Yellowcake Found in Rotterdam Harbor May Have Originated in Iraq

[charrison]

linkage

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A recycling company found uranium oxide - a radioactive material also known as yellowcake - in a shipment of scrap steel it believes originally came from Iraq, the company said Thursday.
Paul de Bruin, spokesman for Rotterdam-based Jewometaal, said that the shipment was passed on last month from a Jordan metal dealer who was unaware it contained any forbidden materials.

"I've dealt with this man for 15 years and he says he's sure it came from Iraq," De Bruin said. He said Jewometaal had been asked not to reveal the name of the Jordanian exporter while the find was being investigated.

...

Experts said that around 2 pounds of yellowcake, the amount found, would not be useful for either a bomb or fuel.

Dr. Alan Ketering, a researcher at the nuclear research plant at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said yellowcake contains less than 1 percent of U-235 used in nuclear weapons. He said it would need to be refined many times with sophisticated technology before it was dangerous - and the amount found in Rotterdam would not be nearly enough.

"Anybody can dig it up and purify it to make the yellow stuff," he said. "It's the separation of U-235 that people are concerned about."

However, he said there was no obvious non-nuclear industrial use for yellowcake and it would be strange to find it in random scrap metal.

 

[tnitsuj]

Originally posted by: charrison
linkage

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A recycling company found uranium oxide - a radioactive material also known as yellowcake - in a shipment of scrap steel it believes originally came from Iraq, the company said Thursday.
Paul de Bruin, spokesman for Rotterdam-based Jewometaal, said that the shipment was passed on last month from a Jordan metal dealer who was unaware it contained any forbidden materials.

"I've dealt with this man for 15 years and he says he's sure it came from Iraq," De Bruin said. He said Jewometaal had been asked not to reveal the name of the Jordanian exporter while the find was being investigated.

...

Experts said that around 2 pounds of yellowcake, the amount found, would not be useful for either a bomb or fuel.

Dr. Alan Ketering, a researcher at the nuclear research plant at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said yellowcake contains less than 1 percent of U-235 used in nuclear weapons. He said it would need to be refined many times with sophisticated technology before it was dangerous - and the amount found in Rotterdam would not be nearly enough.

"Anybody can dig it up and purify it to make the yellow stuff," he said. "It's the separation of U-235 that people are concerned about."

However, he said there was no obvious non-nuclear industrial use for yellowcake and it would be strange to find it in random scrap metal.

Maybe it is some of the stuff that was stolen from the UN sealed bunkers after the war?

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
Maybe it is some of the stuff that was stolen from the UN sealed bunkers after the war?

Could be - i wonder where it was supposed to go though. The article said that 2lbs wasn't enough to be dangerous, so that begs the question - is there more? Where is it supposed to go.

Ofcourse - this all hinges on it actually coming from Iraq

CkG

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: tnitsuj

Originally posted by: charrison
linkage

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A recycling company found uranium oxide - a radioactive material also known as yellowcake - in a shipment of scrap steel it believes originally came from Iraq, the company said Thursday.
Paul de Bruin, spokesman for Rotterdam-based Jewometaal, said that the shipment was passed on last month from a Jordan metal dealer who was unaware it contained any forbidden materials.

"I've dealt with this man for 15 years and he says he's sure it came from Iraq," De Bruin said. He said Jewometaal had been asked not to reveal the name of the Jordanian exporter while the find was being investigated.

...

Experts said that around 2 pounds of yellowcake, the amount found, would not be useful for either a bomb or fuel.

Dr. Alan Ketering, a researcher at the nuclear research plant at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said yellowcake contains less than 1 percent of U-235 used in nuclear weapons. He said it would need to be refined many times with sophisticated technology before it was dangerous - and the amount found in Rotterdam would not be nearly enough.

"Anybody can dig it up and purify it to make the yellow stuff," he said. "It's the separation of U-235 that people are concerned about."

However, he said there was no obvious non-nuclear industrial use for yellowcake and it would be strange to find it in random scrap metal.

