The legacy of Chrome Dome - Palomares 46 years on

[Oberon]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/NAM---Palomares-bombs.jpg/800px-NAM---Palomares-bombs.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18689132

Hopefully some agreement can be reached, perhaps with the aid of the IAEA to finish the clean up, the trouble is, in this age of austerity, who will pay for it? Spain certainly can't, and the US won't have it very high on its list of priorities right now. It's a shame there isn't an international fund, orchestrated through the IAEA perhaps, to help deal with situations like this to minimise the effect of nuclear accidents on the surrounding populace. Obviously in cases like Fukushima and Chernobyl there's only so much you can do, but in other cases it can be cleaned up.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Maybe they'd have been better asking prior to 2008. :hmmm:

I hope there is a satisfactory outcome for the residents.

[TLAM Strike]

the trouble is, in this age of austerity, who will pay for it?
That Plutonium is worth $5600 per gram; leave it to the Europeans to complain about us dumping several hundred thousand dollars worth of valuable material on their county... :hmph:

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

That Plutonium is worth $5600 per gram; leave it to the Europeans to complain about us dumping several hundred thousand dollars worth of valuable material on their county... :hmph:$5600 per gram?! :o Where did I put my shovel and bucket...

Btw how much you need for effective dirty bomb? If amount is small then it would be good to get that mess cleaned up. :hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

Looks like another assignment for 007 :03:

[TLAM Strike]

Btw how much you need for effective dirty bomb? If amount is small then it would be good to get that mess cleaned up. :hmmm:

Plutonium would probably be the worst substance to build a dirty bomb out of. Its so heavy that persistence becomes a problem (most of the Plutonium would just settle to the ground), and Plutonium would need to be inhaled to be dangerous which poses a problem since its so heavy.

Something like Strontium-90 would be better.

[Schroeder]

Don't give anybody stupid ideas.:03:

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Plutonium would probably be the worst substance to build a dirty bomb out of. Its so heavy that persistence becomes a problem (most of the Plutonium would just settle to the ground), and Plutonium would need to be inhaled to be dangerous which poses a problem since its so heavy.

Something like Strontium-90 would be better.Thank you TLAM! Always pleasure to learn new things. :salute:


I will enter this usefull tip to my copy of The Anarchist Cookbook. :D

Joking :-j

[Catfish]

I would not believe the wulf* to be honest about his handling with sheep :O:

If dispersed properly, one spoon of plutonium would be enough to kill off the population of Great Britain.
Not because of radiation, but because of its sheer tocicity. But plutonium is indeed so heavy, that it usually settles quick around the source of the 'accident'. Meaning it accumulates in the soil, being there in situ for the next million years.
Like e.g. in children's sand boxes, which is why a lot of such sand exposed to the sky had been excavated in Germany, after the nuclear disaster in Russia blasted roughly 50 kilograms of that stuff, into the atmosphere.


From the article:
"Spanish investigator Carlos Sancho estimates* that between 15 and 25 pounds (7 and 11kg) of the material ended up in the soil. Sancho, who runs the Palomares section of the Spanish Department of Energy [ah, understood lol], insists it does not pose health risks."


" [...] A commonly cited quote by Ralp Nader, states that a pound of plutonium dust spread into the atmosphere would be enough to kill 8 billion people.

However, calculations show that one pound of plutonium could kill no more than 2 million people by inhalation. This makes the toxicity of plutonium roughly equivalent with that of nerve gas. [...].


So only like nerve gas? Doubtable, but very good to see this fence in the article's photo round the area keeping off the poison, so nothing to worry about :dead: