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Nuclear smuggling is relatively commonplace. I can recommend the book "Nuclear Forensic Analysis" by Ian D. Hutcheon, Kenton J. Moody, and Patrick M. Grant for
by atemerev 7y ago
Nuclear smuggling is relatively commonplace. I can recommend the book "Nuclear Forensic Analysis" by Ian D. Hutcheon, Kenton J. Moody, and Patrick M. Grant for those who are interested in the details. Minor quantities of genuine nuclear materials (tens of grams of plutonium) are seized at borders about once per year. Cases dealing with major (kilogram) quantities seem to be classified, but I have little doubt they exist.
- slang800 7y ago> I have little doubt they exist. One well known incident involved 91-272 kg of enriched Uranium going missing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apollo_Affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apollo_Affair
- noobermin 7y agoUranium (even enriched) seems like on a different level than Californium.
- solveit 7y agoI'm sure they exist, but there are no cases involving kilograms of Californium since there exist maybe ten grams of the stuff in the entire world.
- mehrdadn 7y agoTen grams in the entire world? I see photos of what is claimed to be solid californium here... is that fake: http://www.chemistrylearner.com/californium.html http://www.chemistrylearner.com/californium.html
- petschge 7y agoThe image labeled "Californium bullet" actually shows laboratory neutron sources that contain 5 mg of Californium. The rest of the "bullet" is actually a stainless steel casing. The metal shaving further down the page are most likely microscopic, but as no length scale is given it is hard to estimate the mass.
- ars 7y agoThat website also claims Californium is used to make jewelry. Personally I have my doubts about that
- atemerev 7y agoOf course. Here I was talking about HEU/Pu.