Failed Wall Street Bank Has Yellowcake Stockpile

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

 

Not too long ago, the United States used to invade nationalize nations banks for a lot less.

Bloomberg News reports that thefailed Wall Street bank, Lehman Brothers, has a stockpile of as much as 500,000 pounds of uranium “yellowcake” that could theoretically is just about enough material needed to make one nuclear bomb.

The difference between this uranium-oxide and Iraq’s “yellowcake” is, of course, that Lehman’s stockpile is real. It is one of the bankrupt bank’s many assets that liquidators have been trying to offload since September.

A supply of 500,000 pounds of yellowcake is just “slightly” less than the amount needed to make one bomb, or fuel one nuclear power reactor for a year, if the latest enrichment technologies are used, said Gennady Pshakin, an Obninsk, Russia-based nonproliferation expert.

The uranium “might fetch $20 million at today’s prices of about $40.50 per pound”. Once worth $55 a pound, the commodity price of uranium has dropped for five straight months. “More than 43 million pounds of uranium-oxide concentrate, or yellowcake equivalent sold on the spot market last year, more than doubling the 2007 trading volume”.

Lehman’s “yellowcake” is being stored, in part, in oil-rich Canada. Looking back, which was a bigger threat to the United States in 2003? A neutered Iraq or a “yellowcake” stockpiling Wall Street bank?

 

14 comments

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  1. and called it good.

    • Edger on April 15, 2009 at 22:18

    they had a giant supergun aimed at out heads, no?

  2. commodity. Futures can be bought and sold and taken nominal possession of. It is kind of a good investment given that there is likely to be at least some expansion of nuclear power in the US in the near to mid term future. I am sure they bought at the top of the market like a lot of folks and the down turn means they are going to sit on it until they can at the very least get their investment back.  

    • Robyn on April 16, 2009 at 02:52
    • Edger on April 16, 2009 at 04:45

    Let them eat yellowcake.

  3. Jesus H Christ on a yellowcake patty.

    I know that capitalism allows the buying & selling of commodities, but a little discretion in choosing what to be involved in, in publicly traded ventures, would go a long way. It`s strange that this is in the open now, now that they are on the losing end, (unless they can hang on to it long enough to realize a profit)

    One has to wonder if they are also in the red with aluminium tube products they may have bought at the top of the market.

    What`s Joe Wilson have to say about this, or the French. What is the origin of this yellowcake, a very controlled product, iirc?

    Why is it “stored in Canada”, when usually, a corporation would not have actual possession of a commodity that`s bought & sold.

    An investor in New York, stuck with 800 cases of stewed fish from Denmark, unloaded them at a small loss to a fish purchaser in Hong Kong.

    The buyer in Hong Kong pawned them off to a buyer in Brazil at a 3% markup & after shipping gained a few percentage points on his outlay.

    The company in Brazil, then sold the cases of stewed fish, to a fish product supplier in South Africa. The power grid in Brazil had been intermittently disrupted by the rebels there, & the Holding company in Brazil did not want to be left with a bunch of fish, spoiled by a failure in the electrical refrigeration warehouse, so they did sustain a little loss.

    From South Africa, the product was sold to a fish processing manager in Denmark who knew the original seller of the stewed fish. One night during a blizzard, the new owner of the stewed fish was kept from leaving the plant. Rather than go hungry, he figured he`d have some of the newly purchased stewed fish.

    Upon eating a little of it, he spit it out. The next morning, he called the seller in South Africa, to complain about the most foul tasting shit he`d ever consumed.

    The seller in South Africa, was dumfounded. He told the purchaser in Denmark, “What are you!!, an idiot.? That stewed fish is for buying & selling, not for eating.

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