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Radioactive Material Stolen In Iraq Raises Security Fears (reuters.com)
mdsolar writes with a link to a Reuters report that begins: Iraq is searching for 'highly dangerous' radioactive material stolen last year, according to an environment ministry document and seven security, environmental and provincial officials who fear it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Islamic State. The material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, went missing in November from a storage facility near the southern city of Basra belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford WFT.N, the document seen by Reuters showed and officials confirmed. A spokesman for Iraq's environment ministry said he could not discuss the issue, citing national security concerns.
That shits long gone now...
Why would they need radioactive material? Any ideas?
From the article:
belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford WFT.N
Going out on a limb here, but that'll likely be a source for pipe inspections or similar jobs? Read: relatively small quantity, and no way that would be bomb-making material. Even if it fell into the wrong hands, then at worst such material could be used as ingredient of a small-scale dirty bomb: a conventional bomb with 'special sauce' to cause a "radioactive!" scare. For that purpose probably more dangerous to anyone trying to do so, than for the people in a target area.
Granted, in terms of victims / environment / health hazards that could still do some damage. But in the greater scheme of things, I'd take "highly dangerous" with a grain of salt here.
A fear weapon aimed at panicky fools and the media that preys on and inflames their ignorance with hysterical half-truths.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
The security failure is a bit worrying but I doubt this is really that big a threat. If it was so radioactive that it could kill lots of people from acute radiation sickness, then it will be very hard to smuggle anywhere without being detected. Certainly much harder than just a big cache of conventional weapons/explosives. On the other hand, a radiation weapon where ISIS then announces that those exposed may have a 50% increased chance of dying from cancer in the next 30 years seems rather preferable to a bunch of nutters unloading assault rifles into a crowd.
This is really just a continuation of the 'OMG freak out about nuclear thing' that has been with us since the 60s. Nuclear can be bad, but there is also radiation all around us, and we do know how to detect and manage radiation risks. People still live next to Chernobyl and Fukushima did actually melt down, yet Japan was still there when I visited last year.
the brawl that ends it all... just like in the movies? even the bible? hang on to our hemispheres.. in the moms we trust
A fear weapon aimed at panicky fools and the media that preys on and inflames their ignorance with hysterical half-truths.
In other words, same old shit from a political and news reporting standpoint.
After all, they're speaking to lemmings, proving they've done the market analysis as to what's effective.
These materials are for wireline logging just as the post above mentions.
I recall a few years back when Cesium went missing from an old X-ray machine in Mexico - possible that Daesh / ISIS / ISIL have hospitals already inside the towns that they have occupied and what about the threat from these?
What about the radioactivity of depleted uranium when it burns? Isn't there some nastiness associated with burning that stuff?
Thanks.
So what is it here that you think are the "hysterical half-truths"?
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Once again user "mdsolar" is back to spread FUD about alternatives to his solar energy business. In this case the "logic" is particularly absurd: some radioactive material is unaccounted for -> terrorists could make a radioactive bomb -> all radiation is bad -> nuclear energy also involves radiation -> you should use solar.
Perhaps it's time for user "mdnuclear" to post about how the sun is dangerous because some people in Australia got skin cancer?
... about a certain Emmett L Brown.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
This story does seem like it's intended to undermine the credibility of the Iranian nuclear deal amongst the generally ignorant populous of the west. Some radioactive elements get lost by an oil company in a non-conspiratorial setting... and political players ceased on that to make Iran into a potential WMD distributor.
A dirty bomb is only fearful as much as the population fears it. In effects a dirty bomb is pretty much useless as far as effects goes. It ain't a nuke folks. At worst it contaminate a wide area of a few hundreds feet with a bit of radioactive materials which you have to clean off. Basically to have a health effect you have to have people ingest it , or to have it in huge quantity enough that exposure become dangerous. Spread it /dilute it enough to have a wide area and it loses its effects, OR have it effects, and the area/volume become so small as to not eb a concern. the only concern is the PANIC folk would have because dumb politician and media have used for year RDD as a kind of scarecrow. The PANIC would be what would massively kill people.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
It was just a matter of time until they found them... er, i mean, lost them.
