Colombia seizes uranium from leftist guerrillas 27 Mar 2008 01:46:45 GMT

[IGBT]

..any mention of this on the news?? I don't watch tv so this may be dated but significant. If true is this a "first" concerning hot/hot material in the Americas?


27 Mar 2008 01:46:45 GMT
Source: Reuters
BOGOTA, March 26 (Reuters) - Colombia said it grabbed at least 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of uranium from the country's biggest left-wing rebel group on Wednesday, the first time radioactive material has been linked to the bloody four-decade-old guerrilla war.

The material was found in a rural area long considered a guerrilla stronghold just south of the capital city Bogota. It is being examined by state experts, said a Defense Ministry statement.

The statement did not say where the uranium came from or what it could be used for.

"This appears to have been part of a black market operation that the guerrillas were trying to use to make money," said Pablo Casas, an analyst at Bogota think-tank Security & Democracy.

"This is new for Colombia and could bring the FARC into the major leagues of black market terrorist transactions," Casas said.

Information about the uranium was found earlier this month in computer files left behind by top guerrilla leader Raul Reyes, who was killed in a Colombian bomb strike carried out in Ecuador. The March 1 raid sparked an ongoing diplomatic dispute with the neighboring country.










Text

 

[StageLeft]

Is this stuff you could drop into a bomb and make it go bang or so inert and useless that you could carve it into a fashionable center piece and have it in your living room? I've no idea and this article doesn't say.

Certainly it doesn't seem on the up and up. Is it any wonder Colombia feels compelled to cross borders to deal with these thugs?

 

[BrownTown]

Well its not enriched uranium, so its no more deadly than any other heavy metal, and short of a multi billion dollar enrichment plant or a nuclear rector to breed it into plutonium they have no way of making it into anything dangerous. It is worth ~3000$ these days, but even that isn't very much. You know, uranium is a commodity you can trade on the NYMEX, so anyone with a seat on that exchange and 3000$ could get 30 kg or uranium. In its present form maybe its as deadly as arsenic or lead (other heavy metals), but impossible to use in a nuclear weapon or even a light water reactor.

 

[Moonbeam]

Luckily for us we will soon be back in the stone age compared to India and China and people will leave us alone.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Luckily for us we will soon be back in the stone age compared to India and China and people will leave us alone.

Is your comment directed at this topic? How can this happen with 66 pounds of...metal? It's about as destructive as...granite.

:roll:

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
Well its not enriched uranium, so its no more deadly than any other heavy metal, and short of a multi billion dollar enrichment plant or a nuclear rector to breed it into plutonium they have no way of making it into anything dangerous. It is worth ~3000$ these days, but even that isn't very much. You know, uranium is a commodity you can trade on the NYMEX, so anyone with a seat on that exchange and 3000$ could get 30 kg or uranium. In its present form maybe its as deadly as arsenic or lead (other heavy metals), but impossible to use in a nuclear weapon or even a light water reactor.

Yup, straight up FUD

 

[Braznor]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Luckily for us we will soon be back in the stone age compared to India and China and people will leave us alone.

You know, for someone with so much love in your heart "snickers" you seem to bear a terrible contempt for third world people. They are just people trying to get on with their lives under very unfortunate circumstances.

All of you do this actually, but its really Moonbeam who gets me because of his usual pretentious mumbo-jumbo self.

 

[soccerballtux]

This will make for great media material, and a wonderful way to get people to surrender more rights. It's uranium, which has something to do with nuclear, and nuclear is bad! I for one welcome the new restrictive measures. With the time's we're living in, we have to make sacrifices for safety. Further, if you don't support this line of thought, then you must be against it, and therefor unpatriotic, because everybody that is a good US citizen would want to protect their country. So, if you're being unpatriotic, then you might as well be with them, which makes you a terrorist. Your papers please. Please come with us for your own safety.

 

[bbdub333]

Originally posted by: Braznor

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Luckily for us we will soon be back in the stone age compared to India and China and people will leave us alone.

You know, for someone with so much love in your heart "snickers" you seem to bear a terrible contempt for third world people. They are just people trying to get on with their lives under very unfortunate circumstances.

All of you do this actually, but its really Moonbeam who gets me because of his usual pretentious mumbo-jumbo self.

He only says stuff like that because he has no other way of expressing how much he hates himself.

