Police Seize Russian Uranium In Istanbul

[seemslikeadream]

Police Seize Russian Uranium In Istanbul
16 August 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The Turkish news agency Anatolia today reported that police have arrested and charged two people with attempting to smuggle nuclear materials after they were allegedly found trying to sell 173 grams of enriched uranium smuggled from Russia.


Anatolia quoted a statement released by customs police as saying the two men were arrested in the Istanbul suburb of Harem trying to sell the enriched uranium to undercover police officers for $7 million.

The men were later charged with smuggling nuclear materials.

Anatolia said that investigations by the Turkish Nuclear Energy Agency found that the enriched uranium was of medium-grade.

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/08/b1dd65bd-5709-49ca-aba8-231d17733c75.html

[jsamuel]

1. Is it that common that they are selling it on the street like drugs?

[VegasWolf]

5. Yes, I'll take some grass, a little coke and 5 grams of yellowcake!

[BootinUp]

2. imagine how much smuggled uranium we don't know about

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Probably not as much as you would think

Uranium is not easy to stuff to handle and the containers are very, very heavy. Your average terrorist much prefers conventional weapons and suicide bombers.

[BootinUp]

7. Sure, I was exaggerating a bit

but

7 Million
7 m I L L i o n
7 M I L l i o n dollars

for 173 grams? 173 grams is less than half a pound and probably fits in a small vial.


(pretend Danny Devito is reading this outloud.)

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. And how much lead shielding

do you need to put around that vial so you don't kill yourself in the process? That's the heavy part.

[BootinUp]

10. Are you sure?

Not sure myself but I don't mind doing a little more googling...

http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/furanium.asp

Had the 15-pound uranium cylinder been weapon-grade highly enriched uranium instead of depleted uranium (which is not suitable for nuclear weapons), the dose rate at the surface of the highly enriched uranium would have been more than 100 times higher. However, nearly all of this increase would be due to alpha radiation, which can be shielded with a sheet of paper. Meanwhile, the beta-ray dose rate would be about the same or lower and the gamma-ray dose would be ten or more times higher. At the surface of the shielded container the dose rate would be be about one to ten times higher. The dose rate of the highly enriched uranium cylinder could be easily reduced to that of the shielded depleted uranium container (i.e., 0.5 mrad/hr) by adding an additional 1/8 inch of lead (one-third of a centimeter) around the cylinder. This would add only about 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms) to the mass of the lead shielding.

[bemildred]

17. Oh yes, it will kill you, and it won't be pretty. nt

[BootinUp]

23. The lead shielding?

[bemildred]

25. Yeah, exactly, the lead shielding. nt

[bemildred]

14. About 7 ounces. But still very lethal. nt

[wtmusic]

8. Don't know how you figure

An average terrorist would much "prefer" detonating a nuke in an American metropolitan area. There are no doubt bombs in process right now.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. Don't you think they would have used them by now?

Nuke aren't something you just sit on waiting for Christmas. The longer you have the darn thing, the more likely you are to get caught with it or contaminated by it. If al Qa(cia)ida had a nuke they would have used it already.

This nuke crap reminds me of the small pox scare after 9-11. Remember when they tried to convince us that terrorists were going to run through the airports contaminating people. The only problem with that theory is that when small pox is at the stage that you are contagious, you're going to be too sick to run anywhere.

[wtmusic]

13. I believe they're working very hard to get one right now

and since the invasion of Iraq they have a much better chance of sympathetic Muslims in the former USSR forking some over.

Like 9/11 it will be a complete surprise. But this time people will freak. You and I have never known panic like what we will see.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. Don't believe everything BushCo tells you

Even if the terrorists managed to get their hands on some material and make a dirty bomb and transport it to some significant target, for example NYC, it really wouldn't do that much damage. The large buildings would shield most of it. Plus it would be no where near as spectacular as flying airplanes into skyscrapers, since radiation is an invisible killer. Except for the people in the immediate area, the rest of us have already been exposed to a fair bit of radiation when the US and others were doing above ground nuclear testing. Somehow most of us have managed to survive, even though it may be responsible for some increases in cancer rates.

As far as a dirty bomb causing widespread panic, I really doubt that will happen. If the WTC falling down on National TV didn't cause national panic, a dirty bomb is going to pale in comparison.

Please stop feeding the monsters.

[wtmusic]

20. Not talking about a dirty bomb

Talking about a full-on nuke. The secret's out, thanks to AQ Khan:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1502378,00.html

Note source: not Bushco, not a "monster". It's the UN--the ones saying the Iraq war was illegal and the Niger uranium sale was a fake. They have some cred, don't you think?

