A couple of reporters who take their job to be spreading maximum fear about nuclear radiation have found a story in San Antonio, Texas.
Staff from Idaho National Laboratory were picking up cesium and plutonium sources from a laboratory and left them in their rental car overnight. The car was broken into and the sources and other equipment stolen.
That was carelessness and should be looked at in the light of other careless incidents in the DOE system. When I’m traveling, I always bring in anything from the car that looks like it might be worth stealing. Even the stuff that is worth stealing but doesn’t look that way.
But the sources probably contain a few milligrams of cesium and plutonium. I haven’t done the calculations, but it probably would take a couple hundred years to accumulate enough plutonium for a fission bomb and cesium for a “dirty bomb” at that rate.
But the article goes on at length about bombs and such, as these reporters often do. It’s a strategy of fear for clicks, or perhaps these two really are terrified of anything to do with radiation. They also hyperventilate at the thought of terrorists taking the long view and waiting a couple of hundred years to get that TERROR BOMB.
IT’S ALL AROUND US! BE VERY AFRAID!
There’s not enough happening today, so here is the live stream of the two-president press conference.
rikyrah
Cheryl,
I’m just gonna be honest here.
We can’t make this shyt up. If it were written in a movie script, the script would be returned rejected with,
” TOO ABSURD”
scribbled in the margins.
This entire Administration is that script.
TaMara (HFG)
Well that was a rational explanation of a very scary headline that dashed across my computer screen this a.m. Thanks.
Cheryl Rofer
I’ve upgraded the post to include the Putin-Trump press conference live stream.
Don
Once in awhile I recall some of the almost accidents that happened while making accelerator ion source components or targets back in the day. But then I recall how truly small the amounts of isotopes were, and take a deep breath to relax. Then there were the overreactions by the Universities’s aradiation Safety Officers that were comical in retrospect. Ah, the pleasures of grad school!
The Dangerman
Oh, goody, let’s count the ways Donnie got rolled and trolled.
Doug R
Dirty bomb is a worry, especially with plutonium.
Cheryl Rofer
@Doug R: The cesium is more of a worry for a dirty bomb, but not two milligrams’ worth.
rikyrah
Following indictment of Russian operatives, Rand Paul shrugged
07/16/18 09:00 AM
By Steve Benen
After traveling to Moscow over the 4th of July holiday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) – the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, who also chairs a Senate Foreign Relations panel – came back with some unexpectedly provocative thoughts about U.S. policy toward Russia.
For example, the Wisconsin Republican questioned the efficacy of existing sanctions, before insisting that concerns about foreign interference in American elections has been blown “way out of proportion.”
Johnson’s comments looked a little worse when, a week later, 12 Russian intelligence officials were indicted for their role in attacking our political system in 2016.
But at least Johnson can argue he hadn’t seen the new indictment when he made his recent comments – which is more than we can say about Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who waited until after the indictment to make the case that the attack on our elections was no big deal. The Kentucky Republican, who also serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper yesterday, “We all do it.”
maya
BREAKING NEWS:
Sanantonium discovered on Pluto.
Quinerly
Putin goons removing a credentialed journalist from The Nation.
schrodingers_cat
@Cheryl Rofer: Well science is hard and so is math. Sensationalism gets clicks, also too.
-Our innumerate press.
Quinerly
Watch this! Journalist being drug out.
EBT
And isn’t the major danger with a dirty bomb the traditional explosion? Doesn’t radiological material have to be airburst to spread and be more dangerous than say, exploding a bunch of mercury and getting heavy metal poisoning everywhere?
The Ancient Randonneur
@rikyrah:
Another Russian apologist.
germy
@Quinerly:
But I thought they were sympathetic? Why remove someone from that outlet?
Cheryl Rofer
@EBT: That’s my read. It’s actually hard to disperse stuff. But reporters like the two I’ve linked will fan fear, which will cause panic. I think that’s the worst danger, which is why I have so little patience with this genre of reporting.
rikyrah
Trump struggles to tell the difference between friend and ‘foe’
07/16/18 08:00 AM—UPDATED 07/16/18 09:24 AM
By Steve Benen
…………………………………….
As part of the same response, the American president added, “Russia is foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn’t mean they are bad.”
So, asked to name the United States’ “biggest” international foe, the European Union – which is to say, our allies – was the first thing that came to Trump’s mind. Russia and China came next, though the Republican’s comments about them came with qualifiers.
Neldob
@Quinerly: I missed something here. What are you talking about?
Cheryl Rofer
Quinerly
Any details on Twitter about this journalist from The Nation just being drug out of the presser by Putin’s goons? He was credentialed, had a seat, and had a sign
Quinerly
@Neldob: MSNBC just showing it.
Quinerly
@Cheryl Rofer: OK, thanks… MSNBC reported he was a journalist from The Nation.
Chyron HR
@rikyrah:
“I think really we mistake our response if we think it’s about accountability from the Russians.”
Uh, yeah, dipshit, that’s why we’re investigating you guys colluding with the Russians.
MomSense
@Quinerly:
Oh great. Trump will now have goon envy.
Cheryl Rofer
@Quinerly: I’m wary of all early reports. Hopefully it will be clarified later.
Quinerly
@MomSense: that ship has sailed. Plus, Putin has large feet and hands. ?
