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

[Clayton J Bradt]

Between 1945 and sometime in the 1960's there were thousands of 
radioactive dispersal devices tested in the atmosphere.  If anything, the 
dispersal was too broad to be effective.  "Deadly" plutonium and fission 
products can be found pretty much everywhere on the planet's surface.  I 
don't think that the public absorbed much of the lesson taught by these 
events. At least not about widespread contamination.

With regard to the "Weapons of Mass Disruption" pun: The level of 
disruption created would be a function of the clean-up levels and disposal 
requirements likely to be imposed by politicians and their toadies, not by 
the actual health hazards posed.  In effect, by far the most damage done 
by an RDD would be entirely self-inflicted. 

Clayton J. Bradt
Principal Radiophysicist
NYS Dept. of Health
Biggs Laboratory, Room D486A
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12201-0509

518-474-1993

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