I read this and my blood ran cold

[s1m0n]

That is scary, that it happened and that there were people stupid or ignorant enough to have let it happen

If it's happening in the US, it's also happening in the Soviet Union, and what's really scary is that the international effort aimed at preventing such things was yet another casualty of the bogus war on terror. Yup - Bush's wild goose chase for non-existent Iraqi WMDs came at the expense of efforts to secure real fissionables and WMDs around the world.

[carrie]

It is a thin thread on which we dangle our world.

And fast by hanging in a golden Chain
This pendant world, in bigness as a Starr
Of smallest Magnitude close by the Moon.
Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accurst, and in a cursed hour he hies.

--Milton, Book II, Paradise Lost, when Satan, kicked out of heaven, reaches the portals of Earth

The image of Satan crouching by the dangling world has always made me shiver. On the other hand, I don't mean to interject the concept of evil into this discussion. We've had enough of that.

[hyldemoer]

That is scary, that it happened and that there were people stupid or ignorant enough to have let it happen

If it's happening in the US, it's also happening in the Soviet Union, and what's really scary is that the international effort aimed at preventing such things was yet another casualty of the bogus war on terror. Yup - Bush's wild goose chase for non-existent Iraqi WMDs came at the expense of efforts to secure real fissionables and WMDs around the world.

Yup.
It appears we don't need bad guys doing us harm. Our own countries' (EU included in this) ill thought out and poorly instrumented hygiene is probably already doing us in.

But, this is not new. We've all had a clue of that for some time, right?

[izzarina]

Was it a Peter Pan Peaut Butter jar?

Might explain why Izz has been having odd-tasting peanut butter of late.

What???!!! No wonder I've had a slight glow about me when the lights are all out. And here Mr Izz thought it was because I was from New Jersey.

[Lambchop]

Somewhere there is a piece of very thin, silvery and weightless metal from Roswell, New Mexico, that can crumple up into almost nothing and then flatten right back out again like it never happened.

[izzarina]

Somewhere there is a piece of very thin, silvery and weightless metal from Roswell, New Mexico, that can crumple up into almost nothing and then flatten right back out again like it never happened.

The Truth is out there....time to call Mulder and Scully!

[CHasR]

WHOA, Whoa, whoa...waiddaminnit here.....


...I got some questions...

They found it in 2004?
This is just being released NOW, in 2009 after the evidence from the obvious Bush-Cheney cover-up has been destroyed/lost/otherwise classified?
( I'm sorry .. here it goes to procto...apologies folks, )
BUT: even more importantly:
Look at these pictures, how this safe is being tossed around by a HUGE back-hoe:


I, for one, canNOT believe a 50-y.o. glass lab jar was unbroken inside during all this....

Secondly:
WHO arranged the contents of the safe for this photo???


We got robots that good yet? that can jimmy a rusty safe open, remove and arrange objects inside for a photo-op? without breaking stuff inside?

where's the robot tracks? Why is there a mid-80's white 1/4 ton Ford pickup in the background?
THIRD:


Yah! go ahead buddy..you wanna pick that up dontcha? unbelieveable.

I'm smellin fishies heah....

somethin' s just not addin up for me....

OH, Izz: that NJ glow in the dark thing...He's right. Camden keeps me awake all night sometimes.

[Doug_Tipple]

James, I sent you a PM.

Spent uranium being used in munitions with empty shells laying around neighborhoods all over the world is a real example of thoughtlessness.

[fearfaoin]

Apparantly, you can now just buy the stuff on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000796XXM/

[djm]

fearfaoin, did you read the reviews for that on amazon? Priceless!

djm

[fearfaoin]

fearfaoin, did you read the reviews for that on amazon? Priceless!

Can't believe I missed that. Awesome.

[chas]

Let me just say that the site where this nuclear waste was found is a nuclear reservation. It's absolutely chock-full of nuclear waste. It's not a landfill or something, there are many nuclear waste dumps on site. The said jar of waste wasn't in any way unique; it's just the earliest they've found. They've been cleaning up Hanford for decades. The place is, as the article said, without a doubt the dirtiest place in the western hemisphere and is a poster child for the recklessness of the beginning of the nuclear arms race. But it's not like they found the waste in just any dump, it's in a place that was used as a nuclear-waste dump from the 40's into the 70's or 80's, and it's been under really strict security that whole time.

Don't forget that the vast majority of our spent nuclear material from power plants is being stored above ground, on site. It's definitely less secure than the Hanford site.

I knew a guy in Russia who, last time I saw him, was in charge of a nuclear site there. This was several years ago, but his men hadn't been paid in a couple of years at that point. Fortunately for all of us, the area around the site was rife with herbs and other sources of scent, and they started making perfume, which they sold to companies in France and the US. That's how the stewards of the Former Soviet Union nuclear program were being paid, at least at that site.

Scary that we have so much spent nuclear material? Of course. Were we careless for a couple of decades? Of course. But the situation in the US is nothing compared to that in the FSU.

[WyoBadger]

Oh, way to go, Chas, mess up ChasR et al's fun. Haven't you figured out yet that everything--absolutely everything--is Bush/Cheney's fault?

(I'm not a big B/C fan myself, but come on, folks...)

Charles is right--Hanford is not just your average landfill. It is a nuclear sight. Probably pretty high security. It's interesting that in the article the people who actually found the thing express no horror, fear or even mild concern about "what could have happened." They are just fascinated by the historical significance, and puzzled about why it was never used. No big controversy; nothing even that remarkable--they found some historically interesting nuclear waste in a nuclear waste dump. Of course, the fact that we have nuclear waste dumps is cause for concern, but not this find in particular.

Oh, by the way, there are suits people wear that keep them safe from stuff like that. My guess is that's probably how the stuff got out of the safe and set up for the photo op. The levitating robot theory is more fun, though.

T

[s1m0n]

If that's what's been happening in the US, I shudder to think about what's in the arctic ocean near Andreeva Bay.

Which, now that we have global warming, and the opening of the northeast and northwest passages, is likely to be a whole lot more accessible than it used to be.

About halfway between Severomorsk and the Norwegian border lies Andreeva Bay, an environmental nightmare where the waters are completely devoid of life.

Leaks from the region's largest nuclear waste storage facility mean no fish will ever swim in this fjord. Onshore, both the soil and the groundwater are badly contaminated.

On this vast site, 32 tons of highly radioactive waste with a high uranium content is stored in crumbling concrete bunkers and rusting tanks and containers - about a third of the nuclear waste mountain that can be found on the Kola Peninsula.

Most of it is spent fuel from the Northern Fleet's nuclear powered submarines, some from nuclear powered ice breakers.

And these days nobody, not even the officials in charge, suggests it is safe.

"The current storage facilities are in poor condition," according to an official from SevRao, a division of Russia's nuclear industry agency Rosatom, which has taken over control of Andreeva Bay from the ministry of defence.

"This is the biggest environmental threat facing the Murmansk region today," according to Andrei Zolotkov, director of local green group Bellona.

"The amount of radioactivity is equivalent to 93 submarine reactors, or comparable with Chernobyl."