Posted on 04/10/2003 5:19:05 PM PDT by Axion
Speaking of ships, What happened to those three ships supposedley circling in the Indian Ocean? Does anyone know what happened to those?
This is only true if the device has a fusion stage (for example, lithium-6 deuteride, in which fusion would occur after being "ignited" by the plutonium fission device; there are other ways to do it as well, but they all involve fusion of light isotopes like deuterium or tritium rather than fission of heavy elements like uranium or plutonium).
Why bother even taking the risk of detection in Mexico and running a border???????
All you need is a 40'-50' sailboat...its that simple
Despite all the effort of 'homeland' security...sailing a boat into any port on our coast is typically without challenge...
Take for instance the number of small sailboats routinley crossing the Atlantic via Bermuda and the Mediteranean...
Rarely if ever checked.
Sail right into New York Harbour any day of the week. If someone wanted me to deliver a 'package' to New York...I could have it here within 4-8 weeks from the Eastern Med...piece of cake
Hmmm...makes you wonder
Not true. Each isotope decays via a specific mechanism with specific energy levels - just like a fingerprint. With the proper equipment (not hand-held devices), the isotope can be positively identified.
For example, he says that there are two ways of making Pu-239: neutron bombardment and in a reactor where it is made as a byproduct. What happens in a reactor? Neutron bombardment.
He contends that unlike uranium enrichment, plutonium purification is a difficult and more expensive process. That is not true. It is more expensive and difficult to fashion the purified plutonium into a functioning fissile device, but the purification process (which for plutonium is not, as he calls it, an enrichment process) is easier than uranium enrichment-- you don't have to do any isotope separation. So why is it more expensive to make Pu-239 than U-238? Because you make Pu-239 from U-238; you have to purify the uranium and then separate it into its different isotopes just to get to your 'starting point'. If Saddam wanted to make some nukes, it wouldn't be a matter of choosing between Pu based weapons or U based weapons on the matter of the cost- in order to make Pu he would need all the processes to make enriched uranium as part of the deal.
I don't see anything completely wrong in a way that matters other than the idea that no one getting sick yet means only alpha emitters are present. Just a bunch of things that are somewhat wrong and show the author doesn't really know of what he writes.
I heard that on Batchelor and Alexander.
I read that all those ships are belong to us. Whatever they had was not earth shaking.
Feel (or perhaps Felix) free.
Different elements can have different isotopes-- the same element but with a different number of neutrons in the nucleus. U-235 and U-238 are both Uranium, but they are different isotopes of uranium.
Fission is the process where an unstable isotope's nucleus breaks apart. There are not many isotopes of any sort that undergo fission. U-235, U-233, P-239 are examples. When the nucleus of a fissionable isotope disintegrates, you will end up with atoms of completely different elements, free neutrons, and lots of energy (mass converted into energy by E=MC^2).
The fissionable isotopes I mentioned above are the ones which undergo fission upon neutron bombardment- as such the neutrons released from the fission can feed more fission in what is known as a chain reaction, which occurs when there is enough of the material present in a small area as is needed to sustain the reaction. This is known as critical mass. Thorium-232 is another fissionable isotope (its nucleus will break apart) but unlike the others, neutron bombardment will not cause the fission. It just happens over time.
Some non-fissionable isotopes (and it is not limited to the elements listed above), when bombarded by neutrons, will change. U-238, for example, when bombarded with neutrons, may accept a neutron to become U-239, which is itself an unstable isotope that is a beta emitter with a pretty short half life. When an atom emits a beta particle, it can be thought of as a neutron in the nucleus becoming a proton and an electron, with the electron being expelled (the beta particle). The new proton causes the atomic number of the atom to increase (atomic number merely being the number of protons in the nucleus-- which says what element it is), and as such what happens is that the U-239 becomes Pu-239.
Worse. Consider: Hussein has already provided training, financing, weapons, and other support for terrorist groups ranging from Hamas to Al Qaeda. Why not nukes, too?
If this story is valid, we can only hope that we've nipped this in the bud, and that there are no completed products floating around anywhere. I can't even type what I think of the U.N. and their weapons inspection protection program. It would get me banned for obscenity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.