Why is everyone freaking out about this? Enriched uranium was once used in nuclear reactors for power generation, but they moved away from that in designs decades ago.

The only purpose for fissile material in a modern US nuclear weapon is to be the primary (detonator) on the real (fusion) bomb. A uranium bomb like Nagasaki or Hiroshima is pretty much a firecracker by today's standards, and far too large & heavy to properly place on a cruise missile or ICBM.

More recent US weapons use plutonium as the trigger to super heat a hydrogen core, which fuses hydrogen atoms to helium and releasing 1000s of times more energy in doing so.

I'm pretty sure this was just a corporate welfare contract to Bechtel or someone to keep making uranium and the stockpiles are probably years or decades deep.

The US also operates a nuclear fuel bank of sorts, where we take enriched uranium from these third world players on agreements, then downgrade it and redistribute for civilian purposes.

Natural uranium is like 0.3% pure, you need 20% for a crappy N Korea-style bomb (slightly more yield than a US high explosive), our best A-bomb stuff would be like 90%+.

Since the era of the H-Bomb though in the 50's & 60's, we just don't use this very much I would think.

It's pretty unimaginable that a scenario would develop that we can't resolve with our 10s of thousands of nuclear weapons. We keep a few in South Korea on a hair trigger for obvious reasons, but basically 4 or 5 of them would completely vaporize the North Korean half of the peninsula. 6 or 7 and you're talking nothing left and only glass for a ground surface.

The current generation nuclear reactors using breeder-reactor technology, and their fuel is actually the nuclear waste of yesteryear... so they don't even use uranium either anymore. The ones that do use uranium are prone to meltdowns like the one in Japan.

Well, I didn't know that that was the last one, but
why be surprised at any anti-American, anti-indus-
trial thing the s.o.b. does?

Time to get Trump in there to stick up for the USA, like Putin does for Russia. I was impressed by Putin in his 60 minutes interview- He loves his mother/father land and does what those people want (which isnt so great actually, but at least he is a good leader). I wish WE had a good leader like that here in the USA. My vote is on Trump this time to blast the old guard and get some business sense into government.

Obama is a muslim who wants to destroy the USA from within. Crazy how people voted for this idiot.

How many pegs left until we hit bottom?

What would you expect from a mindless, brain only progressive.
Everything is upside down, backwards and inside out in the world of progressivism.

Opposing everything that is good and right by 180° since teddy roosevelt and woodie wilson.

[ You may have noticed that I do not 'capitalize' certain names...that is do to the fact that I feel those names and the creatures attached to those names do not deserve that kind of respect.]

The UN is dominated by Socialists and worse, Obama is dominated by the UN.

I find it very difficult to believe 0 is capable of all of this destruction of the country by himself. If this were the case his successor could reverse everything he has done. However, I just do not see that happening, as it has not happened in the past. The new man in office just continues the destructive course that was set with the passing of the anti-trust laws over 100 years ago. If you ever become a fly on the wall in some office in d.c. you might hear the truth. But until then do not believe he is anything more than a spokesman for the real rulers. This in my opinion shows that he is a moron and when our country explodes even the black population may very well finally realize he did nothing positive for them.

Thanks for sharing, Allosaur. I’ll have to take a closer look at this story. This doesn’t seem right. There must be more to it.

So, Why couldn't private enterprise step in here and pick up the enrichment business?

Oh, I forgot, government force.

I really think this is simply becomming an Anti Obama Fanatic´s Page of some sort, in which everything the First Black President does is "wrong". I mean, since when has the US of A been interested in Nuclear Power ? Except for weapon´s use, Nuclear Energy never was accepted continentaly. As for Iran, that´s just the incripted fear that the Bush administration created about the Great Terrorist Threat; when the biggest Terror lays in the Middle East, and it´s called the US of A´s Armed Forces. Now Iran is going to create a Nuclear Weapon of Mass Destruction ? Well, shouldn´t the Armed Forces invade homeland since, after all, the largest porter of WOMD is the states...right?

I understand Rand´s principles and concerns, for she saw the awful partake of the Soviets and their Socialist Principles Turned Despotic and Unnatural (sorry if it´s misspelled, I´m not living in an english speaking community). And when she moved to America, Marxism and Fordism; as well as other ideals were just starting to spawn and, well; she feared the worst. Thus "Atlas Shrugged". Yet the world isn´t all contrasts you see, and that is a fiction novel. Not to be taken literally, no matter how revealing and foretelling we may sense it to be.

The extreme liberal, and later neo liberal economies produced the downfall of the 2008 markets, as it happenned in 1929´s Great Crash and Depression. "Dog eat Dog" politics are fair initially, but once one has the horizontal monopoly of something well; it´s hard for competition to exist and; without competition people, quality drops. So the State must guarantee certain rules to the game. Not to intervene and damage business, but to asure there be no bullies killing dreams which, by the way; is the american dream persay.

I know I´m gonna get alot of heat for this comment, yet I don´t mind it. I´m open minded and; any critique that´s constructive and not ill founded, will help me and my growth. But it´s always important to have balance. Apparently, alot of people have used Rand´s Galt and Roark to justify their hate towards equality and balance. Obama isn´t a mooch or anything, and he´s not maintainning bums. He´s not one of the heirs of the Twentieth Century and that pathetic excuse for a town. Again, fiction. He´s trying to raise the bar against an unjust and sinister system that has been eating america from the inside out. How can people live in dignity if the real heirs own the ball, the court and the brand of gym shoes, TV rights and your son´s scholarship? The percentage of Federal Funding for Obamacare and such is still way bellow a hazardous figure, while the amount used up in war related enterprises is enormous still. I don´t think he´s a "Socialist" at all. The President is trying to keep peace in homeland, and to achieve the same on an international level. Excuse me for sounding so Satanic, but I´m all for peace. War is man´s greatest, all time fails. And it persists still, thousands of years in the making. A change would actually be a good start. Invest in alternative energies, that´s smart and a benefit for all.