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Not in Every Corner Drugstore

Idaho State University is being fined $8,500 for losing an object the size of a quarter. That object: one gram of weapons grade plutonium. While the amount is too small to make a nuclear weapon, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks said it could be used to make a “dirty bomb.” The item is one of 14 plutonium sources the school had, and it was found to be missing during a routine inventory. The other 13 sources were accounted for, but the last record of them being handled was from 2003, when a document said the Idaho National Laboratory didn’t want the plutonium anymore and it was “pending disposal of the next waste shipment.” “Unfortunately, because there was a lack of sufficient historical records to demonstrate the disposal pathway employed in 2003, the source in question had to be listed as missing,” said Dr. Cornelis Van der Schyf, vice president for research at the university. “The radioactive source in question poses no direct health issue or risk to public safety.” (MS/AP) ...You can’t make a dirty bomb with something that doesn’t pose a public risk.