Radium/clock/nuclear bomb/terrorism question....

[Viva_La_Revolution]

I originally posted this question in the Science forum, but it has morphed into a comment. This whole Un-American hatred for 'others' that has so blatently increased lately. I have a friend who is commenting constantly that as a 40 yr old black man, he has never felt as much racism directed at him as he does now. Here, in Portland, the tolerance oasis of America, right in the neighbor hood where he grew up.

Now this conversation with my brother has raised the issue for me, because my hometown is acting the same way...

my post in Science..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=228&topic_id=7135#

******

I a had a conversation with my brother this morning that was, well, a bit odd.
He told me about the Nuclear Boy Scout (turns out it's the Radioactive Boy Scout) who was trying to make a nuclear bomb with radium paint he found inside of an old clock.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1153968.htm

My brother lives in a little farm town in the midwest, which has recently seen an influx of immigrant labor at the new corporate pig farms that have sprouted in the last 15 years. As a result, anti-Mexican sentiments are running very high in town. There is talk among several people in town about a certain person who is part of this influx. Bro says "he doesn't act like a Mexican. My friends who know Spanish tell me he doesn't speak it very well".

Here's the clincher...

This guy is buying/acquiring/STEALING old clocks with radium dials, has 15-20 of them in his garage. This is not a rumor, several friends have seen them. Everybody is on High Terror alert about this guy, this is the mid-west, remember. Apparently this guy has even been 'reported' to Homeland Security, but there has been no action that anyone is aware of.


My question is...
Is it possible to scrape enough radium off of clock dials to make a bomb? The report says the kid found a whole vial of paint.

Or has an Urban Legend taken hold of my hometown?

on Edit - after reading several of the articles detailing what this kid had to do to create a bomb, I'm not worried about this guy. Not unless he's some kind of super genius like this kid. At 12 he was doing university level experiments, on his own.
I'm more worried now about the whole sociological impact of all this 'Terra! Terra!' crap on the small towns of America. He's a little freaked out, we grew up in this town, and even the Mexican families who we grew up with there are feeling extremely uncomfortable.

******

How many other DU'ers are feeling this? What can we do to stop it now!? We're going FREAKING BACKWARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Richard D]

1. Nope, not possible. . .

. . . but a dirty bomb would be possible.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. just when I thought the guy was not likely to be a threat...

Thanks a lot :o

[Richard Steele]

3. And you would need a few THOUSAND antique clocks.

[Ready4Change]

5. And you'd still only have a radiological weapon, not a nuclear bomb.

A radiological weapon uses a conventional explosive to spread radio active material. You'd need to scrap a LOT of clock dials to make that material significantly more dangerous than the explosive itself.

To make an actual nuclear explosion (such as Hiroshima) would take true genius and near industrial support.

Imho

[Beaver Tail]

6. Dont Worry

A dirty bomb is not really that hard to make compared to conventional explosives but I would not be more worried about a Dirty Bomb when compared to a convention explosive. This is a fear factor of “OMG…RADATION” more than anything.

In a dirty bomb most of the destruction comes from the actual explosive. The disbursement of radio active material would such as to make the radio active qualities not overly effective.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandDefense/bg1723.cfm
http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/radiation/notices.htm#2

[wtmusic]

4. Isolated radium will not chain-react spontaneously

and being exposed to a dirty bomb made of radium from clocks would probably be less harmful than having a radium clock in your house.

Urban legend.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. agreed.

I'm not so worried about the bomb aspects, it's just not plausible.

But the reaction of the town is very frightening. This administration is using fear to poison the minds of Americans. Horribly scary to see it happening to the people you've known all your life.

[Zynx]

7. Would not work.

Cannot possibly make this material go critical and it's nowhere near radioactive enough to pose a radiological hazard in a realistic dirty bomb.