Missing Wal-Mart exit signs could be used to make a dirty bomb!

[Socio]

Hot and gone, Wal-Mart signs prompt NRC action

Federal regulators have instructed dozens of companies to count their exit signs that use a low-level radioactive compound and report any that are missing, a directive issued after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it could not find 15,000 of the signs.

The world's largest retailer said Tuesday it has checked all of its U.S. stores and removed any glow-in-the-dark signs that use tritium, a hydrogen isotope that, when used in the signs, has a radioactive strength similar to that of a smoke alarm.

The tritium gas in these signs is in a small quantity but the combined gas from 15,000 of them could be used to create a pretty deadly dirty bomb.

I do find it odd that so many of them are missing, I can see some falling off and then tossed in the trash instead of being disposal of properly, but 15,000?

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: Socio
Hot and gone, Wal-Mart signs prompt NRC action

Federal regulators have instructed dozens of companies to count their exit signs that use a low-level radioactive compound and report any that are missing, a directive issued after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it could not find 15,000 of the signs.

The world's largest retailer said Tuesday it has checked all of its U.S. stores and removed any glow-in-the-dark signs that use tritium, a hydrogen isotope that, when used in the signs, has a radioactive strength similar to that of a smoke alarm.

The tritium gas in these signs is in a small quantity but the combined gas from 15,000 of them could be used to create a pretty deadly dirty bomb.

I do find it odd that so many of them are missing, I can see some falling off and then tossed in the trash instead of being disposal of properly, but 15,000?

Hmm, Maybe the gun grabbers will use this info to make night sites illegal on guns as they se tritium gas as well.

But on topic. How to you loose 15,000 signs?

 

[JSt0rm]

In other news walmart to introduce a 49.95 shotgun/gas mask combo deal with 15 shells of ammo free!!

 

[OCGuy]

I think 15,000 of anything from wal-mart could produce enough dirt to form a new third-world country.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
I think 15,000 of anything from wal-mart could produce enough dirt to form a new third-world country.

THREAD WIN!

 

[OrByte]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
I think 15,000 of anything from wal-mart could produce enough dirt to form a new third-world country.

THREAD WIN!

LOL! INTERWEB WIN!


Why am I not surprised Walmart will be the cause of the end of civilization as we know it?

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: OrByte

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
I think 15,000 of anything from wal-mart could produce enough dirt to form a new third-world country.

THREAD WIN!

LOL! INTERWEB WIN!


Why am I not surprised Walmart will be the cause of the end of civilization as we know it?

It's poetic, it's beautiful. I would have it no other way.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
But on topic. How to you loose 15,000 signs?

They have 3500 stores so that is only 4 signs per store.

Not really a whole lot when you think about. Especially if you have ever worked in a store that size.

 

[rudeguy]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
But on topic. How to you loose 15,000 signs?

They have 3500 stores so that is only 4 signs per store.

Not really a whole lot when you think about. Especially if you have ever worked in a store that size.

But that's assuming they had to order 4 signs for every store. Why would you need signs for stores that already have signs?

 

[GTaudiophile]

I do find this to be disconcerting, especially given the Wal-Mart factor. WM is world-renown for having some of the best inventory control and tracking practices in the business.

The terrorists would have been smarter to steal from Target, or even better, K-Mart.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: Socio
Hot and gone, Wal-Mart signs prompt NRC action

Federal regulators have instructed dozens of companies to count their exit signs that use a low-level radioactive compound and report any that are missing, a directive issued after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it could not find 15,000 of the signs.

The world's largest retailer said Tuesday it has checked all of its U.S. stores and removed any glow-in-the-dark signs that use tritium, a hydrogen isotope that, when used in the signs, has a radioactive strength similar to that of a smoke alarm.

The tritium gas in these signs is in a small quantity but the combined gas from 15,000 of them could be used to create a pretty deadly dirty bomb.

I do find it odd that so many of them are missing, I can see some falling off and then tossed in the trash instead of being disposal of properly, but 15,000?

more importantly tritium can be used to increase yeild on buclear weapons :Q

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot

Originally posted by: Socio
Hot and gone, Wal-Mart signs prompt NRC action

Federal regulators have instructed dozens of companies to count their exit signs that use a low-level radioactive compound and report any that are missing, a directive issued after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it could not find 15,000 of the signs.

The world's largest retailer said Tuesday it has checked all of its U.S. stores and removed any glow-in-the-dark signs that use tritium, a hydrogen isotope that, when used in the signs, has a radioactive strength similar to that of a smoke alarm.

The tritium gas in these signs is in a small quantity but the combined gas from 15,000 of them could be used to create a pretty deadly dirty bomb.

I do find it odd that so many of them are missing, I can see some falling off and then tossed in the trash instead of being disposal of properly, but 15,000?

more importantly tritium can be used to increase yield on nuclear weapons :Q

yah, and if you drink a glass of water there is tritium in it, oes fucking noes!!! Damn God for poisoning our water supply with radioactive isotopes!

But srsly, its not exactly something that is hard to get a hold of, you can go buy tritium containing items pretty much anywhere, and its used all over the place (not just nukes). Its like saying fertilizer or oil is horribly dangerous because it was used in terrorist attacks. Its about a million times harder to try to kill people this way then to just buy some guns and shoot them. Its just a bunch of retards hear the word "nuclear" and go shit themselves...

