Kodak confirms it had weapons-grade uranium in underground lab

CNN ^ | Wed May 16, 2012 | Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd

[Abathar]

-- Kodak -- the company known for decades for its cameras and film -- this week confirmed it used weapons-grade uranium in an underground lab in upstate New York for upwards of 30 years.

A company spokesman and a former scientist for the firm say there was not enough material to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.

Former Kodak researcher Albert Filo said the uranium was alloyed with aluminum in plates sealed in sleeves that were not moved for three decades. The amount of fuel was about 3½ pounds, which experts say is less than one-tenth of the amount necessary to make a crude nuclear device.

The alloyed material "could not be readily converted to make a nuclear weapon," said Eastman Kodak spokesman Christopher Veronda. "Disassembling the device and removing these plates was a process that took highly trained experts more than a day to perform."

[Abathar]

3-1/2 lbs of weapons grade uranium might not be enough for a nuclear device, but it sure as hell is enough for one nasty dirty bomb, Kodak's uranium was enriched to 93.4%.

[PapaBear3625]

But for more than 30 years, the company had a device called a californium neutron flux multiplier, or CFX, ... Its purpose was to create a beam of neutrons to use for scanning and testing other materials. The device's primary source of neutron radiation was the radioactive element californium, but the stream of neutrons produced by the californium was multiplied by passing it through a lattice of highly enriched uranium U-235, whose nuclear fission released additional neutrons.

[Steely Tom]

Kodak did some extremely valuable work for the United States Government back in the cold war for which they accepted almost no (cash) payment. This work was very very classified at the time.

This HEU could be related to that.

[Buckeye McFrog]

the secret ingredient in Kodachrome revealed...

[ctdonath2]

If you’re looking at making a big mess, there was plenty of chemicals at Kodak to do so. One mis- (or well-) placed spark could have blown out much of the area. Abusing that reactor for such purposes would have taken far more effort than other methods producing the same results.

Just 2 blocks from that reactor, a gasoline tanker tipped over, ignited, and destroyed an entire city block. Why is peoples’ worry about one small reactor in a locked basement of a secured building orders of magnitude more intense than their worry about such trucks which drive by that same building dozens of times a day?

[Arcy]

I would be perfectly comfortable living next door to this Koday facility. No worries at all. If I were a liberal, I would be hysterical about now and probably need oxygen. hahaha

[Roccus]

At the Westinghouse pavilion in the ‘64 World's Fair in NYC, controlled nuclear fission demonstrations were carried out several times each day....FLASH BANG! They kept a running count of success/failure

[Abathar]

True, but as far as terrorists are concerned a nasty dirty bomb would be 100 times more effective than a tanker explosion the next day.

[DBrow]

“Kodak’s uranium was enriched to 93.4%. “

It may have been mostly 235, but it was highly diluted in aluminum. This was done to avoid criticality issues. Any danger is in the mind of a “journalist”.

[Uri’el-2012]

Kodak turned the material over to the government in 2007, under heavy security.

Left-wing loons agitating in 2012.

[ClearCase_guy]

Kodak turned the material over to the government in 2007, under heavy security.

Bush's fault! Thank goodness Obama is here now, so that his Liberal helpers in the press can help us panic over nothing.

[Abathar]

So would I, but nothing will instill panic in people like a news headline stating that Kodak was broken into on Christmas day and the thieves successfully made off with several pounds of enriched uranium.

All they would have to do with it is nothing, bury it and walk away leaving everyone guessing what it was going to be used for.
Let the MSM panic the sheeple into all kinds of new restrictions over it.

A terrorists wet dream.

[Roccus]

Ooops.....that was the GE pavilion.

[KarlInOhio]

It may have been mostly 235, but it was highly diluted in aluminum. This was done to avoid criticality issues. Any danger is in the mind of a “journalist”.

But separating U235 from the aluminum is far, far easier than separating it from U238.

If they just had some more, the original battle between Kodak and Fuji could have turned out far differently. And no one would have dared cross Kodak after that.

[Abathar]

I was thinking about that too, but aluminum has such a low melting point that separating the two would be pretty easy, wouldn’t it? Just thinking technically is all, those two having such different density I bet they would look like oil and water in a kiln.

[Abathar]

lol, “Damn Yankees and their uranium!”

[chrisser]

"If they just had some more, the original battle between Kodak and Fuji could have turned out far differently. And no one would have dared cross Kodak after that"

Thanks for that. I needed a good chuckle this morning.

[DBrow]

The alloy is more like a solution. Dissolving the Al in KOH gives you an aqueous solution that you could then maybe precipitate out the U.

I wonder if it’s an alloy, or clad plates? A Fast Burst Reactor uses highly enriched fuel, in plates, clad with aluminum. An FBR is set up to get super-prompt criticality with a limit on maximum rate, so it can’t go Trinity on you.

Did Kodak have an FBR or some similar device?

https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2007/reactor.html

The link has a pic of SPR II with the safety shield off showing al-clad U235 plates.

[Steely Tom]

I was thinking about that too, but aluminum has such a low melting point that separating the two would be pretty easy, wouldn’t it? Just thinking technically is all, those two having such different density I bet they would look like oil and water in a kiln.

Melting point of aluminum: 660°C
Melting point of uranium: 1135°C

Would probably look more like oil and rock salt.

I wonder how they made an alloy out of two such dissimilar metals.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Alas SPR is no more.