[ RadSafe ] Moldovan authorities seize smuggled uranium Most of the seizures in India were DU

Tue Aug 24 19:58:11 CDT 2010

Dan,

Most of the seizures of uranium in India were DU used as shielding  material in 
decommissioned medical accelerators or telecobalt machines.  Some makes of 
medical accelerators may contain up to 125 kg of DU.

The number of seizures reduced drastically when Government put tighter  
controls. Often police gave too much publicity to seizures.

regards 
Parthasarathy

________________________________
From: Dan W McCarn <hotgreenchile at gmail.com>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList 
<radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Wed, 25 August, 2010 4:09:02
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Moldovan authorities seize smuggled uranium

Yellowcakes...

I remember several years ago that some reporter wrote that "weapons-grade"
uranium was smuggled-out of India in Yellow Cakes.... I died with laughter!
The current price of yellowcake is about $45 / pound U3O8 (as yellowcake),
so the value of the smuggled goods is less than $200 dollars. 

Dan ii

--
Dan W McCarn, Geologist
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
+1-505-672-2014 (Home - New Mexico)
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HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Brennan, Mike
(DOH)
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 16:12
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Moldovan authorities seize smuggled uranium

You could do a lot more damage with $11,000,000 than you can with 4 pounds
of yellowcake.  

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Perle, Sandy
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2010 2:10 PM
To: 'radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu'
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Moldovan authorities seize smuggled uranium

Moldovan authorities seize smuggled uranium By the CNN Wire Staff August 24,
2010 4:38 p.m. EDT

Officials arrested five people in connection with a raid in the city of
Chisinau, Moldova.

*   NEW: Three people were arrested in connection with the smuggling
operation
*   Authorities discovered about 4 pounds of uranium 238
*   Known as yellowcake, that type of uranium has to be enriched to
make a bomb

Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Officials in Moldova seized 1.8 kilograms (about
4 pounds) of smuggled uranium and arrested three of seven suspects, an
interior ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

Tipped off in early July, authorities discovered the Uranium 238, known as
yellowcake, in a garage in the former Soviet republic's capital of Chisinau
on July 20, said Kirill Motspan, director of the ministry's press office.

The smugglers were trying to traffic the uranium with an intent to sell it
for more than $11 million. Authorities are still trying to determine the
uranium's origin -- Moldova does not produce uranium -- and its intended
destination.

However, yellowcake -- a coarse, poisonous powder that gets its name for its
often yellow color -- cannot be used to make a nuclear bomb. It is the most
commonly occurring found form of uranium and is not a fissile substance,
meaning that it must be enriched in an "elaborate set-up"
before it can be used for nuclear weapons, said Xiachun He, a professor of
nuclear physics at Georgia State University in the United States. The
uranium 238 alone is not even potent enough to make an effective dirty bomb,
the physicist said, since the level of radiation would be too low once
scattered as dust. Motpan said it was his understanding that 1 kilo of
uranium costs $6.3 million on the black market and that is what the
smugglers were expecting to get.

"Apparently, you can't make anything serious out of this modest amount of
radioactive material," Motpan said. "But they were actively looking for a
customer."

Acting as buyers, undercover policemen acquired less than one gram of the
substance and sent it to the United States for analysis, which confirmed
that it was uranium 238, he said.

Motpan also said that along with the uranium, the Moldovan police also
discovered a cache with a Makarov pistol, 620 cartridges for a Kalashnikov
assault rifle, an F-1 hand grenade, car license plates, Soviet passports,
and other documents in the same garage.

Yellowcake became a frequently heard term just before the 2003 invasion of
Iraq. The United States and the United Kingdom asserted that Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein had been trying to procure yellowcake from Niger to make
weapons of mass destruction.

Then-President George W. Bush used that claim to bolster support for the war
though critics, including diplomat Joseph Wilson, who had published an
article about a CIA investigation, said Bush was exaggerating the Iraqi
threat.

Motpan said a German atomic center will perform an expert analysis of the
seized uranium to establish the enrichment percentage and the country of
origin. The radioactive material has been placed in a special container and
is under guard.

"We are expecting more information coming out of Russia, Romania and some
other countries that can shed light onto this case and those suspects," he
said.

-----------------------------------
Sander C. Perle
President
Mirion Technologies
Dosimetry Services Division
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

+1 (949) 296-2306 (Office)
+1 (949) 296-1130 (Fax)

Mirion Technologies: http://www.mirion.com/

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