I was wondering how the heck do you do a field test for Plutonium. If you wonder too, well, here ya go...

http://www.bertholdtech.com/en/pub/strahlenschutz/produkte/rpplsource/rpprodrsslb6414.cfm

Rummy seemed flumoxed at the news conference when asked of the impact on war justification if hypothetically no WMD were found. Seems all have treated this as a binary variable (found/not found). Also, leadup created the impression that WMD were ubiquitous - leading to, what is the analysis if there are only tiny amounts? Is it like the old jaw, a little big pregnant?

Why do you think that Salam Pax wasn't working for the Ba'ath regime? I think he was.

I saw this on BuzMachine about Salam Pax today.

http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2003_04.html#003473

I heard they are now detecting depleted uranium all over the country!

..someone said they were using piegons to get first confirmation,dont use a piegons,damn,use a "frog".

Alan Powell, I have to agree with you 100%.

Here's a link where they discuss the "plutonium" (found by army specialists on site)

Same pittsburgh reporter that had the first story, I think.

After a quick inspection at what military authorities call the "Yellowcake Facility" a few hundred meters offsite, the Army specialists told the Marines they suspect Al-Tuwaitha harbors weapons-grade plutonium at the Yellowcake site. Previously, it was believed by international inspectors to hold uranium.

Gee Biggee, the best way to detect depleted uranium is just to pick it up and look at it, it's radioactive properties are gone...once again for the naive, "that's why it's called depleted"!!

I don't care if they find WMD or not.

Resolution 1441 demanded of Iraq immediate and complete cooperation or face serious consequence.

Well, we now know what "serious consequences" are.

Would it have been stupid for Saddam NOT to cooperate even if he could have let the inspectors interview the scientist to prove no WMD. Yes.

But the fact remains that he did NOT cooperate and thats that. Good riddance to him and his rhetorical defenders.

I'll bet if 'Big Rooster' looks really hard he'll detect depleted underwear all over the country, too!

Wallace, I think you may have missed the joke in Big Rooster's message. The depleted uranium all over the country is from A-10 rounds.

Depleted uranium has 40% less radioactivity than natural uranium, but it's primary toxicity comes from:

1) being a "heavy metal", like silver, lead, mercury, etc.
2) catching it at 700 meters/second

I hear plutonium is pretty to look at, as long as you don't touch or eat it.

I've been wondering about Salam Pax too, but I heard many people suggested he not blog until the war is over, and anyway there have probably been power outages and stuff in Baghdad..

If Salam was working for the regime, he was pretty darn subtle about it--while working for a government that didn't seem to prize subtlety when presenting itself to the world (cf. Baghdad Bob).

Jim

Depleted Uranium, DU rounds are used for tank killing missions because they are self sharpening upon impact of a solid object unlike lead which will mushroom upon impact and therefore have a reduced penetration.

PS. I miss Baghdad Bob. You think he'll be on SNL this weekend?

Then again, maybe the state's propaganda machine was more sophisticated than we thought. Salam Pax and Baghdad Bob could have been playing to different audiences. Not that I think Salam was a government agent - I don't - only that it's possible.

If the material was plutonium they can tell very easily. they would leave it and wait for IAEA or no one is going to believe us.

They were allowed to store some tons of uranium, some enriched, at the site.

That's funny. Salam has been read by what - a few thousand internet geeks? What possible good would that do for the Iraqis?

The information minister had a high level public govt. job and every news outlet in the world (almost) hanging on his every word.

How could these be even similar (except we're assuming they are both male and Iraqi)

If Salam Pax was working for the government, why did he put up a "Support Democracy in Iraq" poster long before the end of the war?

My guess: he is a Sunni, reasonably well off (he is known to be an architect) who had both a lot to lose and a lot to gain by the war. I am guessing he lives in West Baghdad but not in the privileged neighborhood hit by the anti-Saddam strike (in fact, he said he didn't live there when he posted a satellite image).

There are those who have privately communicated with him (and with me) who have convincing evidence of his authenticity.

I have yet to see what technology would let people know easily that something is Plutonium.

It is radioactive and a neutron emitter (so is uranium).

It is a heavy metal (so is uranium).

Pure plutonium has, I believe, a distinct appearance from uranium, but they presumably didn't find much of that.

I wish the link at the top was working -- my understanding was that "weapons grade", i.e. metallic, PU and U are hard to tell apart, both silvery-grey metals, both alpha emitters, similar chemistries.

Radioactive isotopes are distinquishable (one from another) because of the spectrum range of their emissions. I used to operate a 4000 channel analyzer years ago...otherwise, I could tell you the exact numbers...but alas, my long term memory gets shorter every year. *LOL* ;)

Perkin Elmer makes a portable atomic absorption instrument for analyzing a small group of metals. You can get one on www.surplusshed.com (which is a totally cool site, by the way.) Maybe somebody makes a portable AA for Pu and U.

Isn't plutonium supposed to be very sensitive to temperature fluctuations in terms of expansion and contraction?

Paul Dow, duh. We all got it.

What I know about Salam: former architechual student, immigrated back into the country (why?) and had a Line of Sight to the Salam Palace. Possibly in a Suburb (talked about a yard)

An engineering colleague of mine worked on a project for the military that identified isotopes of medical-quantity radioactive material from low-flying aircraft. It CAN be done.

To All of You in the Blogosphere:
Do any of you remember all of the flap a couple of months ago about Saddam possibly hiding his WMD's on several mystery ships which were plying the oceans? Supposedly, we were monitoring their movements. This story seems to have completely dropped off the radar screens. Have any of you heard anything recent about this?? If so, please put it out to the warblog world. Thanks to all.

Hangtown Bob:

"To All of You in the Blogosphere"

I remember the news article about the ships and probably have it bookmarked, but I've not heard anything since.

There was some speculation at the time that the US was afraid to halt and board, thinking that the ship would be scuttled in the attempt and would cause a catastrophic, environmental problem at sea, IF it contained WMD's.

BUT...I've been wondering about it, too! I hope some fresh news sprouts up, soon. :)

Weapons Pu-239 emits neutrons due to spontaneous fission of Pu-240, which is unavoidably created in the reactor (along with Pu-239 and a host of other isotopes). *That* is a dead giveaway, not alpha emission.

More to the point, Pu has a _much_ higher neutron emission rate than Uranium. U-235 emits about 2 neutrons per second per kg, and Pu-239 (actually, the Pu-240 is responsible for most of it) emits *far* more. You can also compare energies of the neutrons or the alpha emissions, although neutrons are far tougher to shield (alpha is stopped by short distances of air, or a sheet of foil, or wood).

Hmm...I thought there was NO credible evidence about Iraq having nuclear weapons. If these indeed are weapons grade plutonium (and I wouldn't be surprised), way to go Dr. El Baradai. Just goes to show you how effective those UN weapons inspectors are.

If I remember correctly (and I of course could be wrong about this), you can tell where the plutonium came from by the ratio of PU-239 to -240. Apparently, each reactor used to breed plutonium imparts a distinctive 'signature' on the plutonium it produces. Would be interesting to see where this plutonium (if indeed that is what we found) came from, ie., was it indigenous or was it imported?