'Dirty Bomb' Materials & WMD Seized in Georgia ~ Cessium and Nerve Gas Concentrate

[Alistar7]

Tedo Mokeliya was detained May 31 after police in this former Soviet republic discovered two containers holding cesium-137 and strontium in his taxi

Police also found a dark brown liquid later determined to be nerve gas concentrate, Mgebrishvili said. No other details were immediately available.

 

[AnImuS]

Its sad to see how little people can have respect for lifes of others...

 

[Alistar7]

it's sad so few people care about something like this, maybe they just cant admit it could happen, excuse me, did happen.....

 

[shiner]

Might want to point out it was in the nation of Georiga and not the U.S. state in your title.

 

[Alistar7]

it reads like it was the US, that what caught my attention to it, pretty close to me if it was. It is just a copy and paste of the title though. But the link does say former soviet republic.......

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

This kind of thing has always been a concern. Why would terrorists have to depend on Saddam and the like? This is where the gold is. The old USSR. So the police caught this guy. How many did they not catch? It is a problem so intractable, that few want to acknowledge it's existence.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: shinerburke
Might want to point out it was in the nation of Georiga and not the U.S. state in your title.

 

[Dudd]

My chem teacher told me that when he was in researching at a college, he and the fellow chem nerds would take cesium from the lab and drop a chunk of it in the river, creating a huge explosion. Hell, we set the ceiling on fire using only sodium and water. I wonder how radioactive that stuff was...

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: Dudd
My chem teacher told me that when he was in researching at a college, he and the fellow chem nerds would take cesium from the lab and drop a chunk of it in the river, creating a huge explosion. Hell, we set the ceiling on fire using only sodium and water. I wonder how radioactive that stuff was...

It wasnt. They werent talking about garden variety cesium here

 

[KenGr]

Originally posted by: Dudd
My chem teacher told me that when he was in researching at a college, he and the fellow chem nerds would take cesium from the lab and drop a chunk of it in the river, creating a huge explosion. Hell, we set the ceiling on fire using only sodium and water. I wonder how radioactive that stuff was...

This was probably a Cesium compound like cesium graphite. Elemental Cesium is an interesting substance but a bit tricky to handle since it has a melting point at around 80 deg F. In any event, it was not a radioactive isotope so it would not have been radioactive.

There are three radioactive isotopes but they are generally produced artificially. The one most commonly seen (and probably involved here) is Cesium-137 which is valuable for medical treatment. It has a half life of 30 years and produces the very short lived Barium isotope so it is useful for both cancer treatment and internal scans. Unless it is eaten, Cesium-137 is not a great risk since it is a Beta emitter but the Barium by-product is a gamma emitter making it an external risk. In any event these are long term (increased cancer risk in 20 years) instead of short term risks.

 

[Alistar7]

yeah Cessium is low does stuff, the nerve agents (concentrated) scare me more than that. There are hand held PMI (postive material identification) units that use Cessium, much like soil, concrete, and asphalt compaction measurement devices.