Maybe it is some of the stuff that was stolen from the UN sealed bunkers after the war?

That would be as possible as any other explaination as to how it got there.

 

[tweakmm]

Wow... they are going with the yellowcake angle again?
:beer: here's for no more undercover CIA operatives being revealed.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: tweakmm
Wow... they are going with the yellowcake angle again?
:beer: here's for no more undercover CIA operatives being revealed.

********************

IAEA confirms yellowcake found in Rotterdam likely from Iraq

CkG

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: tweakmm
Wow... they are going with the yellowcake angle again?
:beer: here's for no more undercover CIA operatives being revealed.

********************

IAEA confirms yellowcake found in Rotterdam likely from Iraq

CkG

So are you denying that the last person who went against the GWB official line had someone close be revealed as an undercover CIA operative?

 

[Moonbeam]

The important thing to take from this is that if George Bush hadn't ordered the killing of thousands of people by dropping 39,000 bombs on Iraq, they would have nuked is in 45 minutes. All those people needed to die so we didn't have to be afraid.

 

[SuperTool]

OMG, that was a close one

 

[DealMonkey]

From FoxNews.com:

A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (search) said the Rotterdam specimen was scarcely refined at all from natural uranium ore and may have come from a known mine in Iraq that was active before the 1991 Gulf War.

"I wouldn't hype it too much," said spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. "It was a small amount and it wasn't being peddled as a sample."

 

[Jhhnn]

There's a fine line between looters and scavengers in the scrap metal business, a line that's blurred when civil authority vanishes.

The yellowcake ended up in the scrap steel because it was in a steel container, and it was heavy, meaning more money for the scrap collectors. I rather suspect that nobody along the way had the vaguest idea it was even there.

Scrap steel is the lowest of the low in that business, with a fair percentage of unknown material being quite common. Any metal that's not steel is more valuable than steel, so no buyer pays much attention...

 

[sandorski]

So that's where the looted radioactive materials ended up!

 

[Genesys]

Originally posted by: tweakmm

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: tweakmm
Wow... they are going with the yellowcake angle again?
:beer: here's for no more undercover CIA operatives being revealed.

********************

IAEA confirms yellowcake found in Rotterdam likely from Iraq

CkG

So are you denying that the last person who went against the GWB official line had someone close be revealed as an undercover CIA operative?

perhaps, but we've all heard two different sides of the story. i dont know who to believe, nor do i care anymore.
my real question about the whole debacle is this: what was a prominent democrats wife doing working for the CIA? the dems hate the CIA and keep trying to dissolve the CIA.

 

[Bowfinger]

Originally posted by: Genesys

Originally posted by: tweakmm
So are you denying that the last person who went against the GWB official line had someone close be revealed as an undercover CIA operative?

perhaps, but we've all heard two different sides of the story. i dont know who to believe, nor do i care anymore.
my real question about the whole debacle is this: what was a prominent democrats wife doing working for the CIA? the dems hate the CIA and keep trying to dissolve the CIA.

I sure hope you're just trying to change the subject and don't really believe that.

And what are the two sides of the story?

 

[Witling]

Genesys, you've come through again " the dems hate the CIA and keep trying to dissolve the CIA."

30 million people neatly categorized, labeled, and pigeonholed. No doubt dems hating the CIA is the one thing they all agree on.

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: Genesys
perhaps, but we've all heard two different sides of the story. i dont know who to believe, nor do i care anymore.
my real question about the whole debacle is this: what was a prominent democrats wife doing working for the CIA? the dems hate the CIA and keep trying to dissolve the CIA.

Believe this: An undercover CIA agent was vetted by senior white house administration. That agent was the wife of a man who contradicted the president's assertion about Iraq buying Yellowcake. Novak should be labeled an enemy combatant and have some electrodes attached to his huevos until he tells us who outted the agent. Heh, but as a republican, I'm sure I'd be accused of supporting torture -- just like all republicans do.