Cheryl Rofer
Putin mentions New START. That’s good.
Quinerly
@Cheryl Rofer: I know but I was watching it in real time. Quite startling.
Cheryl Rofer
Frankensteinbeck
People absolutely freak the fuck out about anything to do with the word ‘nuclear’, and they’re not interested in understanding context. It is common even among the most reasonable and educated people.
germy
Watching that journalist dragged out, trump must be thinking “I wish I could do that to those CNN motherfuckers…”
Timurid
Why didn’t the Finn security/cops intervene?
FlipYrWhig
I’m sure if government workers under Obama lost a box full of plutonium everyone would just say “shit happens” and shrug.
Frankensteinbeck
@germy:
Trump is wishing he could do it in general. It is exactly the kind of absolute power to be petty and spiteful that he has made it clear he idolizes. Another way he is a typical Republican voter.
Cheryl Rofer
Quite a bit about the JCPOA.
Now on to the Minsk talks. Putin wants the US to “nudge” the Ukrainian government to be more cooperative.
Cheryl Rofer
Platonailedit
@Quinerly:
From The Nation. Is that a lefty org?
Frankensteinbeck
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’ve seen it before, but Putin is a master troll.
Oh, well, that settles everything, then. Our president sure is a tough negotiator who gets results!
Quinerly
Trump fistbumping Erdogan last week.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fist-bumped-turkish-leader-erdogan-said-he-does-things-the-right-way/
Cheryl Rofer
Cheryl Rofer
Trump is actually reading a statement and sticking to it so far. Sounds like he contributed to it, but someone who knows something also helped write it.
Cheryl Rofer
EBT
@Frankensteinbeck: Just wait until you see the reaction I get when I talk about the old tritium flashlight an ex of mine made. Bunch of tiny tritium rods affixed to a reflector inside a normal eveready flashlight.
rikyrah
#ObamaInKenya
Barrack Obama is so much at peace, and relaxed… looking very happy to be in Kogelo ??
Clapping ? ? to every performer, and even dancing to the songs… ?#ObamaKaribuDala #ObamaInKogelo @citizentvkenya pic.twitter.com/HFe0yv6JjW
— Arthur Mbugwa (@2015ArthurM) July 16, 2018
Quinerly
@rikyrah: ???❤️♥️
Cheryl Rofer
Matt McIrvin
The main worry is that the thieves will accidentally poison themselves, or somebody else.
Cheryl Rofer
@Matt McIrvin: Even that is a pretty slim chance with the amounts of cesium and plutonium involved.
Cheryl Rofer
Major Major Major Major
Thanks Cheryl, I assumed the plutonium thing was a dumb non-story and was hoping you’d weigh in!
NotMax
Just as an aside, one of the more curious attractions on the nuclear midway.
Cheryl Rofer
He can’t give it up.
ZERO COLLUSION!
He is looking very low-energy. Sticking to uncontroversial stuff. This is actually kind of boring.
Steve in the ATL
@Quinerly: you missed the big St. Louis meet up last night! Marcopolo and I had a big time, but I understand the importance of solidifying your Colombian connection.
Cheryl Rofer
Putin agrees there was no collusion. Time to wrap it up, Bob Mueller!
rikyrah
@Cheryl Rofer:
He’s with his boss.
Quinerly
@Steve in the ATL: glad you had fun. Sounds like you are through here quite a bit. Another time. Did you go to Dressels? Old haunt of mine back in my law school days. Thought Marcopolo picked a good place. CWE watering holes somehow got off my radar after I left Midtown.
The Dangerman
I knew Putin would ball Trump.
Is Trump sundowning? WTF is this server shit?
different-church-lady
Yah, yah, yah, but is it enough to kill the thieves?
Tokyokie
@Cheryl Rofer: For what it’s worth, of the major metropolitan dailies in Texas (The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and San Antonio Express-News), the Express-News has long been regarded as hands-down the crappiest. And that was before the huge staff layoffs, which have made all those dailies significantly worse. I’m guessing the Express-News’ reporters are fresh out of college, and not particularly good ones or with particularly impressive GPAs.
L85NJGT
@Cheryl Rofer:
A Cold War style summit with a country that has an economy smaller than Italy’s is an empty gesture?
Robert Sneddon
@different-church-lady: Depends what isotopes of Plutonium and Cesium they are. I presume the Cs is -137, half-life of about 30 years or so. That would be noticeably radioactive. A similar amount of Pu-239 as used in nuclear weapons would be a lot less radioactive, half-life of (from memory) roughly 86,000 years or about 250 times less radioactive per milligram. If it was a mix of Pu-239 and Pu-240 from a power reactor then a bit more radioactive as Pu-240’s half-life is approx. 650 years but still not that dangerous.
Emissions — Cs-137 decays emitting a 500keV beta particle and sometimes an accompanying gamma of the same energy. Pu-239 and Pu-240 both emit a hot alpha particle on decay, energetic but easy to shield unless it’s absorbed in tissue like the stomach or the lungs.
Cheryl Rofer
@different-church-lady: Not unless they eat it, maybe not even then.
Calouste
@schrodingers_cat: Journalists are people who are too bad at math to even do business administration and too bad at logic to even do law.