[ RadSafe ] Dirty Bomb Material Report?
Flanigan, Floyd
Floyd.Flanigan at nmcco.com
Wed Mar 29 08:59:13 CST 2006
Well ... I find little use for the 'dirty bomb' scenarios. We seem to focus a lot of attention on the issue, which, as nuclear professionals, is appropriate. But I suspect the odds of a terrorist picking that particular approach, what with the extreme difficulty presented in obtaining a useful amount of nuclear material to incorporate into such a device versus the ease of other approaches, are low. At any given noon hour, in any major city, there is within reach to any and all, access to hundreds of thousands of gallons of high grade gasoline, diesel, aircraft fuel, ammonia etc. being trucked around the highways and surface roads, and left unlocked and unguarded at filling stations and storage yards. If I were a terrorist, and I was trying to get the most low risk bang for my buck, I would lean toward the readily available, easily accessible bomb materials rather than risk being caught before having begun by attempting to obtain the nuclear materials. It would be much easier to slap a few ounces of plastique on a tanker truck or two at a truck stop or traffic light ... maybe chuck an ounce or two down the unguarded fill port at a gas station or two ... You get the picture.
Yes ... a Dirty Bomb would most likely cause panic in the streets, but this would most likely be more intense due to the way the media would sensationalize the event when reporting it, trying to be the next Edward R. Murrow and score a Pulitzer for journalism. If the public received the report from a competent radiation safety professional or health physics professional, who would explain the realistic potentials for health risk and the true facts and figures ... the screaming in the streets would be reduced to a minimum. But that won't happen. They'll find the first slack-jawed yokel on the scene and he/she will exclaim that he/she "see'd it all!" and then a sweet yet vacuous blonde with immaculate eye-lashes will put on her best eyebrow knitting Connie Chung impression and begin rambling on, making sure every time she utters "radiation" or "contamination" (Which, to her will be interchangeable terms) the words are louder and sterner than the rest of what she says.
Ain't life grand?
Floyd W. Flanigan B.S.Nuc.H.P.
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of Jose Julio Rozental
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 4:13 AM
To: Raymond A Hoover; Franz Schönhofer; 'J. Marshall Reber'; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Dirty Bomb Material Report?
Colleagues,
What is the main purpose of a Dirty Bomb? The main purpose of a dirty bomb is to frighten people by contaminating their environment with radioactive materials and threatening large numbers of people with exposure;
Do you believe the amount, "small amount" in the scale of exemptions, will pose any consequences to environment or population, to apply difficulty to emergency response? Dirty Bomb however spreads psychological fear and economic damage. Which kind of scenario do you think, with the amount commented in this list can pose such psychological fear and economic damage?
Some key questions for the scenario in terms of radioactive material:
.- Amount (activity) of radioactive material the terrorist could steal or aquire?
.- Chemical and Physical Properties?
.- What is the extent of the impact that would result?
Jose Julio Rozental
joseroze at netvision.net.il
Israel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Raymond A Hoover" <ray2hoover at yahoo.com>
To: "Franz Schönhofer" <franz.schoenhofer at chello.at>; "'J. Marshall Reber'" <jmarshall.reber at comcast.net>; <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: AW: [ RadSafe ] Dirty Bomb Material Report?
> I just read the report. It does not state how much material was bought. The report states "...we purchased a small amount of radioactive sources and one container used to store and transport the material from a commercial source over the telephone". It doesn't say how they managed to have the one container at two seperate points at the same time. The purchases were made over the telephone.
>
> The report states that two border crossings were made simultaneously, one on the Canadian border and the other on the Mexican border and that counterfeit documentation was used in the crossings.
>
> In both cases the sources were detected by CBP and that the counterfeit documents were examined. In both cases the Border Officers questioned the investigators.
>
> Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer at chello.at> wrote:
> I read the story on USA today - online, though it sounded a little
> different. The NRC has - according to USA today - stated, that the material
> involved was available without a license and not suitable for a "dirty
> bomb". USA today or rather GAO did not reveal what the material was and how
> much it was.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Franz
>
> Franz Schoenhofer
> PhD, MR iR
> Habicherg. 31/7
> A-1160 Vienna
> AUSTRIA
> phone -43-0699-1168-1319
>
>
> > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im
> > Auftrag von J. Marshall Reber
> > Gesendet: Dienstag, 28. März 2006 17:06
> > An: radsafe at radlab.nl
> > Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Dirty Bomb Material Report?
> >
> > Is this report available to anyone other than CNN:
> >
> > > The investigators purchased a "small quantity" of radioactive materials
> > > from a commercial source, according to a Government Accountability
> > > Office report prepared for Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
> > > Investigations Chairman Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican.
> >
> >
> > see:
> >
> > http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/27/radioactive.smuggling/index.html
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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