back in the plutonium biz

welsh

welsh

Junkmaster
Looks like W has decided it was time to start milling out the radioactive hardware again!

Super secret at stake.

One of those bunker busting nukes that Rosh told us about months ago?
New arms racing coming up?



U.S. to resume plutonium 238 production-report Mon Jun 27, 1:57 AM ET

The United States plans to produce highly radioactive plutonium 238 for the first time since the Cold War, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The newspaper quoted project managers as saying most, if not all, of the new plutonium was intended for secret missions. The officials would not disclose details, but the newspaper said the plutonium in the past powered espionage devices.
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Secret missions! Can't tell us what, but we know it's radioactive. Well at least we figured that much out.

Radioactive epsionage devices?

The Times said Timothy Frazier, head of radioisotope power systems at the U.S. Energy Department, vigorously denied in a recent interview any of the classified missions would involve nuclear arms, satellites or weapons in space.

"The real reason we're starting production is for national security," Frazier was quoted as saying.

Officials at the Energy Department could not be reached for comment.
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Ok, if not satellites, nukes or weapons in space- but secret- than what?
Secret de-coder rings?
Wrist watch lazer beams?

The program, which the newspaper said had raised concerns among environmentalists, would produce 330 pounds (150 kg) over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory. The program could cost $1.5 billion and generate over 50,000 drums of hazardous and radioactive waste, federal officials told the Times.
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That's a lot waste for 330 lbs.

Plutonium 238 is hundreds of times more radioactive than plutonium 239, which is used in nuclear arms, according to the newspaper. Medical experts say inhaling even a speck posed a serious risk of lung cancer, the Times said.
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Thus you don't want to sleep with it under your bed or even in your neighborhood.

Sucks for Idaho.

The newspaper said plutonium 238 had no central role in nuclear arms, but was valued for its steady heat that could be turned into electricity. Nuclear batteries made from it power spacecraft to go where sunlight is too dim to energize solar cells.
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New NASA project? The plan to conquer Mars?

Federal and private experts not connected to the project were quoted as saying the new plutonium would likely power devices for espionage under the sea and on land.

The United States last made plutonium 238 in the 1980s and now relied on aging stockpiles or imports from Russia, the newspaper said. It added that under the agreement with Russia, the United States could not use the imports -- about 35 pounds (16 kg) since the end of the Cold War -- for military purposes.
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Which again suggests military purposes. Interesting.
 
Last night I was bored so I read some articles on protecting yourself from nuclear radiation. Nonetheless theres a private bunker of 42 buses in Toronto, Canada that can house 500 occupants. I think thats where i'll be heading when the bombs start goin off xP.
 
welsh said:
Looks like W has decided it was time to start milling out the radioactive hardware again!
Click to expand...

Hey, however you can find WMDs...

One of those bunker busting nukes that Rosh told us about months ago?
New arms racing coming up?
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Or the worst incarnation of a dirty bomb.
 
Great, anyone shooting down a spy robot plane (or whatever new toy the US goverment brings us this year for Christmas) powered by Pu238 is bound to release a beautiful cancerogenous cloud all over the atmosphere/stratosphere.

Or all over the said country's ground. Which will leak into groundwater. Rock.

When the export of exotic, deformed babies from interesting countries skyrockets, just dip 'em in glaze, paint them orange and green, and send them to Arizona roadside stands, to sell alongside plaster burros and birthbaths

Frazier said:
"The real reason we're starting production is for national security,"
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Dead Kennedys: A Growing Boy Needs His Lunch.
 
plutonium would likely power devices for espionage under the sea and on land.
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Underwater listening/detection devices seem to make sense, but any transmissions or maybe even the radiation might be detectable, although they they are confident that detection would be very unlikely, if not impossible. They might be assuming that terrorists looking for material for dirty bombs would never have the ability to find or retrieve the devices either, but you never know.
 
Maybe W just wants to bomb the whole middle east in order to get rid of the terrorist menace. Or maybe they are just flexing the military muscles...
Too damn expensive and dangerous if you ask me. Why can't these pricks use these funds to solve some social problems at home?
 
Wait, if a spyplane is shot down (powered by this stuff) or a spy device that used it were found, what's to stop terrorists from building a nuke out of it? Wouldn't you need hundreds of times less to build it?(than with plutonium 239)

Perhaps I am misunderstanding the relationship between radioactivity and the power of the bomb. Even if I'm misunderstanding how nukes work, would a dirty bomb be much smaller with this?
 
If pure plutonium 238 is not suitable for a nuclear bomb, the extreme heat it generates might make it harder for terrorists to efficiently make a dirty bomb, not that they would care much about a lower yield. The psychological affect of even a small amount of this stuff contaminating an urban environment would be devastating enough and would still create the need for a massive clean-up operation.
 
*conspiracy theory*
perhaps W is planning on giving some of this to the terrorists to use on us, thus creating even more fear which he can use to further control the american populace and pass more laws that stomp all over the constitution/bill of rights.
 
Why bother making a huge and expensive mess when you could just engineer a dirty bomb scare with government support? With a conventional explosive, government announcements and Fox propaganda, you could start a major panic (which would be stupid anyway) without wasting $1.5 billion and creating all those other problems.
 
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