Radium/clock/nuclear bomb/terrorism question....

[Viva_La_Revolution]

I a had a conversation with my brother this morning that was, well, a bit odd.
He told me about the Nuclear Boy Scout (turns out it's the Radioactive Boy Scout) who was trying to make a nuclear bomb with radium paint he found inside of an old clock.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1153968.htm

My brother lives in a little farm town in the midwest, which has recently seen an influx of immigrant labor at the new corporate pig farms that have sprouted in the last 15 years. As a result, anti-Mexican sentiments are running very high in town. There is talk among several people in town about a certain person who is part of this influx. Bro says "he doesn't act like a Mexican. My friends who know Spanish tell me he doesn't speak it very well".

Here's the clincher...

This guy is buying/acquiring/STEALING old clocks with radium dials, has 15-20 of them in his garage. This is not a rumor, several friends have seen them. Everybody is on High Terror alert about this guy, this is the mid-west, remember. Apparently this guy has even been 'reported' to Homeland Security, but there has been no action that anyone is aware of.


My question is...
Is it possible to scrape enough radium off of clock dials to make a bomb? The report says the kid found a whole vial of paint.

Or has an Urban Legend taken hold of my hometown?:eyes:

on Edit - after reading several of the articles detailing what this kid had to do to create a bomb, I'm not worried about this guy. Not unless he's some kind of super genius like this kid. At 12 he was doing university level experiments, on his own. :scared:

I'm more worried now about the whole sociological impact of all this 'Terra! Terra!' crap on the small towns of America. He's a little freaked out, we grew up in this town, and even the Mexican families who we grew up with there are feeling extremely uncomfortable.

[Deja Q]

1. The reason why homerland security hasn't responded is because

they'd rather go after tv show trading sites (TV s free, paid for by the advertisements for products we buy. Hell, I probably support enough reality shows and soaps without realizing it... it's like communism, only one person profits while the rest don't. )

And not to forget brothels either...

Definitely more terra'ists there... :eyes:

[oneighty]

2. No nuclear fission bomb

I think. Not to worry.

180

[HawkerHurricane]

3. I wouldn't worry.

You could EAT a radium watch, and get less radiation than a typical xray.
You'd worry more about the other poisons in the watch than the radium.

[Lithos]

4. No

It is physically impossible. To create a fissile bomb you would need Uranium or heavier elements (Plutonium). While I think Bush has made it easier to obtain or large organizations and countries, obtaining enough that has been adequately processed is still is out of the reach of the average citizen.

L-

[NNadir]

7. You can, in theory, make a bomb out of Thorium-229.

It is lighter than Uranium, and fairly long lived.

I don't know if much of it has ever been isolated. I would expect that it has not.

[DrGonzoLives]

5. Radium won't go critical

It's radioactive decay is very slow, which is the reason you can put it in watches. At best, with a bunch of radium, you might get the explosive power of a bottle rocket.

[NNadir]

6. Radium-226 has an even number of protons and neutrons.

This means one would expect a fairly low fission cross section. This is in fact the case. Typically the fission cross sections are measured in microbarns both for fast and slow neutrons for Radium-226, which is the isotope found in clocks. (Note, not all "even-even" nuclei have this property.)

The kid can, however, make a neutron source, if he alloys the Radium with Beryllium. If he keeps accumulates a few tons of Radium, and also collects a few tons of uranium and beryllium, and then sits around for a few hundred years, in theory he might be able to make some plutonium...

It never ceases to amaze me what I hear about radioactive substances. It's depressing actually.

[aeolian]

8. agreed

"It never ceases to amaze me what I hear about radioactive substances. It's depressing actually."

Agreed 100%. :toast: