Uranium from US supplies floats around unmonitored

[jpak]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/03/INGG1M5K4M.DTL

Western nations are hurriedly collaborating to tighten sanctions on Iran after the United Nations released documents that left little doubt the country is trying to produce nuclear weapons.

American diplomats are pushing North Korea to shut down its uranium-enrichment plants so that nuclear-disarmament talks can resume. And as Pakistan grows less stable with every passing week, the United States is urgently devising plans to secure that state's nuclear weapons should the government lose control.

Meantime, several federal agencies in charge of America's bomb-grade nuclear materials reacted with sneering disregard to a government auditor's report this fall that no one is monitoring large quantities of highly enriched uranium, enough to make hundreds of nuclear weapons. The United States loaned the material to dozens of countries for research projects decades ago.

The State Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy "are satisfied with the status quo on this issue," Eugene Aloise, director of nuclear security and nonproliferation for the Government Accountability Office, told me. The GAO published his report. "In our view, they have a pre-911 mentality regarding securing of this nuclear material."

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[bananas]

1. And that a good thing, according to the mushroom farmers.

Recced to zero.
The mushroom farmers are up early this morning.

[madokie]

2. rec'd to 5

[Nihil]

3. And now rec'd to 7 ...

... though I must admit that when I opened this thread with the title
"Uranium from US supplies floats around unmonitored" I thought it was
going to be about the radioactive uranium being thrown into the air on
daily basis (and completely unmonitored) at all of the coal-burning
plants in the US, spreading not just across the US mainland, into the
lungs of US citizens and off abroad over the sea.

This one is still worthy of a rec but it's a shame that the other
(far more prevalent and far more deadly every day) gets such a free
pass from so many people.

:shrug:

[madokie]

4. I think the threat of a catastrophic mistake is much greater than the threat from our coal

I see it as we need to get away from nuclear first and foremost, Our plants are old, the technology didn't pan out as its neither safe nor cheap and they still have all this waste to deal with that no one really has a safe viable plan for that, even after 70 years still no answers. If whats going on in Japan right now isn't enough for you to comprehend what can be and more than likely will happen again and again. Our plants are old remember. On its own nuclear power can't exist as a competitive source.
It looked good on paper and sounded great with all the talk of all this free energy but it just didn't pan out that way. sorry


I think we should get rid of our coal plants, yes. Nuclear fur sure.