Posted on 02/17/2016 9:56:01 AM PST by BeadCounter
Iraq is searching for "highly dangerous" radioactive material stolen last year, according to an environment ministry document and seven security, environmental and provincial officials who fear it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Islamic State.
The material, stored in a protective case the size of a laptop computer, went missing in November from a storage facility near the southern city of Basra belonging to U.S. oilfield services company Weatherford (WFT.N), the document obtained by Reuters showed and officials confirmed.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Maybe it's a bit overdramatic to red-letter it though it is an important and alarming story. Looks like it was stolen last November/December. Material was in a laptop sized container.
Ahh Haa!
Finally the WMD show up! How will the Donald ‘splain himself outta dis one? Thats it. Im not voting for him now. :(
Look at it this way. It can’t be George Bush’s fault since there were no WMD in Iraq. So it must be Obama’s. Maybe the US was fixing to nuke Iran.
Get ready for the 2016 version of a false flag.
Weatherford failed to secure their nuclear material in Iraq.
That is not good.
Left on a table in a coffee shop in downtown Basra?
During the 0bama administration people just walk off and leave nuke things laying around.
“Finally the WMD show up! “
Ir192 is a pretty common industrial isotope.
Sounds like Californium 252.
Neutron emitter used sometimes in oil industry.
Not a serious threat as a weapon unless you want to take out less than 10 people.
REALLY expensive weapon, probably over $1M
This sounds like industrial material used in well and mining production. I wouldn't sprinkle on my morning toast but its hardly weapons grade material.
So no Big Deal is what your saying? Thanks.
In their defense, if you were a worker, no firearms in sight and the ISIS head choppers were baring down on your location....what would you do?
I'd get in my land rover and reach escape velocity. lol
It said the material was US owned and used for flaw testing. Sorry!
“Not a serious threat as a weapon unless you want to take out less than 10 people.”
It’s not the damage, it’s the threat. People hear “radiation” and they panic. In this case 10 grams will set off radiation detectors, which is enough.
From a friend who is an expert on this stuff:
“OK, Ir-192 is lost all the time in the USA, and is by far the most common source that injuries people in the IAEA reports. However, the half life is only 74 days. 740 days later it’s effectively gone.
I missed the first part of “stolen last year” OK, assuming that it was lost 365 days ago and the half life of Ir-192 is 74 days, it has decayed by over 30 fold by now.
Iridium looks like black pencil lead. It is easily lost. We lose Ir-192 all the time in the USA. Maybe once a week IMO.
And this made the front page of the Drudge Report?
Wow.
Bullets are far more dangerous than Ir-192.
OK, someone could use Ir-192 as a torture device I guess, but that’s getting into Dr. Evil sort of territory of stupid and expensive.”
Half life is about 74 days. Ir-192 sourses usually start out at 100R. More information.
Stolen? More likely sold to the highest bidder.
Guess we’re lucky our borders are secure.../s
OBAMA IS NOT PROTECTING THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES.
No problem guys, just some peaceful Muslims with radioactive material. What could possibly go wrong?
Correct unit would be R/hr.
This common radiography source travels from a shielded storage “container” via a crank and screw mechanism through a tube to expose a weld or other metal for inspection via image on developed film or more modern digital media.
Size of the source is small as described to travel through the tube of hte radiography camera. Because of its size, it behaves like a “point source”, i.e. dose rates fall off significantly with the square of the increasing distance.
A 100 R/hr dose rate at 1 cm from source would be <100 mR/hr at 1 meter distance and on the order of 10 mR/hr at 3 meters. Something to worry about if it was in your pocket or imbedded in you after a dirty bomb explosion but not a big deal if it was unshielded across the room from you for a while.
Commenters Right on the half life considerations, terrorists would have to move relatively fast or there is nothing but a non-radioactive BB left.
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