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Uranium is illegal to possess and is a tangible object. Data is intangible and can be copied. If Matt gave into a request to search his hard drive, said search could extend into other devices, online accounts, etc. And that wouldn't even prove that he no longer possesses the data


Uranium is totally legal to possess.


With many restrictions.


Not really. You can buy it on Amazon.

Now, enriched uranium is a whole different story.


Yeah, but don't buy more than 7 kg.


Up to a ton of ore I believe, as long as you don’t refine it. The rules are a bit inconsistent.

As long as you don’t hurt anyone with it, or try to blackmail the US with it.

[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/831]

The 7kg limit is apparently a ‘depleted’ (aka refined/filtered) thing - https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part040/p...

But commonly misquoted.

7kg is a pretty large quantity.

It can be up to 150lbs a year if extracted from drinking water (!!).




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