Re: Experts warn of low-grade nuclear terror attack

[Chris Davey <chris.davey@cancerboard.ab.ca>]

The world is a bizarre place.  In areas of the world where the background radiation is higher,

the health and longevity of the population is improved.  So terrorists, if they did wrap

explosives around an industrial radiography co-60 source and detonate it, would perhaps result

in health improvements as in the apartment buildings (that have been mentioned here on radsafe)

with contaminated re-bar.  Perhaps this is why the terrorists did not strike a nuclear reactor.

They saw many more immediate and more impressive targets.



Chris Davey



P.S. Obviously the immediate effects of any explosive device would be negative, in terms of

blast deaths and injuries, and property damage.







>

>

> Experts warn of low-grade nuclear terror attack

>

> VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) - Nuclear experts said Friday any future act of nuclear

> terrorism could use crude weapons from commonplace radioactive materials aimed

> more at spreading panic than causing physical harm.

>

> "In some states where radioactive materials are not well regulated, they are

> potentially available," said Graham Andrew, scientific adviser at the International

> Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear security watchdog.

>

> In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of an IAEA conference on nuclear

> terrorism, Andrew said terrorists could take radiotherapy or X-ray materials from

> hospitals to construct a crude bomb.

>

> While such a weapon might not wreak devastation, it would certainly spread panic.

>

> "On the consequence side, you're not going to get a large number of fatalities. The

> consequence is going to be more one of economic disruption and anxiety in the

> public."

>

> Often referred to as a "dirty bomb," such a device could easily be built by

> surrounding a radioactive source with explosives and detonating it to spread

> radioactivity across a wide area.

>

> "The potential for panic is quite large. Radioactivity is invisible, you can't see it or feel

> it. And you don't know what its impact on your health in 10 years will be," said

> Andrew.

>

>



--

Provincial RSO / LSO / U-VSO

Alberta Cancer Board, Room 4027, 11560 University Ave,

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 1Z2. (780) 432-8665 fax 432-8986

email: cdavey@med.phys.ualberta.ca    chris.davey@cancerboard.ab.ca

pager number (780) 917-2043





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