U.N. Finds New Traces Of Uranium In Syria

[sabra]

Source: CBS News/AP

Nuclear Agency Suspects Site To House Secretly Built Reactor; Iran's Nuke Program Said To Have Slowed

(CBS/AP) U.N. nuclear agency samples taken from a Syrian site suspected of being a secretly built reactor have revealed new traces of processed uranium, the agency reported Thursday.

A separate report by the same organization - the International Atomic Energy Agency - noted a significant slowdown in Iran's efforts to expand its uranium enrichment program. The U.N. Security Council has slapped sanctions on Iran for not freezing enrichment, which can be used to make both nuclear fuel and the core of warheads.

The report did not suggest any reason for the slowdown. But agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said earlier this week that the reason appeared to be "political" - indicating that Iran may be waiting for conciliatory signals from the new U.S. administration, which has said it is ready to break with past American policy and talk directly with Iran on nuclear and other disputes.

Both reports - meant for restricted release Thursday only to the 35 nations of the IAEA board - were obtained by The Associated Press ahead of a board meeting starting March 2 that will have the nuclear activities of the two Mideast nations on its agenda.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/19/world/main4812790.shtml?tag=topStory;topStoryHeadline

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These two satellite images made available by DigitalGlobe shows a suspected nuclear facility site in Syria before and after a Sept. 6, 2007 Israeli airstrike. (AP/DigitalGlobe)

[DCKit]

1. DU from the bombs used to destroy the facility, perhaps?

Just wonderin'.

[balantz]

2. Could be. But if there's any truth to that we can always trust the military industrial media

to cover up or omit any such information.

[Angleae]

5. No. DU is pure U-238, processed is mostly U-235

That and DU wasn't used to destroy the facility in the first place.

[struggle4progress]

7. That's not correct, as far as isotopic composition:

Uranium as found in nature. It contains 0.7 percent uranium-235, 99.3 percent uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight. In terms of the amount of radioactivity, it contains approximately 2.2 percent uranium-235, 48.6 percent uranium-238, and 49.2 percent uranium-234
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/natural-uranium.html

Low enriched uranium (LEU) typically used in light water reactors is in the range of 3-5% U‑235
http://www.asno.dfat.gov.au/publications/categ_numat_intsfgrds.html

<Depleted Uranium contains about 0.5% more U-238 than natural uranium>
http://www.idust.net/Tutorial/DURadiation01.htm

[bemildred]

3. Uranium traces at Al-Kibar site unlikely to be result of Israeli strike -

Somewhat contradictory, it would be nice to see the actual reports.

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The tests conducted by the UN nuclear watchdog on soil samples taken from the site in 2008 led to the discovery of uranium and graphite particles about which Syria did not notify the IAEA, according to a report issued here by IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei.

The report said the uranium contamination that turned up in the samples was a chemically processed form of the mineral that was not the enriched variety used to run nuclear power plants or as fissile bomb materials.

Acknowledging that the found traces were not significant, the IAEA chief urged Syria to show more cooperation and transparency to the UN nuclear inspectors.

http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1977341&Language=en

[kickysnana]

4. Awsome! They've finally found the Walmart exit signs.

(this could be great fun. Blackwater planting Walmart signs to trip up radiation levels in Syria; etc, etc)
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/587906

It began in late 2007 as a routine audit. Retail giant Wal-Mart noticed that some exit signs at the company's stores and warehouses had gone missing.

As the audit spread across Wal-Mart's U.S. operations, the mystery thickened. Stores from Arkansas to Washington began reporting missing signs. They numbered in the hundreds at first, then the thousands. Last month Wal-Mart disclosed that about 15,800 of its exit signs – a stunning 20 per cent of its total inventory – are lost, missing, or otherwise unaccounted for at 4,500 facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The signs contain tritium gas, a radioactive form of hydrogen. Tritium glows when it interacts with phosphor particles, a phenomenon that has led to the creation of glow-in-the-dark emergency exit signs.

It's estimated there are more than 2 million tritium-based exit signs in use across North America.

[The abyss]

6. If there had actually been weapons grade material at this site…

then every air-monitoring stations throughout the region, in all the refineries, the oil fields, etc… would have gone off like a three alarm fire after this bombing run. Reports down wind should have been picked up all over the place. I never read of anything. At the time of the strike I monitored a board that was populated by a large number of oil field techs versed in the region. All of them noted the same “missing” information.

This never smelled right the first time, the odor has not improved.