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| The Grand Turk |
| Turkish Authorities Seized 3 lb. Of Nuclear Material Destined For Black Market |
| 2018-03-20 |
| [WarNewsUpdates] Turkish authorities have detained four men they claim are part of a criminal gang in possession of large quantities of a radioactive nuclear element they had hoped to sell on the black market for over $70 million. According to the German news agency DPA, the four men were found to be holding just over 3 pounds of the synthetic nuclear element Californium, which is most commonly used to kickstart nuclear reactors and in mining. The Turkish press reported that the identity of the buyer of the nuclear material remains unclear. Neither the Turkish security services, nor the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) have stated the origin of the highly radioactive material, which is now being safeguarded. |
| Posted by:newc |
| #8 Americium might be a more likely material. It is widely used in home smoke detectors as an alpha particle generator. I couldn't find details on the mass of Am produced per year, but it would have to be fairly large to support the manufacture of so many smoke detectors, even though a very small amount of Am is used per detector. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2018-03-20 22:03 |
| #7 It's not Californium. Californium is a very strong neutron emitter. The ammount of shielding necessary for this is pretty high. One microgram (0.000001 grams) of californium-252 produces 170,000,000 neutrons per minute. It was first made at Berkeley in 1950. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2018-03-20 12:07 |
| #6 Two sites in the world are responsible for the production of this metallic, radioactive element. One is the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The other is the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, located in Dimitrovgrad, Russia, which produces 0.025 grams of the material each year. |
| Posted by: Clurong Peacock9529 2018-03-20 10:08 |
| #5 Rare stuff, created only by a few specific government nuclear reactors, and in tiny amounts. Nobody ever has near-critical masses of the stuff just laying around to be stolen for black market sale. It decays to nothing in a few years. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2018-03-20 05:20 |
| #4 Is it just me, or is the news sounding more & more like sci-fi/fantasy writing? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2018-03-20 04:55 |
#3 One of the linked links has this:Turkish police captured 1kg 441 gram Californium-252 that worths more than 70 million dollar in Ankara, a very expensive radioactive element used in #nuclear fusion. pic.twitter.com/Rquf1yLdlP He's talking 1.441 kg of Ca-252. Wikipedia says 2.73 kg of Ca-252 could be a critical mass. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2018-03-20 04:28 |
| #2 Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) have stated the origin of the highly radioactive material, which is now being safeguarded. Perhaps it is as the name suggests and should be sent back ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2018-03-20 03:38 |
| #1 Neutrons! Got you neutrons here! Neutrons... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2018-03-20 00:14 |