This is really just a continuation of the 'OMG freak out about nuclear thing' that has been with us since the 60s. Nuclear can be bad, but there is also radiation all around us, and we do know how to detect and manage radiation risks.
Small package of radioactive tracer material left unattended.
Dude walks past and notices,hey, this shit isn't nailed down.
Dude thinks, maybe I can score some bucks off of this.
Dude takes it and stashes it somewhere.
Dude starts asking around, who wants to buy [this thing?]
Everyone says, "Don't let the Americans know you got that. They're fucking crazy!"
Dude just gives up.
Company searches for the thing. It's gone.
Company believes in responsible (wince) disclosure.
Company is wincing because Americans shrug at the theft of high explosives.
But theft of enough radioactive material to slightly irradiate an area brings on a shit storm.
Time passes. Still not found.
Someone in the Iraqi ministry realizes that they can fuck with America's mind by leaking the story.
The fucking with America's mind begins.
Rueters is chosen for the leak because they are staffed with whimpering radiophobes and never seek out the opinions of physicists and nuclear materials experts to corroborate the risk or put potential dose or usage into proper perspective.
Rueters releases 'exclusive' wire story with few real details.
Everyone dusts off their 'dirty bomb' files and updates them to threat du jour.
$ perl -pni.bak -e 's/Bin Laden/ISIS/sgi'
Headlines are created posing the new threat.
Half of the stories are deliberately obfuscated so there is confusion whether a fission or 'dirty' bomb is being discussed.
The dozen or so follow-up interviews where real experts shrug off (or laugh at) dirty bomb threat are left in archives.
Google creates a handy new ID=0ahUKEwiCnOigpYHLAhVCKCYKHXhIDZkQqgIIKTAA to group the stories so you can see the silly headlines.
Someone at Slashdot does not like nuclear power, because they like solar energy.
It doesn't really make sense because to hate nuclear energy is to love natural gas, but there it is.
So let's ride the cresting wave of hysteria and fear.
Oh, how long can evil ISIS hold out? How can they possibly resist the diabolical urge to build the single little 'dirty bomb' that no one could ever completely prove would not erase our very existence? Will their tortured minds give in to uncontrollable desires? Can ISIS withstand the temptation to build the 'dirty bomb' that even now beckons to them in these shrill, childish headlines? Will they succumb to the maddening urge to (slightly) irradiate a small area? At the mere! [world press slaps its ass on ISIS' head] Building! [world press slaps its ass on ISIS' head] of a [world press slaps its ass on ISIS' head] single! [world press slaps its ass on ISIS' head] Bomb! The beautiful shiny 'dirty bomb'! The jolly, candy-like 'dirty bomb'! Will they hold out, folks? Can they hold out?
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
It's easy. Nebulously talking about "hysterical half-truths" is just fearmongering by spreading a new hysterical half-truth.
> $ perl -pni.bak -e 's/Bin Laden/ISIS/sgi'
Nah, these are morons we're dealing with. They did ctrl-f, not Perl.
Otherwise, spot-on.
http://www.breitbart.com/natio...
The CIA, working in coordination with U.S. troops, bought and destroyed hundreds of nerve agent rockets during the occupation of Iraq.
Even if you think it is safe, it won't stop your property being massively devalued. Dirty bombs will hit you where it hurts - in the wallet.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
"officials who fear it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Islamic State."
"UP TO 10 Grams of Ir-192","fatal to someone exposed for a period of hours to days."
So a quick back of the envelope calculation. Assuming your dirty bomb gives 100% even distribution of the material that would leave about .0001 grams of material per square foot in a single city block. Oh the horror indeed. US Cities with pollution problems are probably worse than that.
