical mass, or even for that matter technology- just shave the bar with a knife, mix the shavings with gunpowder, and use it as the warhead on a mortar. Set it off upwind of a city, and you've got the ultimate cheap terrorist neutron bomb.
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Y'know, for me, the concern would have nothing to do with the ship being raided and the plutonium stolen to make bombs.
For em, the issue is that plutonium is astonishingly poisonous. One microgram of ingested plutonium will cause cancer half the time over some short period of time (I don't remembe the specifics, only what I recall from the Guinness Book of World Records).
140kg of plutonium is enough to cause cancer in the entire world population about ten times over.
Just blow the ship up. Fish will eat the plutonium. We'll eat the fish. Millions die.
(Paranoid? Yeah, a little.)
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Both have a squad of armed police on board from the UK Atomic Energy Agency Constabulary.
The ships carry naval cannons, have satellite monitoring, twin engines and hull protection.
These are _armed_ ships, with armed security. An attack on them would require a warship. So north korea or iran or some other nation is going to attack and try and seize this ship? A couple terrorists with guns and a speedboat isn't going to cut it.
I fail to see how this is any more dangerous than the transportation of any hazardous chemicals, or gold bullion, except it seems to be rather more secure.
Hooray for sensationalist alarmist stories!
The Pu in question has already been converted to plutonium oxide; there is nothing to burn, and it is extremely stable.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
This is one reason why, despite being an environmentalist, I have little use for today's environmental "movement". The groups who go to great efforts to paint themselves green turn out to be watermelons.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
Environmentalists say it presents a major terrorist target.
So let's protest to be sure it makes international news and everyone with an internet connection will know about it.
Both have a squad of armed police on board from the UK Atomic Energy Agency Constabulary. The ships carry naval cannons, have satellite monitoring, twin engines and hull protection.
"Ok Abdullah, here's the plan: we'll sneak in really quiet so they don't kill us with their 30mm cannons. We then kill a dozen armed guards, disable the automatic satellite tracking, then avoid all of the spy satellites, AWACS, aircraft carriers, and submarines from every infidel country that will be looking for us, and book it 5000 miles for home in this giant freighter. Are you done sharpening your boxcutter?"
But critics say the shipment would be safer if carried on a naval frigate.
I hope it's not the environmentalists making that criticism. The ships are owned by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). They were designed to safely and securely transport the stuff. It's not like you just want to toss the stuff in the dry storage on a frigate.
Captain Malcolm Miller, head of international transport at BNFL, said they were the "safest sea transports" he had ever seen. A naval escort had not been requested and was not necessary, he added.
He ain't worried, and he's in the middle of it.
Irish Environment Minister Martin Cullen told the BBC that "any accident could have catastrophic effects." He wants assurances that they will not pass near Irish waters.
An understandable concern, I suppose. I would expect that the fuel is sealed up in a pretty durable container that would contain any leaks long enough for recovery if the ships sank.
Ireland, with New Zealand, Peru and Chile, is co-sponsoring a proposal at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) seeking detailed information for coastal states on all movements of nuclear material in international waters.
Seems like a good idea. It sounded, however, like BNFL was being pretty generous with relevant information on this trip, even though they don't have to.
Greenpeace says the plutonium should be disposed of as nuclear waste to avoid the transport and proliferation risks.
Ok, so it's unacceptable to burn it, move it, or leave it sitting in storage. Let's take Greenpeace's advice, then, and dispose of it as nuclear waste in a way that will keep it safe for 10000+ years in a chemically stable, glass form, in concrete and steel casks, a couple thousand feet underground in Yucca Moun...oh wait, they're protesting that also.
I suspect that the real barrier is the refusal of publicity- and litigation-shy US nuclear plant operators to have anything to do with nuclear weapons, even their ultimate and permanent disposal. By the end of a fuel cycle, conventional PWRs are deriving a majority of their power from fission of Pu-239 bred from the U-238 in the fuel pellets. Despite that fact, "environmentalists" can still panic the ignorant public with talk of power from plutonium.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
Pity they didn't have those machines when they built the chunnel... Could have had it done in a week... Funny site.
It's funny, the difference between what people in the [nuclear] industry know, and what many of you think you know.
As opposed to Uranium which is difficult to isotopically separate, essentially all Pu is
usable in an implosion device, so simple chemical
separation suffices. It is a bit trickier to
detonate plutonium, because of the precise timing
requirements for the compression charges, but the
upside is that it's a lot easier to go thermonuclear,
if you've got the tritium.
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This is the same French nation the American government has such an intense hatred of?
Funny how you sever all links with a country to the extent of renaming french fries, then go crawling for help when you want your Plutonium reprocessing.
Which incidently leads me to the following -
Nation A is shipping weapons grade nuclear material to nation B, where it will be processed and returned to A
If A OR B != America
THEN GoToWar ==1
ELSE ??
Hypocrisy - its great
The shame. Wasting all that precious fuel on some nuclear reactors. I mean, how many DeLoreans can we power with 140kg of plutonium?
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
Everyone knows that 10kg of plutonium is much heavier than 10kg of lead.
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