 

[kage69]

Hrmmm. I wonder if this is connected to the recent spat between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela - as in, a manufactured story to lend Colombia more justification for it's border hopping activities of late.

Unless the FARC has really been dipping into it's principle export in a big way, I find it hard to believe that any kind of transaction like this would have gone down without the buyer doing at least a little research into the goods.

A dirty bomb is pretty much the only way players of that level would be able to utilize radioactive material in a weapons role. Anyone really pursuing that agenda would (or should!) be smart enough to know that plain ol uranium ain't gonna do it, but that some choice isotopes from a large hospital's radiology department would fit the bill fine.



I guess it's not outside the realm of possibility that a bunch of idiots and/or coke heads got ripped off over an over-sized paperweight.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
Well its not enriched uranium, so its no more deadly than any other heavy metal, and short of a multi billion dollar enrichment plant or a nuclear rector to breed it into plutonium they have no way of making it into anything dangerous. It is worth ~3000$ these days, but even that isn't very much. You know, uranium is a commodity you can trade on the NYMEX, so anyone with a seat on that exchange and 3000$ could get 30 kg or uranium. In its present form maybe its as deadly as arsenic or lead (other heavy metals), but impossible to use in a nuclear weapon or even a light water reactor.

Other than the pricing info I don't disagree with you. While the price flucuates, it appears to be worth more like $100 per lb, so about $6,600.

Even so, this doesn't make much sense to me. If it's not enriched at all, it's basically not very dangerous, nor valuable. Why would FARC waste time with this? Cocaine is a far far more valuable commodity. Why would the government of Colombia really care?

This makes about as much sense as annoumcing the discovery and capture of 66 lbs of "black market" Depends.

Is this really that much of a non-story?

Fern

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: Fern

Originally posted by: BrownTown
Well its not enriched uranium, so its no more deadly than any other heavy metal, and short of a multi billion dollar enrichment plant or a nuclear rector to breed it into plutonium they have no way of making it into anything dangerous. It is worth ~3000$ these days, but even that isn't very much. You know, uranium is a commodity you can trade on the NYMEX, so anyone with a seat on that exchange and 3000$ could get 30 kg or uranium. In its present form maybe its as deadly as arsenic or lead (other heavy metals), but impossible to use in a nuclear weapon or even a light water reactor.

Other than the pricing info I don't disagree with you. While the price flucuates, it appears to be worth more like $100 per lb, so about $6,600.

Even so, this doesn't make much sense to me. If it's not enriched at all, it's basically not very dangerous, nor valuable. Why would FARC waste time with this? Cocaine is a far far more valuable commodity. Why would the government of Colombia really care?

This makes about as much sense as annoumcing the discovery and capture of 66 lbs of "black market" Depends.

Is this really that much of a non-story?

Fern

oh whoops, though it was priced by the kg not the pound, but whatever, as of today the spot price as listed by UXC is 73$/lb, so whatever its still only a few thousands dollars, its worth the same as like a few ounces of gold.

 

[Throckmorton]

Can't you make dirty bombs with it?

 

[sandorski]

The News that Saddam was shopping for it probably just reached them. Just wait until they hear that he wasn't!!

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Can't you make dirty bombs with it?

Looks like it would need some level of enrichment to do that.

The article doesn't say, but most posters above seem to assume it's unenriched uranium. IDK why? As I said above, that makes no sense IMO. If it's unenriched, why would FARC want it, why would the govenment care?

Fern

 

[IGBT]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam
Luckily for us we will soon be back in the stone age compared to India and China and people will leave us alone.

..you'll be quite fashionable wit a bone in your nose.

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
Well its not enriched uranium, so its no more deadly than any other heavy metal, and short of a multi billion dollar enrichment plant or a nuclear rector to breed it into plutonium they have no way of making it into anything dangerous. It is worth ~3000$ these days, but even that isn't very much. You know, uranium is a commodity you can trade on the NYMEX, so anyone with a seat on that exchange and 3000$ could get 30 kg or uranium. In its present form maybe its as deadly as arsenic or lead (other heavy metals), but impossible to use in a nuclear weapon or even a light water reactor.

Well, the irony is that FARC didnt seem to get that memo, and some of their members were trying to sell the useless stuff for roughly $1M per pound!

clowns!