[olddad56]

3. Oh boy, I guess we better invade Turkey right away.

[barb162]

4. Scary

[kodi]

12. don't forget, Bush tried to defund Nunn-Lugar when he came into office

the funds he attempted to cut were specifically allocated for stopping russian nuclear material and scientists from appearing on the black market.

george bush is a traitor. he has attempted to weaken the defenses of this country from nuclear attack.

and he did it to give his rich asshole buddies another tax cut.

[ConcernedCanuk]

15. Turkey seems to be a regular route for such traffic . . .

.
.
.

Overview of
Reported Nuclear Trafficking Incidents Involving Turkey,*
1993-1999

Public reports indicate that Turkey may be a significant transshipment route for nuclear smuggling from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Eighteen nuclear trafficking incidents involving Turkey were reported between 1993 and 1999. These cases include nuclear material seized in Turkey, nuclear material interdicted en route to Turkey, and seizure of nuclear material smuggled by Turkish nationals. These cases vary in significance from outright frauds involving osmium and "red mercury," to some that reportedly involved small quantities of weapons-usable material. However, to date none of these cases have been authoritatively confirmed to involve highly enriched uranium or plutonium.

Turkish officials have denied publicly that any plutonium or highly enriched uranium has been seized in the country. According to unconfirmed open-source reports, however, Turkish authorities seized several grams of plutonium in Bursa, Turkey in 1998, which had been smuggled from either Kazakhstan or Russia. In another reported incident, police confiscated 12g of highly enriched uranium in Zurich, Switzerland on 22 January 1996, and arrested a Turkish national who was a member of a nuclear smuggling group based in Turkey. The suspect said the material was destined for Libya. Four days later, Turkish police arrested the remaining members of this alleged smuggling ring in Yalova with 1.2kg of uranium (enrichment level not reported) in their possession. Furthermore, Turkish, Russian, and international wire services reported that Turkish police seized 750g of weapons-grade uranium, which had originated in Azerbaijan, in Istanbul in 1994. Initial press reports of seizures of "weapons-usable material" often turn out to be inaccurate, however, and none of these reported cases have been confirmed. Nuclear materials confiscated in Turkey were in most instances taken to the Cekmece Nuclear Research and Training Center in Istanbul for analysis.

Some preliminary observations can be made about these cases. First, public reports indicate that all nuclear material smuggled via Turkey originated in countries of the FSU. As the materials were seized, their ultimate destination cannot be determined with confidence; however, three cases reportedly involved material being sought by or shipped to Iran or Libya. In no case was the reported destination the government or any other entity in Turkey itself. Second, a number of these incidents apparently involved "amateurs" who acquired nuclear materials before identifying potential buyers, and who sought to peddle material of little or no utility for fabricating nuclear weapons. Third, the sheer number of cases indicates that Turkey may be a significant transshipment route for clandestine efforts to buy or sell nuclear material originating in the FSU. Turkey’s geographic setting could make it an attractive route for such transactions. Several countries of proliferation concern – Iran, Iraq, and Syria – share borders with Turkey.

MORE
____________________________________________

and this dummcanuk found this in 5 seconds of googling-


so

as one DUer already queried

"how much is getting moved around that we DON'T know about"

and as another DUer indicated

"scary"

yup

scary indeed . . .

The Bush Family's wars have made this stuff a VERY hot item (pardon the pun)

[BootinUp]

16. "Information on Nuclear Smuggling Incidents"

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Almanac/Smuggling_details.shtml


One comment, we should be concerned with cleaning up, disposing, protecting any weapons grade uranium that could get into the wrong hands, that doesn't mean I support invasions to accomplish that. :hi:

[puerco-bellies]

18. They had only about 14% of the material necessary.

It takes about 15Kg to make a fissionable weapon. Provided they could make a weapon. The question is much has been transferred already? It is a certainty to me that sympathetic technicians in Pakistan has passed on the know-how, but the facilities to manufacture, maintain, and ultimately deliver a real weapon are possessed by less then ten countries in the world. However that much uranium would make a very dirty bomb.

[daleo]

21. They said it was "medium grade"

I think that usually means about 30%, whereas bomb grade is about 80 or 90%. So, they didn't even have 14% of what was needed - more like 3 or 4%. And upgrading from medium to bomb grade is no small trick, as far as I know.


Nonetheless, these things bear watching.

[hedgetrimmer]

22. It's been stepped on (cut it), like coke giving more money per gram

traditional Russian style...

[lostnfound]

24. Wonder how this fits with the Sibel Edmonds perspective

Would this be...
*a pretense of prosecuting low-level suspects?
*Turkey's current government is NOT involved in the smuggling conspiracy (she pretty much said that in the antiwar.com interview) and is sincerely targeting the smugglers?
*Turkey has figured out they need to ignore advice from Bushco and pursue investigations and actions on their own?