
Government Employees Had Weapons-Grade Plutonium Stolen From Their Rental Car - Vaslo
https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/ywkd9x/two-government-employees-had-weapons-grade-plutonium-stolen-from-their-rental-car
======
johnm1019
The article lists these as calibration sources. That means they are minuscule.

Bad that hit happened, yes. Worth the headline and attention in the article?
Nah.

~~~
Animats
Yes. If you want a cesium calibration source, you can order one online from
United Nuclear.[1] Costs $145, plus $15 shipping. Anyone can order. "If you're
ordering hazardous items, don't forget to sign the disclaimer on the bottom of
the order form!"

Plutonium alpha sources are available from Eckert and Ziegler, and can be
ordered in the US from Direct Scientific.[2] Call for pricing. They're a disk
with some plutonium electroplated onto platinum on stainless steel. There's no
window, because this is an alpha emitter and the particles would not get
through.

As hazardous objects, these rank well below a steak knife.

[1]
[https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&c...](https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=819)
[2]
[https://www.drct.com/dss/sources/alpha.htm](https://www.drct.com/dss/sources/alpha.htm)

------
whyGaard
What are the chances someone knew the plutonium was being transported in that
particular vehicle?

~~~
acomjean
I used to have to move around a radioactive instrument for work[1]. It was in
a big orange box with nuclear stickers all over it. Not very subtle.

Though I remember having to get a permit from the nuclear regulatory
commission to transfer it off site. It always had to be locked up or under
your control. It didn't have much radioactive material, but some.

It radiated enough that when someone stored their radiation badge in the box,
they were very very worried about him when the badge was read..

[1]
[http://www.troxlerlabs.com/Products/Catalog/catid/1](http://www.troxlerlabs.com/Products/Catalog/catid/1)

------
kev009
As a kind of thought experiment I wonder how being the new "owner" of this
would be anything other than a terrible curse. It's not really useful in any
way to most people so you probably decide to hawk it. You have the full might
of the DoE and other government agencies monitoring for it. Let's say you
somehow establish contact with a weapons dealer or foreign government agent.
They are just as likely to whack you and take it to clean up the trail as any
other outcome. There's basically no way to win, and no zero sum in this game.

~~~
vandahm
In Brazil, in the 1980s, a couple of burglars broke into an abandoned hospital
and stole a supply of cesium chloride from a radiotherapy machine. The
difference between your scenario and this one is that the thieves didn't know
what it was -- it just looked important and expensive. The whole thing was a
huge screw-up, and a number of people -- including one of the burglars -- died
from exposure to radiation before the authorities sorted it all out.

    
    
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

~~~
tonyarkles
I thought of that story right away and, man, there’s a lot of heartbreaking
elements to it. Also incompetence all around. Who thinks leaving something
with that much potential for harm in an abandoned building?!

Edit: ...is a good idea?!

------
ryanmercer
...

Why is plutonium being transported in a rented car...

~~~
Analemma_
Take a look sometime at the history of storing and transporting nuclear
material in the US and see if you ever sleep again. The combination locks set
to 000000, the dropped wrenches almost blowing a hole in North Carolina, the
senior officers getting drunk in Moscow bars... the list goes on.

Then remember that these are just the declassified stories from the US, and
that there’s probably even more hair-raising tales from other countries and/or
still classified.

~~~
newnewpdro
Can you recommend any good books on the subject?

~~~
syn_rst
"Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion
of Safety" is pretty good. I read it a while back after seeing it linked here.

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C5R7F8G?ref_=k4w_ss_dp_lp](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C5R7F8G?ref_=k4w_ss_dp_lp)

------
g0dg0d
Ummm why was plutonium allowed to be transported in a contractors car?

------
doctorRetro
It's not a question of where it is, but when it is.

~~~
wizardforhire
Insert plot device for mid eighties popular film franchise.

~~~
stevenwoo
The 12 Monkeys TV series recently ended and it had pretty much every single
time travel trope in there eventually, it was kind of awesome.

------
trhway
if it happened in Russia, i'd say that this was just a show to cover the sale
of the plutonium. Never let good plutonium go waste :)

------
whyGaard
Are you serious? You can just load up a rented car with plutonium? There's not
something in the ToS to prevent that?

------
atVelocet
I guess Doc Brown needed some fuel for the flux capacitor...

------
pasbesoin
One example of what continues to concern me about nuclear technology -- energy
and its large-scale use, in particular.

The technology may work just fine, when well-managed.

The human capacity for managing it, repeatedly proves itself incapable. And
human history does not give me a lot of hope for that changing.

In this case, samples like these are essential for science. Heads need to
roll, figuratively if not literally, to impress upon those remaining that you
do not cheap out nor lazy out on your job.

And, for the money and management part, the trail needs to be chased upward,
including to Congress. People who enable this need to be forced out of
responsibility.

