-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: March 11, 2007 10:38:13 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Saddam Should Have Checked eBay
Shock, awe:
Store owner finds yellowcake uranium
By Stephen Hudak
March 10, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/orl-
locyellowcake10031007mar10,0,1222390.story?coll=la-default-underdog
BELLEVIEW [Florida] -- Every blue moon or so, collectibles dealer
and pawnshop owner Frank Cafaro stumbles upon a buried gem amid an
estate's junk and tchotchkes.
But his latest find was so alarming he called the Fire Department.
"We were in the warehouse and we pulled out this box of rocks from
an estate sale," Cafaro said.
"Everything was individually labeled. Amethyst. Topaz. Uranium. The
guy I'm working with says, 'What's that last one? Uranium? I think
that's illegal.' "
Within an hour, the Gold Mine Pawn was swarming Thursday with
nearly three dozen emergency workers, including Geiger-counter-
waving members of a hazardous materials team and the Marion County
Sheriff's Office Domestic Security Task Force.
They focused their attention on a lead container the size of a soup
can.
Labeled with radioactive markings, the container protected a glass
vial that held about an ounce of yellowcake uranium, a processed
mineral that, in larger quantities, can be used to make fuel for
nuclear reactors or enriched for weapons.
In 2003, President Bush justified the decision to invade Iraq by
citing a now-discredited intelligence report that claimed Saddam
Hussein had tried to buy tons of yellowcake, presumably to
manufacture weapons of mass destruction.
"It was kind of scary when I heard how terrible this stuff was,"
Cafaro said.
"This was an odd one."
The mineral, which Cafaro traced to an estate sale in Miami about
10 years ago, was turned over to the Florida Department of Health's
Bureau of Radiation Control for disposal, said Susan Livoti,
spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.
Yellowcake, also known as uranium oxide, is far from being a
weapons-grade material, said Talat Rahman, chairman of the physics
department at the University of Central Florida.
She said it does not pose a serious threat in small quantities.
"Yellowcake by itself is not dangerous," Rahman said, adding that
it's not radioactive.
"It has to be processed to be converted into something dangerous."
FDLE spokeswoman Sharon Gogerty said small amounts of yellowcake
are reported to the agency "on a regular basis" and are not
considered especially dangerous.
"A lot of times, it seems to turn up in scrap yards," she said.
Cafaro, 40, said he paid the Miami estate about $10,000 for a
collection of natural crystals in which the uranium vial was found.
The collection filled 50 pickup truckloads, he said. Cafaro planned
to resell the crystals online.
"There's boxes in my warehouse from this particular sale that still
haven't been opened," he said.
"But to think I hadn't even given it a second thought. For all I
know, I might have listed it on eBay."
Stephen Hudak can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
352-742-5930.
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