Re: dirty bomb

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 6/28/02 8:08:04 AM Mountain Daylight Time, blc+@PITT.EDU writes:



>     How about terrorists dispersing a poison gas into the ventilation
>
> system of large buildings, or into a basketball arena. They could kill a
>
> lot more people that way, and a lot faster.
>
>
> On Thu, 27 Jun 2002, J. J. Rozental wrote:
>
>
> > Inadequate Control of World's Radioactive Sources
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> >
>
> > The following is the initial paragraph of this topic published by the IAEA.
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> >
>
> > "Vienna, 24 June 2002 -- The radioactive materials needed to build a "dirty
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> > bomb" can be found in almost any country in the world, and more than 100
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> > countries may have inadequate control and monitoring programs necessary to
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> > prevent or even detect the theft of these materials, the International
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> > Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says."
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> >
>
> > Look at the site
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> >
>
> > http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Press/P_release/2002/prn0209.shtml
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> >
>
> > my comment:
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> >
>
> > Many of these countries still use old sources, containing high activity,
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> > manufactured to standards lower than would be acceptable today. The
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> > radioactive substance in these sources is soluble salt which could readily
>
> > disperse. It is not difficult to prepare a scenario for a dirty bomb using
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> > the mechanism system of a teletheraphy unit using Cs-137, as de one  in
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> > Goiania
>
> >
>
> > Jose Julio Rozental


When I was in Vienna in the winter of 1998, there was a made-for-TV movie on Austrian TV about exactly this kind of attack.  The burden of the plot was that a neo-Nazi terrorist group released some poisonous gas into the ventilating system while the Opernball was in progress (I believe this ball is held at the Staatsoper, but I don't remember).  In the movie, which incidentally was very well done, more than half of those attending the ball died from inhaling the stuff.  It was very dramatic. (and it was a whole lot better movie than Atomic Train or Atomic Twister).


Maybe it should be shown in the U. S. (with subtitles -- it's in German).


Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com