AW: [ RadSafe ] Enriched uranium incident a ploy -news article

[Franz Schönhofer]

Stewart, RADSAFErs,

There was a message one or a few days ago, which cited a story published at
"The Independent". Unfortunately I have already deleted this message. What I
remember is, that the headline spoke about a sale of weapons grade uranium,
suitable to build a few nuclear bombs. Further down in the article there
were 100 gramm (?, anyway metric!!!!!!!!!!) mentioned and the claim of the
"seller", that this was only a sample and that he had some kilos (?, again
metric) more in his flat. Nothing was mentioned about whether police found
anything in his flat, so I suppose there was nothing else there. From all my
knowledge (!), you cannot build several nuclear bombs from 100 g of weapons
grade uranium, whatever this might be. Even the sample was not sold and the
prospective seller obviously arrested. 

I do not know about the reputaton of "The Independent", but this message is
in line with all the incredible nonsense and speculations about Litwinenkows
dead in Austrian newspapers - no real information, speculations which could
be a source for a Hollywood Spy Movie. 

I would not be surprised if these news-releases were deliberately
manipulated like so much in this field. 

Official information about seizing of nuclear material can be found at the
IAEA web-site. 

Best regards,

Franz 

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag
von stewart farber
Gesendet: Samstag, 27. Jänner 2007 17:26
An: radsafe at radlab.nl
Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Enriched uranium incident a ploy -news article

See:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-sting27jan27,1,62434
93.story?coll=la-news-a_section

Interesting story from LA Times about the alleged Georgian middleman
involved in offering a few ounces of highly enriched U to agents for
security agencies in a sting operation.

NPR ran a sensationalistic story yesterday afternoon about this incident
--never stating that the amount in this former sausage broker's possession
was far below the amount of 5 pounds to 20 pounds of enriched U that would
be necessary for some group of terrorists to fabricate a nuclear weapon.

Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Consulting Scientist
Farber Technical Services
1285 Wood Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06604
[203] 444-8433 [office]
[203] 522-2817 [cell]
email: radproject at sbcglobal.net