RE: [ME] Highly enriched uranium + Soviet Red Fleet

["Neal Hyde" <nhyde@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sounds like a very cool assignment for a B/E cell.  What kind of
containment/protection would be required for the HEU?

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert J. Hansen [mailto:rjhansen@inav.net]
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 6:54 AM
To: Millenniums-End-L@Firedrake.Org
Subject: [ME] Highly enriched uranium + Soviet Red Fleet


Was checking out www.fas.org and checking out their nuclear-weapons section
when I came across an interesting snippet.  It would appear that the Soviets
were intent on using positively suicidal reactor designs across the board,
not just in Chernobyl.  Their nuclear-powered submarines and surface vessels
run on enriched uranium--enriched one step past weapons-grade quality.

>From http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Nwfaq/Nfaq4-2.html

"At the moment the most frightening problem is Russian naval fuel. This
contains highly enriched uranium (even higher than standard weapons grade!),
and has been poorly secured at some locations. It can be hoped that in the
near future the former Soviet fissile stocks will be secured sufficiently to
eliminate this as an immediate concern."

... So here's a frighteningly plausible ME scenario for you guys.  Anonymous
purchasers with an agenda involving a weapon of mass destruction are on the
lookout for people who can -reliably- provide highly-enriched uranium.  And
a Red Fleet submarine skipper happens to have HEU, and wants money.

They go out on a two-week cruise and meet up with their buyers at sea.  They
offload most of their fissile fuel and get their cash in exchange.  Then
they stage a "torpedo malfunction" (shades of the Kursk!) and sink the sub
in deep ocean, so that the evidence of their crime will be sunk at the
bottom of the ocean.  Of course, this will probably mean killing most of the
crew before they begin off-loading.  Imagine _Under Siege_ on a
submarine--you get the idea.  Or _Crimson Tide_, for that matter.

The crew's dead, the conspirators are found at sea by a passing fishing
trawler, blah blah blah, the conspirators leave the country under mysterious
circumstances a month later, and the CIA begins to think that there's
something very fishy here.  Blackeagle then gets contracted by the CIA to
find and recover this stolen HEU (highly-enriched uranium).

Could be an interesting springboard for a campaign.


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