Yup that does seem strange. But Life/2 not an issue.

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Post #53,760

by Another Scott

9/28/02 9:09:52 PM

9/29/02 1:07:31 AM

Yup that does seem strange. But Life/2 not an issue.

If it were tritium, the half-life would be an issue. Tritium's half-life is only 12.33 years, but U235's half-life is 704 M-years. I don't think contamination is much of a problem. U's pretty dense. Surface contamination would be cleaned off during the machining process.

CNN's now saying that it hasn't been determined to be weapons-grade yet...

I get the impression that the cylinder being shown is the 33 pound lump of uranium. Uranium's density is about 19 g/cc, so 15.7 kg would take up 826 cc. If the cylinder is 25 cm/10 in long then it would be about 6.5 cm/2.5 in in diameter. That seems about right to my uncalibrated eye.

The clearest picture of it I've seen is [link|http://www.msnbc.com/news/814321.asp?0si=-|here] on MSNBC. The orange stuff seems to be old celophane tape or something similar. On the right it seems to say something like "PRIMARILY TOURANUON" which makes no sense to me.

It'll be good if/when we have more information about this thing.

[edit](U235's half-life is 704 Myr, not 7.04 Myr as posted originally. Sorry.)

Cheers,
Scott.
(also, it's Deutschland. :-)

Edited by Another Scott Sept. 29, 2002, 01:07:31 AM EDT

Expand All History

Turks seize 33 pounds of weapons grade uranium. - (Another Scott) - (24) - Sept. 28, 2002, 11:30:57 AM EDT

Probably being smuggled into Israel non of the arabs want it -NT - (boxley) - Sept. 28, 2002, 12:02:26 PM EDT

Obvious question - (ben_tilly) - (4) - Sept. 28, 2002, 12:08:24 PM EDT

No way of knowing. That's part of what makes it scary. :-( -NT - (Another Scott) - (3) - Sept. 28, 2002, 01:31:56 PM EDT

Re: Also scary is ... - (dmarker2) - (2) - Sept. 28, 2002, 01:37:28 PM EDT

That's Even More Scary -NT - (deSitter) - (1) - Sept. 29, 2002, 11:52:45 AM EDT

..but.. - (deSitter) - Sept. 29, 2002, 11:54:06 AM EDT

Cylinder says "Made in W. Germany" - (Another Scott) - (5) - Sept. 28, 2002, 02:24:57 PM EDT

If it was made in Germany... - (ben_tilly) - (2) - Sept. 28, 2002, 02:24:47 PM EDT

What Ben said - - (Ashton) - Sept. 28, 2002, 05:06:33 PM EDT

it's the defacto trade language - (SpiceWare) - Sept. 28, 2002, 10:43:55 PM EDT

W? - (mhuber) - (1) - Sept. 28, 2002, 07:52:50 PM EDT

Yup that does seem strange. But Life/2 not an issue. - (Another Scott) - Sept. 29, 2002, 01:07:31 AM EDT

My questions. - (Brandioch) - (3) - Sept. 28, 2002, 10:43:10 PM EDT

a couple of answers ooma - (boxley) - Sept. 28, 2002, 10:58:25 PM EDT

Re: My questions. - (Ashton) - (1) - Sept. 29, 2002, 06:45:19 AM EDT

Ditto. And some more links. - (Another Scott) - Sept. 29, 2002, 09:47:34 AM EDT

Nothing to see here. Move along. - (marlowe) - Sept. 29, 2002, 02:15:42 PM EDT

Nothing to see here: tiny amount of (some kind of) U - (Ashton) - (5) - Sept. 29, 2002, 08:11:43 PM EDT

Yup. 5 oz. Suspects were released too. - (altmann) - (4) - Sept. 29, 2002, 08:18:21 PM EDT

WTF? - (Brandioch) - (1) - Sept. 29, 2002, 09:03:35 PM EDT

It is much easier to "explain" what happened when there... - (a6l6e6x) - Sept. 29, 2002, 09:42:28 PM EDT

How do they manage to miscount by that much? - (marlowe) - (1) - Sept. 30, 2002, 09:08:03 AM EDT

I don't smell anything fishy... - (Simon_Jester) - Sept. 30, 2002, 09:41:58 AM EDT

5 oz of zinc, iron, zirconium and manganese seized. - (Another Scott) - Sept. 30, 2002, 10:00:29 PM EDT

"First they came for the verbs and I said nothing, for verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns and I speech nothing, for I no verbs." - Peter Ellis
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