Re: Nova - Dirty Bombs - Who is their expert - FYI

[John Andrews <andrewsjp@chartertn.net>]

Chilton, Milton W. wrote:



> John, I hope you are only joking. The outcome of such an effort would 

> be nothing less than total loss of credibility and would only serve to 

> fuel the perceptions that rad is very bad. Trying to implement such 

> propaganda would require that you not only swear all knowledgeable 

> participants to complete secrecy but you would also have to ensure no 

> one every conducted any rad monitoring or sampling in the area or the 

> lie would be exposed. With the ready availability of monitoring 

> equipment and the distrust that already exists I would expect any 

> cover up to be very short lived. As I believe we all know honesty is a 

> fundamental requirement for gaining trust and credibility.

>  

> Take care.

>

I was trying to provoke some thought on the secrecy aspect of the dirty 

bomb and how it would affect injury to the population exposed.  I got 

more on the "professional HP" aspect than on the injury to people 

aspect.  Part of the discussion was the secret event that occured in 

Chelybinsk in the late '50s.  I suspect that many of us know very little 

of this occurance partly because it was kept secret by the USSR and the 

USA.  It was a major contamination event that is still a major 

contamination situation.  Nobody seems to know or care about it in the 

US.  At any rate, if a bomb goes off in some mall somewhere in the US 

and no one looks for radiation in the debis will we know if it was a 

dirty bomb?



Here is another thought.  I once developed a scenario as part of our 

security evaluation of thieves stealing a Cf-252 source and taking it 

into the city.  It could have been done easily (and I won't say how). 

The system we were evaluating was made more secure.  No routine 

monitoring of gamma radiation would find this neutron source.



Also, if Cs-137 is being placed into manure with the wood ashes and it 

is sold as organic fertilizer, is that not being stingy with the truth? 

 I think that one is really good.



Oh, my!

Best wishes to all.

John Andrews

Knoxville, Tennessee



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