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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.
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.
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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.
They're typically used in wireline logging (real-time collection of down-well data, used for measuring the mineral content of strata being drilled through - this is how they're able to tell there are hydrocarbons present). They also use them to measure flow rate.
This Wikipedia article is reasonably good:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"As of 2003 the isotopes Antimony-124, argon-41, cobalt-60, iodine-131, iridium-192, lanthanum-140, manganese-56, scandium-46, sodium-24, silver-110m, technetium-99m, and xenon-133 were most commonly used by the oil and gas industry because they are easily identified and measured.[3][5] Bromine-82, Carbon-14, hydrogen-3, iodine-125 are also used.[3][4]"
He's Jesus, for Christ's sake.
... about a certain Emmett L Brown.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
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.
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It's half life is approx 73 days so it should be 1/2 gone by now. It's a beta & gamma emitter so good for a dirty bomb as you really don't want to inhale/ingest those beta particles.
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It has a half life of 73.8 days (Ir-192). So already it is half as radioactive as it used to be. While it would take a long time (4 years) for the sample to fully decay, the exponential nature of radioactive decay means that most of those 4 years are spent going from a very small amount of radioactivity to zero radioactivity thanks to diminishing returns. Also if you bear in mind that with a bomb you would be spreading this material over a very large area (because terrorists like to think big, so they would probably go for as spectacular an explosion as they could manage), a depleted sample would not provide much more than background radiation after a few half-lives. If you're going to build an effective dirty bomb you really want to steal something with a much longer half-life.
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The actual seed source is about as big as a pencil eraser, maybe a little smaller. Thus, it would be hard to repurpose as a dirty bomb - it's a lump and all it would do is fly somewhere else in an explosion.
Radioactive sources are lost all the time. This website from the NRC keeps a log of all lost sources. While losing a source like this in Iraq is unfortunate, it's not uncommon.
"Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound
You think WFT is a typo?
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.
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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.
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.
Ir-192, as the article states has a half-life of 73 days, and decays to stable platinum and osmium. So, yes, it's about half gone.
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