Latest news with #Plutonium
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
FBI continues to track down plutonium allegedly sold by Hadley man
SPRINGFIELD — Federal investigators told a judge last week that they are continuing to assess what the customers who allegedly purchased small amounts of plutonium from a Hadley man did with the material. On April 22, a federal grand jury indicted Jacob Miller, 43, on charges of being a felon in possession of explosives and ammunition. Prosecutors said when investigators searched Miller's home, they found firearms, hazardous chemicals and radioactive materials, including plutonium taken from Soviet Union-era smoke detectors. Prosecutors said Miller ran an online business called Collect The Periodic Table. A website that appears to be connected with the enterprise lists a full periodic table for $140. A small amount of plutonium alone was listed for $500. The affidavit filed with the federal court in Springfield last week disclosed the FBI's ongoing investigation into the matter. Miller allegedly shipped out plutonium about 60 times between December 2020 and March 2025, FBI Special Agent Darrell Hunter said in the affidavit dated June 20. 'The defendant's distribution of Plutonium to a broad series of individuals, with no apparent vetting of these customers, poses a particular danger to public safety,' Hunter wrote. Miller, the affidavit said, shipped the material across the United States and out of the country. So far, only 10 of the customers gave the material they purchased from Miller to the FBI, Hunter said. 'The FBI's investigation into this matter, including the extent to which the defendant distributed Plutonium and what the defendant's customers did with the Plutonium, is continuing,' Hunter wrote. Reached for comment, a spokeswoman for the FBI referred questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office. A spokesperson at the U.S. Attorney's Office did not reply to a request for comment. John Gilbert, a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, while the small amounts allegedly sold by Miller is nowhere near the amount needed for a nuclear bomb, plutonium is deadly if handled incorrectly. If its powder is breathed in — even in small amounts — it causes 'extremely, extremely bad respiratory distress,' he said. Gilbert said it is unlikely the material prosecutors said came from smoke detectors was plutonium, as the Soviets 'needed all the plutonium they could get.' Rather, another radioactive element — americium — is good for use in smoke detectors, and it is not as dangerous, he said. The FBI said in its affidavit it is gathering the materials it obtained from Miller's customers 'for radiological testing.' Federal prosecutors filed the affidavit as part of their response to Miller's defense attorney, who requested Judge Katherine Robertson reconsider her order detaining Miller until his trial. Miller was detained after prosecutors said Miller moved materials from his home after the court said he could only reenter the home to retrieve personal care items, clothing and his cat. Miller's attorney, Charles Dolan, asked Robertson in a motion on June 13 to release his client 'under whatever conditions the Court may deem appropriate.' Miller, Dolan wrote, has been held since April 10 at a detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and has been unable to take his medication for obsessive-compulsive disorder and ADHD as his prescriptions are prohibited at the facility. His mental health has deteriorated as a result, Dolan wrote. Dolan did not return a request for comment. In response to the motion, prosecutors said Miller had a history of violating probation conditions, and they are continuing to investigate him for possession of child sex abuse images. Miller was previously convicted for possessing child pornography and explosives in separate cases in Hampshire Superior Court. Prosecutors also shared with the court a series of handwritten documents — including what prosecutors said appeared to a poem titled 'Bits and Pieces.' The 'defendant appears to have engaged in dangerous musings about blowing up friends and family in Hadley, among other subjects,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Breslow wrote in a memorandum. At a hearing Wednesday, Robertson decided that Miller would remain detained, according to the clerk's notes of the proceedings. Springfield brewery, cannabis store team up to offer downtown concert Springfield debates stricter laws to stop drug dealing near parks, schools following shutdown of trafficking operation Alliance for Digital Equity pushes for internet access for underserved on namesake day Judge: Case for Pittsfield woman suing car repo company can move to trial Read the original article on MassLive.
LBCI
19-06-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
Israel says it targeted nuclear sites in Iran's Natanz and Arak overnight
The Israeli military said on Thursday it had targeted the Arak nuclear reactor in Iran overnight and struck what it said was a nuclear weapons development site in the area of Natanz. Among its nuclear sites, Iran had a partially built heavy-water research reactor originally called Arak and now Khondab. Iranian media reported on Thursday morning that air defenses were activated in the area of the Khondab nuclear facility, with two projectiles hitting an area close to it. Officials told Iranian state TV that evacuations were made prior to the strikes and that no risks of radiation or casualties were detected. There was no mention of any damage. Natanz, which Israel had previously struck during its six-day-old aerial war with Iran, was the site of a complex at the heart of Iran's nuclear program that included two enrichment plants. The Israeli military added that it targeted the structure of the reactor's core seal in Arak, which it identified as a key component in plutonium production. Khondab hosts a partially-built heavy-water research reactor. Reuters
Arab News
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Israel's military warns people to evacuate the area around Iran's Arak heavy water reactor
DUBAI: Israel's military warned people Thursday to evacuate the area around Iran's Arak heavy water reactor. The warning came in a social media post on X. It included a satellite image of the plant in a red circle like other warnings that proceeded strikes. The Arak heavy water reactor is 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Tehran. Heavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon. Iran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to relieve proliferation concerns. In 2019, Iran started up the heavy water reactor's secondary circuit, which at the time did not violate Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Britain at the time was helping Iran redesign the Arak reactor to limit the amount of plutonium it produces, stepping in for the US, which had withdrawn from the project after President Donald Trump's decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw America from the nuclear deal. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, has been urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear sites. IAEA inspectors reportedly last visited Arak on May 14. Due to restrictions Iran imposed on inspectors, the IAEA has said it lost 'continuity of knowledge' about Iran's heavy water production — meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran's production and stockpile.
