[ RadSafe ] How tough is it to build a dirty bomb?

[dckosloff at firstenergycorp.com]

Dr. Cohen,

Have you ever seen the movie "Broken Arrow" with John Travolta?  In the 
move, an entire Army Special Forces squad dies shortly after they get 
about five feet from a fully intact nuclear bomb that they were on the 
ground  looking for.  On the other hand, I was a trained and qualified 
nuclear weapons officer on a navy vessel and slept on a weapon with a 
plutonium warhead.  Of course, the only dose I ever received was from 
spending time in the reactor compartment.  But nobody ever made a movie 
about me.

Thanks,
Don 



From:   "Bernard L. Cohen" <blc at pitt.edu>
To:     "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing 
List" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Date:   02/11/2011 11:19 AM
Subject:        Re: [ RadSafe ] How tough is it to build a dirty bomb?
Sent by:        radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu



On 2/10/2011 4:53 PM, Franz Schönhofer wrote:
>   Since the aim of such an "attack" would be to raise fear and
> chaos the amount and the concentration of such radioactive substances is
> hardly of any importance. Headlines in the mass media like "Plutonium 
bomb
> spreads deadly radioactive material in downtown...." would be enough to
> create chaos - whether it were a mBq or some GBq.
>
         This could only work once, because when the public recognizes 
that no one was harmed by the plutonium, it would be a very useful 
public information event

-- 
Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept., University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245  Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc at pitt.edu  web site: http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc

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