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Ronnie Raygun · #1

it's held by our sworn enemies? Or is it just to difficult for terrorists to manufacture weapons using the stuff?

Zhukov · #2

I consider nuclear weapons in the hands of my sworn enemies to be dangerous, yes. My sworn enemies have more nukes, more desire to use them, and are probably more likely to use them, too.

Your sworn enemies probably think along the same lines as you do, as in they think that uranium/yellowcake (What did yellowcake do to replace plutonium?) is dangerous in the hands of their sworn enemies.

It's dangerous to Americans both in the hands of my sworn enemies and your sworn enemies.

davinxtk · #3

Who cares whose hands it's in?
It's dangerous. I'd honestly like somebody's government to know whever every goddamn piece of it is, please.

Ronnie Raygun · #4

I just don't think terrorists can do much with yellowcake without it being refined somehow....maybe I'm wrong..

AChimp · #5

You need a lot of equipment to turn yellowcake into weapons-grade material. Yellowcake is essentially raw uranium ore that's pulled out of the ground.

Preechr · #6

As opposed to Joe Public's knowledge of Yellowcake, which is generally pulled out of his ass...

I still wish someone would explain to me what the difference is between the not-so-dangerous sort of Uranium oxide that we already knew about Saddam having and the kind that can be made into a nuke.

AChimp · #7

Radioactivity.

derrida · #8

Quote:

Originally Posted by Preechr

As opposed to Joe Public's knowledge of Yellowcake, which is generally pulled out of his ass...

I still wish someone would explain to me what the difference is between the not-so-dangerous sort of Uranium oxide that we already knew about Saddam having and the kind that can be made into a nuke.

Uranium enrichment is a complicated, expensive, and fucking LENGTHY process and there's a damn good reason the nuclear club has been so limited thus far. (Libya? Not until you're dead.) Because U-238 (which makes up 99.3 percent of Uranium ore in the form of yellowcake) and U-235 share identical chemical properties, our only hopes of separation are through mechanical means.

Uranium oxide is converted to a flouride gas, then passed through a series of extremely fine porous barriers at high speeds several hundred thousand times. Uranium tetrachloride is then passed through a magnetic field wherein U-235 is gradually separated. A gas centrifuge is then employed to separate the lighter from the heavier isotopes.

(It's known that Iraq procured some 300 tons of yellowcake from Nigeria in the 80's, which was subsequently accounted for by the UN following the First Gulf War. This is not the pretend yellowcake Iraq allegedly attempted to purchase in 2001.)