Monday, March 02, 2009

Plutonium From Manhattan Project Discovered

Wow. 

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.

The sample dates to 1944 and is a relic from the infancy of the US nuclear weapons programme.

[...]

The bottle in question was discovered in a burial trench at the Hanford nuclear site in Washington state, north-western US.

Established as part of the Manhattan Project in 1943, Hanford was home to the world’s first full-scale plutonium production facility.

[...]

While excavating a burial trench in December 2004, clean-up personnel discovered a safe which contained a jug filled with whitish liquid slurry.

Further tests revealed the bottle contained a type of plutonium made by re-processing spent fuel in a manner consistent with early operations at Hanford.

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1731 hrs
Military + Technology

  1. A good friend of mine, now deceased, was responsible for a large part of the Hanford Site cleanup—through his courtesy I was able to take a limited tour of the site.

    They had SEVEN different recipies for making enriched uranium out there, including one which was extremely useful as a medical-diagnostics tool.

    Damnfool Clinton shut down that reactor over the objections of the entire WORLDWIDE medical establishment.

    Posted by dad29 on March 02, 2009 at 1804 hrs


  2. Besides political interests, they make their decisions based on what they consider will hurt their personal benefits. Medical advancement was not on his list of sources of income.

    Posted by Home Accents on March 04, 2009 at 1107 hrs


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