

ISIS Now Has 88 Pounds of Uranium - ghosh
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/07/10/isis_uranium_iraq_rebels_seized_low_grade_nuclear_material_from_university.html

======
lvh
Flagged, because it's not hacker related, and it's an intentionally clickbaity
title. It's not weapons-grade uranium, and everyone (including the IAEA) seems
to agree ISIS most likely does not have the capability to turn it into
weapons-grade uranium.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Anything sufficiently radioactive is a threat - turn it into dust with a high
explosive charge, and kill half a city of people with inhaled carcinogens. So
this Uranium is safe somehow?

~~~
greyfade
> So this Uranium is safe somehow?

In as much that it's impossible to achieve supercriticality with a pile of
yellowcake? Yeah. At worst, they risk heavy metal poisoning (as Uranium has
effects similar to lead on the human body.)

It takes a lot to make an effective weapon out of Uranium. Building a working
device requires separating the incredibly rare heavier isotope U-238 from all
of the mostly inert U-235. That's what all the controversy about centrifuges
in Iran was about: That's the kind of equipment you need to extract
fissionable 238 to make a weapon.

Uranium isn't even radioactive enough to cause the kind of threat you assume.
Materials like Cobalt-60 are far more dangerous, and are the real concern
about "dirty bombs," (explosive devices that spread radioactive material, as
opposed to a nuclear bomb) but it's far harder to work with, and it's more
carefully regulated. The effect of Cobalt-60 without adequate shielding is
cancer and eventually radiation sickness.

By contrast, the effect of raw Uranium is... to release small amounts of
ionized helium gas over billions of years.

