Sponsored Content
« Two Soldiers Stabbed in Brussels By Somalian Shouting "Long Live the Confederacy!" | Main | AGAIN: Two Police Officers Protecting Buckingham Palace Wounded by Man Wielding Knife;
No Word Yet on Whether It Is Terror-Related »
August 25, 2017

Indonesian "Militants" Arrested for Plotting Radioactive Dirty Bomb Attack

FYI, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country, the country always first to be brought up when people argue that not all Islamic countries' citizens pose terror threats, and also not on the travel ban list. (Thanks to @nowhere_NH for pointing that out.)

So: Dirty bomb. Good times.

Religion, peace, of. Some assembly required.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian militants planned to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb, security sources said, highlighting the rising ambitions of extremists to wreak destruction in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation.

But experts cast doubt on their expertise, equipment and chances of success.

The plot was foiled when police raided homes and arrested five suspects in Bandung, West Java, last week, the sources with direct knowledge of the plot said. After the raids, police spoke of a plan to explode a "chemical" bomb but provided no other details.

The plot comes as Indonesia grapples with an influx of militants deported from other countries and the fallout from the Islamic State-led siege in the southern Philippines city of Marawi that regional leaders and analysts worry has energized militants across Southeast Asia.

The plot involved getting low-radiation Thorium 232 (half life: 14 billion years) and converting it to highly radioactive uranium 233. This web page explains how that works.

Authorities say they doubt that the "militants" could have achieved that technical process. It looks to me -- a total ignoramus, admittedly -- that the process requires some source of free neutrons to inject into the thorium. The web page suggests to me the typical way to do this is to put the thorium near a nuclear reactor, and allow the bleed of escaping neutrons to bump the thorium up into uranium.

I don't know if there are other ways to do that, or if these "militants" had some kind of access to a nuclear reactor or some other source of free neutrons.

It should be pointed out that building a nuclear reactor is not as difficult or expensive as you might guess.These homebrew "fusors" will generate free neutrons as a byproduct of fusion. (Yes, fusion -- but this kind of fusion requires tons more energy of input than it outputs, so this kind of easily-done fusor is not the type of self-sustaining fusion reactor that we're spending billions to research.)

My guess would be that a DIY fusor would pump neutrons out at such a slow rate it would take years and years to turn thorium into a respectable amount of uranium, but, again, this is just my guess based on the low output of a garage fusor.



digg this
posted by Ace at 05:45 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Hatari war whooping somewhere on Ventura Highway: "Gwyneth Paltrow wins ski collision case Posted by ..."

Hairyback Guy: "If democrat moochers, layabouts, sodomites, crackh ..."

nurse ratched : "The bleacher seats are great when you want to fuck ..."

Alberta Oil Peon: "Just to clarify: Bragg is staging a huge Trump arr ..."

Lizzy[/i]: ">>That the case is like 7 years old should get it ..."

Gref: "Why are white libtards pretending to minorities wh ..."

President Select Decaf: "Schiff for brains already fundraising off the Trum ..."

Preparing gp For Lazy Loading: ""Ertard. I like it." Ace coined it in the post ..."

rhennigantx: "So Disney turned over the board to the company via ..."

Bea Arthur's Dick: "Ertard. I like it. Will work it into conversat ..."

Lost in Space: "Been in that section a few times. It really is a b ..."

Skip : "That the case is like 7 years old should get it to ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64