Speck Of Radioactive, Weapons-Grade Plutonium Goes Missing From Idaho University

A tiny speck of weapons-grade Plutonium, the radioactive material that formed the core of the Fat Man nuclear bomb dropped over Nagasaki, Japan, has gone missing from Idaho State University.

According to a recent statement from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), about one gram of Plutonium-239 kept at the university for research and radiation measurement purposes is unaccounted for.

The material was mentioned in historical records at the school till 2003-2004, but in the years after that, there is nothing on its whereabouts. According to an Associated Press (AP) report, this is because, during that year, officials at the university identified some issue with the particular sample and decided to seal it off in properly marked protective covers for disposal.

The last update relating to the material in the official database marks it as pending for disposal, but no one kept a track of where it ended up – disposed-off properly or not – until an employee at the school noted one of the 14 one gram-sized Plutonium sources is missing from the inventory. The materials were being used in conjunction with United States Department of Energy to prevent nuclear waste containers from leaking to detect illegally brought plutonium into the U.S.

“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,” Cornelis Van der Schyf, vice president for research at Idaho State told AP.

The material could have gone missing anytime between then and now, but NRC spokesman Victor Dricks told Live Science they suspect it probably ended up in some landfill for radioactive materials which has obviously not been updated.

Made in nuclear reactors by bombarding uranium, plutonium can be a major threat to human life. In this specific case, however, the amount of the material – weighing as much as a paperclip – is not enough to make a bomb as deadly as the one dropped over Nagasaki in 1945, and thus poses no direct threat to the public. The core of that bomb, dubbed Fat Man, had more than 6 kilograms of plutonium.

Still, going into wrong hands could mean the material could be transformed into a dirty bomb to spread radioactive contamination, said Dricks. However, he noted this is a case of poor record keeping rather dropping the material at a public spot.

That said, the commission has imposed a fine of $8,500 on the institute in the wake of this incident. Idaho State University will also return the 13 samples of plutonium to the Energy Department in order to reduce its stock of radioactive substances.