Word: uranium
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...fire accurately even while the tank is running over rough terrain, thanks to a built-in ballistic computer and sophisticated stabilizers. Both models carry a chemical fire-suppression system that can put out a flame in a quarter of a second and are shielded by armor plates containing nonradioactive uranium 2 1/2 times as dense as steel. But some specialists fear that the tanks, which rely on computerized controls and finicky electronics, could be undone by desert dust. Another worry: that their gas-guzzling turbine engines could run dry in mid-battle...
...growing number of scientists contend that radon's dangers are overstated. They point out that the EPA bases its warnings primarily on studies of lung-cancer rates among uranium miners. Such workers toil for years in subterranean pits where radon concentrations are thousands of times as high as levels in homes. In some studies, it was not clear how much of the cancer was caused by radon, how much by smoking cigarettes and how much by a combination of the two: researchers believe that radon poses a higher risk for smokers...
...They have just enough highly-enriched uranium, French-supplied to make one crude nuclear device in a year," Carnesdale said. "He would need 10 years to start producing nuclear weapons...
There is no evidence, however, that Iraq has tried to convert the core into an explosive device. When Iraq purchased the uranium from France in 1975, Baghdad agreed to place it under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a Vienna-based nonproliferation watchdog group. IAEA inspectors perform tests on Iraq's stash twice yearly. Last week the agency certified that the latest round, conducted from Nov. 19 to 22, showed "no change" in either the amount or the purity of the uranium...
Should the Iraqis elect to tamper with the uranium in the future, U.S. experts estimate, the process of turning it into a bomb would take a minimum of several months. Since an IAEA inspection might occur within that period, a diversion could be detected before an Iraqi nuclear bomb became a fait accompli. Even if Saddam's scientists succeeded in using the salvaged core to make a bomb, most U.S. experts believe it would be so bulky that it could not be launched by any missile or bomber Iraq possesses, and would thus have to be delivered to its detonation...