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Re: Nuclear Weapons Material



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In list.cypherpunks, Jim Dixon spake:

> In message <[email protected]> Mike Duvos writes:

>> Workers in nuclear fuel fabrication facilities have been known to
>> use small disks of plutonium sintered into a ceramic base as
>> poker chips.
> 
> Is this true?  I mean, do you know it from personal experience?
> I was told by what I considered to be reliable sources that plutonium
> was extremely toxic.  Upon reflection, I am sure that this is the
> word that was used: toxic, not radioactive.

Plutonium oxide has a reputation for causing eventual lung cancer when
inhaled in microgram quantities.  But if the plutonium metal is sintered
into a ceramic, it's not loose and breathable.  I can't say how
otherwise toxic it might be, but I'd expect it to be similar to other
heavy metals.  So the poker chips sound pretty safe.
- -- 
       Roy M. Silvernail         [ ]  [email protected]
                    PGP public key available by mail
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         These are, of course, my opinions (and my machines)

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