That part makes no sense. He bought a bunch of spent uranium and tried to resell it. The prosecutors said it contained thorium and “weapons grade” plutonium (also know as plutonium).
My guess is they sent a sample to a mass spectrometry lab and they got back uranium, thorium and plutonium, but likely tiny amounts of plutonium, like picograms. Typically what happens when uranium is spent and sent to storage.
Weapons amount of plutonium requires reacting uranium beyond legal limits, then purifying it which can only be done in a few military labs in the world. (none of which are in Iran).
The article is wrong. He got the uranium from mines in Burma. He was trying to sell it elsewhere. It’s the same area where the ethnic rebels are mining rare earths.
That would just raise more questions. Weapons grade plutonium is very difficult and expensive to make. So difficult and expensive it’s only made in a handful of places and all of it is traceable back to these places
So, is it fresh from the factory and someone there is corrupt?
Or, since it obviously has to be shipped to all the places it’s used, did it “fall off the back of the truck” during one of those shipments?
Or, did someone at one of the places it was being used figure a way to purloin some and cover up the loss? Maybe when an area was down for other reasons?
We have the three acts of our movie! Who you want to star?
Where in the fuck did he get weapons grade plutonium?
Well, the world biggest arms dealer is the United States. That’s always a good place to start.
That part makes no sense. He bought a bunch of spent uranium and tried to resell it. The prosecutors said it contained thorium and “weapons grade” plutonium (also know as plutonium).
My guess is they sent a sample to a mass spectrometry lab and they got back uranium, thorium and plutonium, but likely tiny amounts of plutonium, like picograms. Typically what happens when uranium is spent and sent to storage.
Weapons amount of plutonium requires reacting uranium beyond legal limits, then purifying it which can only be done in a few military labs in the world. (none of which are in Iran).
I was thinking it’s from oak ridge or north korea at first. Your explaintion makes more sense.
Plutonium does not exist in nature, so at some point the uranium was in a reactor.
Actually happened naturally once that we know of… here is a good transcript but be warned it’s a fun rabbit hole to go down! (:
https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/disappearing-pod/the-worlds-only-natural-nuclear-reactor/
The article is wrong. He got the uranium from mines in Burma. He was trying to sell it elsewhere. It’s the same area where the ethnic rebels are mining rare earths.
Probably traded up from an arms dealer who needed a lot of drugs
That would just raise more questions. Weapons grade plutonium is very difficult and expensive to make. So difficult and expensive it’s only made in a handful of places and all of it is traceable back to these places
So, is it fresh from the factory and someone there is corrupt?
Or, since it obviously has to be shipped to all the places it’s used, did it “fall off the back of the truck” during one of those shipments?
Or, did someone at one of the places it was being used figure a way to purloin some and cover up the loss? Maybe when an area was down for other reasons?
We have the three acts of our movie! Who you want to star?
Mr Bean!
Perfect! He’s got exactly the right gravitas!