Comment by motorest
1 month ago
> (...) as if people in these situations are even aware they're doing anything wrong.
Does this excuse even fly? I mean, do you actually believe that a guy who is a self-described "science nerd" with enough interest in chemistry to sought to get a sample of each element of the periodic table would somehow skip any and all references on how the element is subjected to nuclear proliferation restrictions?
Yes, it is possible. Have seen a few nerds who could solve Math Olympiad problems in a jiffy but had extreme trouble navigating government bureaucracy.
[flagged]
You should blame the Australian border force officials for being the true morons not this young man. He went ahead and ordered plutonium from a US-based science website openly with his real name and residential address - he didn't hide anything.
The most surprising thing to me is that it was actually delivered. Seems you can really buy anything from the internet.
1 reply →
I remember doing some radiation absorption experiment with some radioactive material in chemistry class in high school. I would be surprised to get to jail for ordering some milligram of plutonium.
I would say that "nuclear proliferation" is about not letting North Korea or Israel getting nuclear weapons [1], not chasing random guy who tried to purchase infinitesimal amount of plutonium.
[1] As we know, both efforts failed.
>investigators were aware he had obtained this material and it was in a very small quantity.
It was a small quantity. For comparison Trinity had 6 kg of plutonium.