arromdee@inetnow.net wrote:

On Fri, 12 Mar 1999, Jamie and Bridget Wilde wrote:

     "2007 was the year the Islamic Jihad poisoned Tel Aviv's aquifer,"
Sylia said. "They used four kilos of finely ground plutonium shavings
to contaminate the water table. They killed about thirty thousand
people before anyone caught on. Tel Aviv's been using desalinization
plants in the ocean for their water ever since. The aquifer is
effectively poisoned forever. It's cost Israel billions to build the
plants and come up with ways to minimize the contamination plume."
     "You got it," Klein affirmed. "Plutonium is a lot more dangerous
as a terror weapon when used as a poison rather than as bomb fuel."

Please, no.

The idea that plutonium is that poisonous usually comes from anti-nuclear
propaganda.  Putting it in the water is particularly silly because plutonium,
when eaten, is many times less poisonous than inhaled.

I heartily disagree. If you want to throw case study citings at each
other, then let's take this to private email. Otherwise... These are the
things I learned about Plutonium while spending six years in the nuclear
power industry as an operator/mechanic:

Plutonium happens to be the most toxic element known to man. There might
be compounds that are more dangerous, but as for the elements, the big
Pu is it. If you're refering to the danger Pu represents as an alpha
emitter, then yes, the lungs are more susceptible to radiation than the
GI tract, but not by any significant amount.

Plutonium poisoning of North American aquifers also happens to be one of
the top ten terrorist threats considered by the FBI Special Task Force
on Domestic Terrorism, right up there with anthrax, rycin, and the "Tim
McVeigh Special." Unfortunately, they have no detailed plan to stop such
an event, and rely solely on monitoring of known or suspected terrorists
for warning.

Around eleven tons of it was put in the atmosphere by 1950's nuclear tests.
We're still around.

Eleven tons of Pu diffused into how many *billion* tons of air over the
course of a decade? No wonder we're still here.
--
       "Why are they wearing bras?"
          -Rachel Wilde, age 4,
while watching the Dirty *ahem* Lovely Angels...
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