Three Arrested With Suspected Uranium in Mumbai

[Abu Zolfiqar]

Tuesday, 08 December 2009
Zil`Hajj 20, 1430

MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai crime branch has arrested three people from Panvel for being in possession of a chemical looking substance that is suspected to be uranium.

The material has been seized and sent to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre for further analysis.

The trio was arrested on Monday evening and as much as 5 kilograms of the material was seized from them.

Three arrested with suspected Uranium in Mumbai


Zee News adds:

As per reports, the crime branch had been tipped off about nuke fuel being smuggled into the city and was working on the lead for quite some time, before it carried out the actual arrests.

Police, however, refused to divulge much information about the arrested people and would be disclose more in a press conference, scheduled for later in the day.

If the substance turns out to be uranium, then it would once again put a serious question mark on the security of the country as it has not been the first time, in recent weeks, when there had been a breach in the nuke security.

Incidentally, the Panvel incident comes to light just a day after two people were arrested while stealing computer parts from the Tarapur Atomic Power Station.

Also, there has been a shocking case of alleged radiation contamination at Karnataka’s Kaiga Atomic Power Station recently.

The leak at Kaiga resulted in hospitalisation of over 50 workers of the nuke facility after they consumed the water contaminated by nuke fuel.

http://www.zeenews.com/news585553.html

 

[Rank]

MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai crime branch has arrested three people from Panvel for being in possession of a chemical looking substance that is suspected to be uranium.The material has been seized and sent to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre for further analysis. The trio was arrested on Monday evening and as much as 5 kilograms of the material was seized from them.


Three arrested with suspected Uranium in Mumbai


First See yourself

 

[indiatech]

See what ?

uranium looking substabce?

 

[bigmoneymaker]

oops, mumbai will be nuked<with primitive approach for ignition???> if you guys get somemore slackened down in security.....

 

[greatsequence]

I can just imagine if someone would have been caught in pakistan with uranium the news would have been on all international channels and I dont know what indian media would have made out of it.

And Pakistan's weapons are not secured....

 

[rajeev]

I can just imagine if someone would have been caught in pakistan with uranium the news would have been on all international channels and I dont know what indian media would have made out of it.

And Pakistan's weapons are not secured....

Could it be a probability that it is coming from Pakistan just as you stated.

Indian nuclear weapons are based on plutonium whereas Pakistan's nuclear weapons are based on uranium. Hmm. Makes one wonder, right?

 

[Goodperson]

Have sanctions been imposed on India ? I guess nuclear deal is already up for toss

 

[gogbot]

IS this valid,

Nuclear material in the hands of terrorists, is a very dangerous scenario
regardless of how the Material was obtained.
It wont be a laughing matter or disgrace to national pride when a few million people lie dead under a mushroom cloud.

 

[Hulk]

A lot of times these news fizzle out with no substance in it. Lets wait.

 

[deckingraj]

^^^^^^^^^^^

I agree....Media sensalization or truth we need to wait and see....However if true this is grave

 

[Screaming Skull]

IS this valid,

Nuclear material in the hands of terrorists, is a very dangerous scenario
regardless of how the Material was obtained.
It wont be a laughing matter or disgrace to national pride when a few million people lie dead under a mushroom cloud.

Valid or not, this news means nothing!

Indian nuclear weapons are based on Plutonium which is extracted from natural uranium. Natural uranium by itself cannot be used to make an explosive device because it contains about 99.27 percent U-238, 0.72 percent U-235, and 0.0055 percent U-234. Only U-235 can be used for fission in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Hence, it has to be enriched to separate U-235 from it. India enriches natural uranium only for one purpose – to fuel the PWR of our nuclear submarine at only one known location in Rattehalli, Karnataka. Apart from that we do not produce HEU at all! Now, it is estimated that this plant in Rattehalli can produce only 10 kg of HEU per year. So, did these guys get their hands on half of our annual output of HEU and manage to move it to Mumbai without any one noticing? See hoe absurd it sounds? Take my word – it is impossible! Even if the seized substance was Uranium it could only be depleted uranium.

Now, coming to the dirty bomb angle – like I said, natural uranium can not be used to make an explosive device at all let alone a dirty bomb. So, can terrorists enrich this 5 kg of natural uranium to make a dirty bomb? Allow me to explain why this too is impossible.

Even if we assume that the terrorists are able to enrich the 5 kg of depleted uranium with 100% efficiency (again impossible) they will manage to extract only about 36 milli gram of U-235 and far lesser amount of plutonium. To put this quantity in perspective one should know that it takes about 25 kg HEU and about 8 kg Pu to make a 10 kt fission bomb. So, with 36 mg HEU they can make only a 0.000045 kt bomb. What this means is that their bomb will produce a blast equivalent to that produced by 45 grams of TNT! Again to put this in perspective the recent blast in Multan was caused by some 1000-2000 kg of TNT!

So, basically even if the material seized from these guys in Mumbai was Uranium, they could zilch, nada with it!

Also, read this-

only nine reactor produced isotopes stand out as being suitable for radiological terror: americium-241, californium-252, caesium-137, cobalt-60, iridium-192, plutonium-238, polonium-210, radium-226 and strontium-90,[8] and even from these it is possible that radium-226 and polonium-210 do not pose a significant threat.[19] Of these sources the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has estimated that within the U.S., approximately one source is lost, abandoned or stolen every day of the year. Within the European Union the annual estimate is 70.[20] There exist thousands of such "orphan" sources scattered throughout the world, but of those reported lost, no more than an estimated 20 percent can be classified as a potential high security concern if used in a RDD.[19] Especially Russia is believed to house thousands of orphan sources, which were lost following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Dirty bomb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

I think we should be more concerned about the fact that nuclear installations in india are poorly guarded and/or there are insiders who are inducing security breach.

This would prove to be yet another embarassment for india

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

Could it be a probability that it is coming from Pakistan just as you stated.

Indian nuclear weapons are based on plutonium whereas Pakistan's nuclear weapons are based on uranium. Hmm. Makes one wonder, right?

what are you talking about???

Pakistan has had Plutonium producing facilities since over 2 decades.

In fact i believe 3 more facilities were built after Khushab, and the program is fairly matured. The plutonium separated from spent fuel is usable in our nuclear weapons.

Most importantly, we have the means to deliver the weapons.

 

[rajeev]

what are you talking about???

Pakistan has had Plutonium producing facilities since over 2 decades.

In fact i believe 3 more facilities were built after Khushab, and the program is fairly matured. The plutonium separated from spent fuel is usable in our nuclear weapons.

Most importantly, we have the means to deliver the weapons.

I am not talking about electricity generating nuclear plants. I am talking about nuclear bombs that Pakistan has. Pakistan used urnamium based weapons for explosion in 1998 and that is pretty was official line up until recently.That is one of the reasons why Pakistan's missiles were bulkier and had lesser range. It is only recently that Pakistan reported they can use Plutonium as weapons which can increase the range of Pakistani missiles.

Now regarding the news,I agree deckingraj that we should wait to hear what the thing is! It might be substance of no significance. And if its really urnanium, we need to find out where has this come from ? Pakistan? Break-away republics of Soviet Republic? God only knows.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

weapons grade plutonium is produced at Khushab/Jauharabad....i believe tritium was pursued as it is favourable in terms of its light weight. Ideal for delivery via ballistic missiles.


as for the suspected uranium, there are several question marks over the safety of nuclear facilities in india. However, I wouldnt jump to conclusions further until further reports come out. Lets see what happens.

It could prove to be damning