Friday, August 11, 2006

Poland returns ‘bomb-grade’ uranium to Russia...


...from its nuclear reactor near Warsaw. Er…Poland has a nuclear reactor?

Yup, has done since 1954, in fact. Reuters reported yesterday that in a ‘covert operation’ at dawn :

Poland...returned to Russia close to 40 kg (88 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, enough to make an atomic bomb, as part of a global effort to secure high-risk nuclear material, a U.N. watchdog said on Thursday.

The Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) was given to Poland years ago for research purposes.

This was another critical step towards enhancing security of fissile material by eliminating stockpiles of HEU," the IAEA's manager for the Polish job, Arnaud Atger, said in the statement

Poland’s reactor is in Otwock-Swierk, about 30 kilometers from Warsaw. Most of the research is for medical purposes for use in oncology treatment.

Poland announced last year that it intends to build a nuclear power station, to be ready some time around 2020.

Greens went nuts about the announcement, of course, but hey – nuclear fuel does not produce carbons and so is in line with all those directives from Kyoto and the EU to reduce emissions. Rejoice!

9 comments:

beatroot said...

Dylan Evans of the University of the West of England was reported to be soooo pissimistic about the future of the planet that he is abandoning his scientific career to go and live in a tepee in a commune.

That's how miserablist the culture is getting in the west.

polishpenguin said...

So let me get this straight, Poland will return enriched uranium to Russia, who will in turn sell it to Iran or other Middle East countries. That's nice.

beatroot said...

Penquin. I think you are being a touch cynical.

After all, it was Russia's nuke in the first place. Poland just borrowed it!

roman said...

beatroot,

How should we interpret your statement: "Er…Poland has a nuclear reactor?"

A casual reader might take this the wrong way so please pick one.

Are you saying here that you are surprised that Poland may have the techological expertise to have and utilize nuclear reasearch capabilities?

Are you saying that it was kept a secret so well that it caught you by surprise?

Hint...I like surprises too.

beatroot said...

It was neither question one nor two ...it was answer three:

Poland has a nuclear reactor!

Its meaning is clear. I had no clue Poland has a nuclear reactor. I bet 99.99999 percent of the world doesn't know that Poland has a nuclear reactor.

Like you say, Roman: I like suprises too!

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