 

[feralkid]

WTF?


There is NOTHING in the story about terrorists or dirty bombs.

Get a grip, OP!

:shocked:

 

[Craig234]

I dunno, is poisoning a water supply a pretty serious possibility for a terrorist attack?

It's sure be effective at terrorizing, if it's possible.

 

[Modelworks]

Next thing in the news will be , 1000's of smoke directors have been stolen, DHS suspects they are going to extract the amercium to make a dirty bomb.
Sea water is also said to be missing in large amounts, deuterium extraction expected !

 

[SirStev0]

CSI New York (I caught the end of it waiting for another show to start) had an episode where someone was killing people with radiation or something. He was getting it by stealing smoke alarms and exit signs.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: SirStev0
CSI New York (I caught the end of it waiting for another show to start) had an episode where someone was killing people with radiation or something. He was getting it by stealing smoke alarms and exit signs.

Whoever wrote that should be hanged for treason!! Clearly the terrorists who stole these signs did it basd on that.

There is NOTHING in the story about terrorists or dirty bombs.

Get a grip, OP!

He sees things we don't; you'd do well to listen to the OP. For example, the evil beloved patriot invasion!

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: SirStev0
CSI New York (I caught the end of it waiting for another show to start) had an episode where someone was killing people with radiation or something. He was getting it by stealing smoke alarms and exit signs.

Whoever wrote that should be hanged for treason!! Clearly the terrorists who stole these signs did it basd on that.

There is NOTHING in the story about terrorists or dirty bombs.

Get a grip, OP!

He sees things we don't; you'd do well to listen to the OP. For example, the evil beloved patriot invasion!

IS THIS THE RETURN OF THE RADIOACTIVE BOY SCOUT?!?!

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Socio

The tritium gas in these signs is in a small quantity but the combined gas from 15,000 of them could be used to create a pretty deadly dirty bomb.

What the fuck are you talking about?

 

[Socio]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: SirStev0
CSI New York (I caught the end of it waiting for another show to start) had an episode where someone was killing people with radiation or something. He was getting it by stealing smoke alarms and exit signs.

Whoever wrote that should be hanged for treason!! Clearly the terrorists who stole these signs did it basd on that.

There is NOTHING in the story about terrorists or dirty bombs.

Get a grip, OP!

He sees things we don't; you'd do well to listen to the OP. For example, the evil beloved patriot invasion!

Denying the plausible is not going to make it less plausible.

 

[Vic]

The OP is a moron. Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen that is only weakly radioactive with a half-life of more than 12 years. The real concern here is it's VERY expensive, one of the world's most valuable substances by weight.

 

[Socio]

Vic shove your personal attack up your ass!

According to this article;

Wal-Mart Mystery - Missing 15,800+ Exit Signs Which Contain A Dangerous Radioactive Gas

General exposure from one broken sign might be the equivalent of getting up to three chest X-rays, even though today we no longer give pregnant women X-rays. If tritium is ingested, for example, by a child who breaks a sign with a hockey stick, it?s much more potent. If only 5 per cent of the tritium in a large exit sign is ingested, it would be equivalent to 208 years of natural background radiation, according to a report from the Product Stewardship Institute at the University of Massachusetts.

And what about exposure from thousands of signs dumped near a source of drinking water, or packed with explosives in the back of a truck that has been driven into a crowded building?

?I?m sure thousands of them would create a credible dirty bomb,? says Norm Rubin, director of nuclear research at Energy Probe in Toronto. ?Most experts think the main purpose of a dirty bomb is to cause panic, disruption and expensive cleanup rather than lots of dead bodies. A bunch of tritium, especially if oxidized in an explosion, would probably do that job fine.?

 

[Vic]

Next up, terrorists stockpile watches!* :Q

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen. A normal hydrogen atom has only a proton and an electron. A tritium has that plus 2 neutrons. In making nuclear bombs, tritium is commonly used as a 'booster' because the additional neutrons can be freed relatively easily and then go on to further additional fission reactions, boosting the yield. In fact, I'd wager that just about every nuclear bomb made by any of the major nations contains some tritium for this purpose. So how exactly is this a 'dirty' bomb as opposed to a regular bomb? And how exactly are these terrorists going to make one of these bombs without plutonium or uranium-235?

* glow-in-the-dark watch faces are one of the most common commercial usages of tritium

 

[nobodyknows]

Originally posted by: Vic
Next up, terrorists stockpile watches!* :Q

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen. A normal hydrogen atom has only a proton and an electron. A tritium has that plus 2 neutrons. In making nuclear bombs, tritium is commonly used as a 'booster' because the additional neutrons can be freed relatively easily and then go on to further additional fission reactions, boosting the yield. In fact, I'd wager that just about every nuclear bomb made by any of the major nations contains some tritium for this purpose. So how exactly is this a 'dirty' bomb as opposed to a regular bomb? And how exactly are these terrorists going to make one of these bombs without plutonium or uranium-235?

* glow-in-the-dark watch faces are one of the most common commercial usages of tritium

I was thinking that Seiko watch I was looking at the other day had tritium dots on it.

 

[herm0016]

its a beta emitter... as long as you are behind a sheet of aluminum foil or glass or something solid you will be fine. just don't eat it. I don't think I would be worried about that. but I do wear a dosimeter at work for a reason. am241be and cs127 are my reasons.