WashPost infographic on recent thefts of nuclear materials

[PamW]

16. Oppenheimer quote about radioisotopes...

kristopher,

If nuclear proliferation is the reason for your concern about these radioisotopes; then you can be assured by the testimony of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "Father of the Atomic Bomb" to Congress.

In the '50s, then AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss was concerned about the fact that the AEC was shipping radioisotopes to other nations, and Strauss was afraid that the USA was giving these other nations the means to construct atomic bombs. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer answered that concern in his testimony to Congress:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Robert_Oppenheimer

These enemies included Lewis Strauss, an AEC commissioner who had long harbored resentment against Oppenheimer both for his activity in opposing the hydrogen bomb and for his humiliation of Strauss before Congress some years earlier; regarding Strauss's opposition to the export of radioactive isotopes to other nations, Oppenheimer had memorably categorized these as "less important than electronic devices but more important than, let us say, vitamins."

PamW