Maybe…
But I am absolutely sure that a vigilant member of the public (or two of them, or a hundred of them…) will definitely use his/her own radiation monitor, or will borrow it off someone… A student can always pinch one from the uni for the evening or something… And the true "deadly" reading will be known within, say, 24 hours… How we'll look then…? I am sure that I won't be able to find a job in radiation protection after something like that. Ever…
Catch 22, it seems…
Cheers
Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: John Andrews [mailto:andrewsjp@chartertn.net]
Sent: Wednesday,26 February 2003 11:06 AM
To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Cc: J. J. Rozental
Subject: Re: Nova - Dirty Bombs - Who is their expert - FYI
My thought while reading this is that perhaps we should ignore the
radioactivity of the dirty bomb. I mean hide the reality of the
radioactivity from the general population! The bomb can do local damage
and the radioactivity will do little real damage even over the lifetime
of the exposed individuals. If they are never told of the
radioactivity, then the psychological trauma will never occur. What
would happen if we did not look for radioactivity or radiation? What
would happen if we took our readings and called them all zero to the
press and the government controllers? Would we all not be better off in
the long run. The Soviet Union did this in Chelybinsk! Of course that
was a MAJOR release. But they did not tell anyone about it for what, 25
years! Nor do most people in the US, or the world for that matter, know
anything about that event. Perhaps this would be a better way to handle
the dirty bomb scenario.
Just a thought.
John Andrews
Knoxville, Tennessee
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