Now who would be stupid enough to loot a Nuclear Plant

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Aro
Rah, if you are living in the XVIIIth century, with nothing but the Koran to teach you how the world works - literally... Yep, you may do things like that. "Radiation - Keep Out" in Arabic, with armed guards, means "something valuable is stored in this place" in common language, if you don't have the background to understand it.

Iraq had the best education in the area, and the Ba'ath was a secular party. Really, I am pretty sure the people had a good idea of how dangerous the plant was.

[Dis]

you know, you would think the U.S. would be interested in protecting nuclear facilities. I guess all they are about are the oil wells

in any case it depends on what kind of nuclear plant we are talking about. If it is just a regular power generating facility most of that stuff that can be removed is not radioactive, or has little radioactivity.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Jack_www
How could these people not know if they lived so close to a nuclear power plant? I mean Iraq still had schools under Sadam, you cant tell me that they were that bad that should have know radiation is bad, and often takes a while to effect you.

People in Iraq knew not to ever question authority about anything. These are rural people living on dirt floors looking for something to hold water in, for God's sake - they don't even ****ing have plumbing, and you expect them to understand radiation and toxic risks? With the economic state of a lot of these people, a decent water container for free is probably like manna from heaven. Try living (or seeing) third world poverty and access to information before condemning them.

Hundreds of Iraqi government facilities had barbed wire, guards, and "keep your ass away from here" signs - so that's not new. The fact that the Iraqis were storing this stuff so accessibly indicates a totally lax attitude about safety, which only happens if/when people in contact with hazards have no idea how bad those hazards are.

UR - The Ba'ath may be secular, but a majority of Iraqis are not Ba'ath party members. And education was for the elite and the urban useful, not for the rural masses.

[Aro]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Iraq had the best education in the area, and the Ba'ath was a secular party. Really, I am pretty sure the people had a good idea of how dangerous the plant was.

You're right. But maybe not all over the country. Euros and Americans tend to think in uniform countries... But I live in Brazil.
Bagdhad and other few cities (probably the ones invaded or surrounded) seems to be modern places. But what about the small villages? See that description:

Originally posted by rah
................................
"We didn't know," Haloul said as she breast-fed a 20-day-old daughter in her two-room home, a dirt-floor hovel where a couple of chickens roosted with the rest of her family. "We got the barrel right before the baby was born."
......................

I can't see good education in a place like that.

Btw, this happened in Brazil:

"On September 1987, the owner of a scrap iron store opened the canister from an unattended cesium bomb, in the City of Goiânia (Brazil). The radioactive cesium spread over a large area and many people were intensely irradiated."

"Hints about atomic power in Brazil
Joaquim Moura
............................
Subject: Hints about atomic power in Brazil
............................


Unfortunately, I am not very able to help you in relation to this topic, but
I can give you some starting hints:

First: do you know that the Western worst nuclear accident has occurred in Brazil, some years ago, when a group of poor people, from a poor neighborhood in Goiania, found a nuclear capsule with Cesio something, and as they didn't know anything about atomic radiation, they opened the capsule, tried to sold the luminous sand that they found inside it, and a young girl had even tried to taste a bit of it. Of course many of them are dead now, including the poor young girl, and many families are still suffering a lot. The government has already forgotten its responsibilities, so the original owner of the radioactive capsule (a x-ray clinic). The streets where those poor people lived had their grounds removed by huge machines, and all those tons of earth have filled hundreds of containers that nobody knows how to store safely...
......................................."

Here's the link .

Or do a google search with the words "Goiania", "Cesio" and "Brazil".

[Aro]

MtG, you said all.

[Grrr]

[ ]

/me wonders what else was stolen.
/me wonders if any of this stolen material will be used in terrorist acts against US.
/me wonders if the US was stupid not to keep an eye on material that could be used to make 'dirty bombs' in a country harbouring terrorists.

[/ ]

[DarthVeda]

Reminds me of the three iraqis found mauled by the dangerous animals @ the zoo.

[TheStinger]

Who would be stupid enough to fill a small very densely populated country with nuclear reactors and not work out that there might be a porblem getting rid of all the nasty stuff when they got old.

Oh hang on a minute...

[Az]

Wait a sec, IRAQ HAD A NUKULAR PLANT?

holy ****.

[MRT144]

didnt israel blow it up?

[Az]

Didn't the inspections say there aren't any?

[MRT144]

nope. actually inspectors visited that specific plant.

[Az]

and what did they say?

[MRT144]

not too sure what the inspectors said.

[GePap]

The Iraqis were not denied civilain and industrial uses of nuclear energy.