March 8, 2009
Nuclear archeology
A bottle discarded at a waste site in the US contains the oldest sample of bomb-grade plutonium made in a nuclear reactor, scientists say.Full story here.The sample dates to 1944 and is a relic from the infancy of the US nuclear weapons programme.
A team from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used nuclear forensic techniques to date the sample and track down its origins.
Posted by David on March 8, 2009 10:50 PM
Comments
Saw this about a month ago.
A bit of snark: the BBC implies someone just tossed the bottle.
Not quite. It was found inside a still-locked safe. http://www2.fluoridealert.org/Pollution/Nuclear-Industry/Lanthanum-fluoride-Plutonium-found-in-safe-at-Hanford-is-historic
Still, just how the safe came to be dumped without its contents being checked is worth questioning.
Posted by: John A on March 9, 2009 4:18 PM
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