Who Wants Yellowcake?

Lehman Brothers is no more, but it still has one unusual asset

By Doug Cantor Posted 04.16.2009 at 2:24 pm 5 Comments

Uranium periodictable.com

It turns out that when Lehman Brothers went belly-up last fall, it was left with a lot more than just irate investors and billions of dollars in debt. One of the bank’s remaining assets is a sizable supply of yellowcake—the type of uranium that is enriched for use in nuclear reactors and weapons.

There’s a fairly robust market for the material, so it's not uncommon for a financial services firm to acquire a large amount of it. But Lehman’s commodities traders weren't able to offload the roughly 500,000 pounds they bought before seeing their employer undergo its now-infamous bankruptcy. Used all at once in an efficient weapon, that volume of yellowcake is enough to yield an explosion equal to a megaton or more of TNT, according to one chemistry expert we asked.

Thankfully, the uranium remains in its far-less-threatening unenriched form, and would require vast resources to weaponize. Still, the question remains what is to become of the supply, which is currently being held in various storage facilities. It likely won’t be sold immediately, as Lehman’s financial wizards wait for the price to go up. Glad it’s in such good hands until then.

Previous Article: Don't Worry, Get Married

Next Article: It's A Dangerous World Out There

Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!

5 Comments

link to this comment

bdhoro87

from coral gables, fl

04/17/09 at 8:36 am

Shouldn't you need a special license to own that stuff

link to this comment

Ruri

04/19/09 at 10:41 am

I want some yellow cake don't worry I have no interests in nuclear weapons except for spacecraft propulsion.

link to this comment

jdjohnso

04/24/09 at 6:42 am

Uranium is a very common element in the earth's crust. In fact, if your basement isn't well ventillated, it is suggested that you have your house checked for Radon, which is in the decay series of uranium 238. Even after it has been enriched, there isn't much uranium 235 (only about 3% up from 0.7% unenriched). It takes a large amount of technology to do anything with uranium, be it power generation or weapons manufacture. That is why only a handful of countries have the technology.

link to this comment