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posted by martyb on Thursday March 28 2019, @10:19PM   Printer-friendly

Gunmen have attacked a convoy of trucks carrying uranium fuel to a nuclear power plant near the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, police say.

The convoy came under attack as it drove past a community controlled by drug traffickers in Angra dos Reis, a tourist city 145km (90 miles) from Rio.

Police escorting the convoy responded and a shootout followed. No-one was injured or detained.

The convoy reached the Angra 2 plant safely 20 minutes after the attack.

The attack in the Rio-Santos highway is the latest in a series of violent incidents in an area popular with visitors.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47635706

In Brazil, all firearms are required to be registered with the minimum age for gun ownership being 25.[1] It is generally illegal to carry a gun outside a residence, and a special permit granting the right to do so is granted to certain groups, such as law enforcement officers.[2] To legally own a gun, an owner must hold a gun license, which costs R$1000,[2] and pay a fee every three years to register the gun, currently at R$85.[3] Registration can be done online or in person with the Federal Police.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Brazil


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Shire on Friday March 29 2019, @02:54PM (3 children)

    by The Shire (5824) on Friday March 29 2019, @02:54PM (#821824)

    The convoy was carrying uranium fuel fabricated in Resende

    The uranium was being transported in armoured containers in a "natural state" and would not have offered any risk as it had the same level of radioactivity as when it is found in nature, Brazil's nuclear agency Eletronuclear said.

    These two statements are in direct opposition. You don't put uranium found "in its natural state" into a reactor. Reactor fuel has been enriched and is in no way "natural" nor "without risk". It is in fact very unsafe which is why it was being transported in armored containers. You can't make a bomb with reactor fuel, but you can do a lot of other very bad things with it.

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  • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Friday March 29 2019, @09:47PM (1 child)

    by Osamabobama (5842) on Friday March 29 2019, @09:47PM (#822051)

    it had the same level of radioactivity as when it is found in nature

    I'm going to take that to mean that the spokesperson was referring to the half-life of the fuel, which hadn't changed with processing. Of course, that's not a good measure of risk, but they have a disinformation campaign to run, so I'm willing to give them a little slack.

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    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by The Shire on Saturday March 30 2019, @05:51PM

      by The Shire (5824) on Saturday March 30 2019, @05:51PM (#822425)

      I'm only buying that if the guy was trying to say that the fuel was "natural" because it was headed into the plant as opposed to being spent fuel coming out of the plant which would have a wide variety of dangerous actinide decay products. It sounds more like a PR deflection than anything though because new fuel rods are highly enriched in U235 and are quite dangerous even in their "natural" unused state.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @07:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 01 2019, @07:19PM (#823221)

    Heavy-water reactors, such as the CANDU used in Argentina, can burn natural uranium.