Every bit of uranium ore has a chemical fingerprint specific to its source on Earth. Track the metal, and you can track the ne’er-do-well who took it.
Plutonium and enriched Uranium (Uranium enriched in the isotope U-235) is regulated as Special Nuclear Material under 10 CFR 50, Domestic licensing of production and utilization facilities. As a practical matter,it is not possible for an individual to legally own Plutoniumor enriched Uranium. How ...
A powerful computer worm designed by US and Israeli intelligence that is believed to have disabled a key part of the Iranian nuclear program. Stuxnet was designed to destroy the centrifuges Iran used to enrich uranium as part of its weapons programme. It is reported the worm was...
In a nuclear enrichment program, a centrifuge is a fundamental tool needed to refine the uranium. Each centrifuge built follows the same basic mechanics, but the German manufacturer Siemens offers what many consider to be the best in the industry. Stuxnet sought out the Siemens controllers and to...
Uranium is not the only material used for making atomic bombs. Another material is the Pu-239 isotope of the man-made element plutonium. Plutonium is only found naturally in minute traces, so useable amounts must be produced from uranium. In a nuclear reactor, uranium's heavier U-238 isotop...
Abundant fuel supply- Deuterium can be readily extracted from seawater, and excess tritium can be made in the fusion reactor itself from lithium, which is readily available in the Earth's crust. Uranium for fission is rare, and it must be mined and then enriched for use in reactors. ...
Where's the World's Uranium? Canada and Australia produce 40 percent of the world's uranium, with the United States only shoveling out around 3 percent [source:Nuclear Energy Institute]. Still, investments in uranium exploration and mining have jumped sixfold from 2004 to 2008 in the States...
protons is known as nuclear fission. In nuclear fission, a device is used to accelerate neutrons toward the nucleus of an atom. The collision of the neutrons with the atom causes the atom’s nucleus to break apart into fragments. Each fragment is roughly half the mass of the original atom...
Nuclear Bombs: What's the Difference? What Happens at White Sands Missile Range? Keeping a Secret Historical//Getty Images Physicist Norris Bradbury sits next to The Gadget, the nuclear device created by scientists to test the world's first atomic bomb. To get an idea of how hard it was ...
and intelligence officials still believe he is a few years away from even regaining the capacity to manufacture enriched uranium to build his own bomb. If he can steal or buy ready-made fissile material, say from the Russian mafia, he could probably make a nuclear weapon in a matter of mon...