🚀 go-pugleaf

jac@ds8.scri.fsu.edu (Jim Carr) writes:

> In article <X4yusB2w165w@iowegia.uucp> quest@iowegia.uucp (Steve J. Quest) wr
> >
> >        Once again I have to reiterate, the radiation from a 
> >subcritical sphere of Plutonium 239 is NOT lethal!  The people who 
> >make the bombs our government is so proud of- do the fabrication 
> >behind barium glass using nothing more than an elaborate glove 
> >box!  Of course they only have to work for a few months a year, 

> Yes, you can hold a lump of Pu-239 in your hand -- at least if you 
> believe the stories about the bomb project.  It is supposed to be 
> nicely warm from the alpha-decay heat.  I do not know; I have never 
> done it.  It would be a most interesting experience I am sure. 
> 
> When people talk about the radiation risk, it is the risk associated 
> with separating Pu-239 from burnt-up reactor fuel as the author of 
> this post has suggested (here or elsewhere) would be feasible.  This 
> is not something one does without engineering a very secure, remotely 
> operated, industrial facility.  I find the stories about the concrete 
> in the Hanford halls being turned into a material that is literally 
> spongy by the radiation damage to be astounding, but not surprising. 
> 
> So, given a nice collection of chunks of bomb-grade Pu-239, you could 
> handle it and machine it (masks suggested) quite easily.  Making it 
> is not so simple.  For this reason, the security of special nuclear 
> materials is of the utmost importance, and the view articulated by 
> G.H.W.Bush that the world is safe from nuclear war following the 
> breakup of the former Soviet Union is only true as long as that 
> collection of nations maintains control over its stockpile of materials. 

Jim,

        Although I firmly believe a motivated individual could 
refine enough PU239 from spent fuel rods, or refine from U238 
reflector/absorbers in his "basement breeder" reactor to build a 
bomb- given the current situation as you and I have both iterated, 
the materials may very well be available on the market- given the 
break-up of the soviet union.  As with drugs, make enough money 
available and someone somewhere who has access to said fissionable 
materials will procure and provide, his motivation of course will 
be large sums of easy money.  It is well known that people who 
have gambling or drug problems need more money than they can earn 
to support said addictions.  What would be the outcome if one of 
our bonded and trusted "nuclear bomb assembly workers" had a drug 
or gambling problem?  What if this problemed individual was asked 
by a determined individual for the procurement of said fissile 
fuels?  What if large sums of cash were given?  The results are 
obvious, and there is no amount of security to prevent what I have 
just illustrated from happening- for it may even NOW be happening.

        I do not know, but I can speculate..............sq