Re: Dirty bomb predictions

[BERNARD L COHEN <blc+@PITT.EDU>]

On Thu, 7 Mar 2002 AndrewsJP@aol.com wrote:



> In a message dated 3/7/02 11:34:19 AM Pacific Standard Time, blc+@PITT.EDU

> writes:

> >

> >     The cesium would be mostly washed away by the first rain, going

> > down sewers. A little work with hoses along with radiation detection

> > meters would be even more efficient. On soil, as in parks, it could be

> > covered with dirt, but that would be a very small part of the exposure.

>

> Maybe, maybe not.  The one I cleaned up after was a spill of the material to

> be placed into a sealed source.  It got blown around by the air conditioning

> and thourouly contaminated the building containing the operation.  Years

> later, when I got involved, some of the Cs-137 was deeply imbeded in the

> concrete where the grains of CsCl(?) were overlooked.



	--The discussion that prompted my comment was about an outdoor

dispersal in the middle of a city, where weather gets at the

contamination. It also applies to the vast majority of the contamination,

not every last bit of it. These last bits would not be an effective

instrument for terrorists.



>  the issue with sealed sources in dirty bombs is that the material will

> be dispersed in the existing form and not necessarily pulverized into

> breathable sized fractions.



	--The discussion was about a claim that the area would be

uninhabitable for dozens of years. Breathing is a problem only for hours.

Please don't harrangue about resuspension -- I can respond to that if

necessary.



>  A typical Cs-137 Hastalloy C single encapsulated

> source may even survive the explosion.  The same is true for bare cobalt

> rods.



	--These would be very easy to locate and remove. They would not be

a long term problem.



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