If I'm ever in Iraq/n I am much MUCH more worried about all the depleted uranium rounds the US has used over the years.
The news article is more dangerous than material
Look at the feat it generated already. FEAR.. far more deadly than a small bit of material that emits radiocative particles and is fully decayed in 4 years.
The WORST you could do is take it onto an aeroplane and have it emit through the closed cycle air ventilation then 200 people get continimated along with the plane.
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Iridium 192 is apparently industrial gamma source. "Up to" 10 grams were taken. Not seeing much reason for hitting the panic button here.
So you basically have a difficult time understanding risk factors.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
No, he's entirely correct. Ten grams of pretty much anything cannot be used to make a weapon of mass destruction. At this point it's only 5 grams due to its short half-life. Even if they had stolen plutonium or HEU, you need far more material than that for a critical mass. This amount of radioactive material could probably kill one or two persons, if ingested. Otherwise it's not really an issue.
Hundreds of rockets, most of which were empty or with dummy warheads. The nerve agents found in a few were massively degraded (due to their shelf life being greatly exceeded). So we're still waiting for the WMDs we were promised.
He doesn't. Unless you are scared of background radiation, you shouldn't be scared of this.
Yea, dang that Sadam lied to us before the war started about having those things and being willing to use them, never mind that he had used them before on his own people... BTW, he is dead now... Keep grinding that political ax, it's been more than a decade now.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
So, Fox News, then?
Not for long. The first land developer who realizes that the land is cheap just because of pointless fear will redevelop it on the cheap, probably even begging for some money out of the government to "help" them.
We nuked the shit out of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They're not ghost towns today, they're cities with significant populations. You'd need an output like Chernobyl to really cause area denial like this, and this isn't even close to the sort of material you'd need for that effect.
I hear they lose stuff all the time.
If you want to gargle 50% "degraded" mustard gas, go right ahead. You'll still be a lot more than 50% dead.
So, like, every terrorist weapon?
At least those used so far. I hope it never moves beyond that.
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So, like, every terrorist weapon?
That's the most ignorant thing I've read this month (and there's a lot of ignorance on YT).
At least those used so far.
Suicide vests and truck bombs (which actually kill and maim people) spring instantly to mind.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Suicide vests and truck bombs do kill people occasionally. The cost of dealing with the fear of suicide vests and truck bombs outweigh the actual consequences. I mean, it's always ghoulish to compare someone's death to thousands of people inconvenienced. But, as a society, we kinda have to figure out how much to spend to save someone's life.
And, with terrorism, we always overspend. We could provide free healthcare or construct safer cars and get more bang for our buck.
The reason that we do that is that terrorists use fear and the media to target the sense of security of millions. The few who get injured or killed are just the mechanism.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
None of what you just wrote has anything to do with the stupidity that you previously wrote: At least those used so far. I hope it never moves beyond that.
35 years ago, truck bombs went beyond just fear. Suicide vests... 25 years ago? Bombs in British postal boxes 40+ years ago.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Truck bombs didn't move beyond "just fear" "Just fear" is the larger consequence of then the deaths that actually happened. The US left Beruit over 283 deaths? No, the US left over fear.
Moving beyond that means that the actual deathtoll is worse than the fear it engenders. Given the news coverage nowadays, that's likely going to be the result of a WMD.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
So there's only terrorism and WMDs?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Umm... no. Terrorist's biggest weapon is fear. The only weapon I can think of more effective than that is a WMD.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
But "OMG!! Terrorists with a WMD!!" is the whole purpose of this article.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
But the whole purpose of the conversation thread you're participating in is that they only have enough for a relatively weak dirty bomb, explicitly not a WMD. The whole thread is about how the weapon is a lot more fear than real.
Yay, context.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
I didn't write that *I* believe it. I wrote that the *article* said it.
Boo, lack of reading comprehension.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1