If I may suggest some other aspect.
1. Consider that the ones who assemble the bomb are not those who deliver it. Therefore the driver may not have symptoms of radiation sickness as he is in the front and the source is near the rear doors.
2. To assemble the bomb, the source capsule is cut using a high-speed circular saw and the CsCl powered is dumped in a fragile (plastic bag) container that will rupture easily. The assemble could take less than 15 minutes.
Come on Stewart. I am sure that if you wanted to make a radiological bomb, you could do it.
"J. J. Rozental" <joseroze@netvision.net.il> wrote:
Stewart's comment:
The scenario NOVA dramatized last night involved a whole lot more Cs-137, or
a source with 74,000 GBq of Cs-137 [2000 Ci] as I recall them mentioning.
For a point source of Cs-137 this equates to about 6.6E6 R/hr at 1 cm. If
the terrorists spent 1 hour at say 2 feet from this unshielded source [??? a
wag assumption] in fabricating the bomb and transporting it they would
receive about 7,000 R whole body.
comment:
a) However suppose terrorists instead 2 feet he keeps the source in a Van,
1.5 m away - the dose drop to about 300 R/h
b) Terrorist do not care for his life, today countries as Israel and USA
are forced to witness the hair's breadth of difference between the ability
to prevent a terrorist attack and the ability of the terrorists to blow
himself up and to be succeeded in his mission.
Jose Julio Rozen! tal
joseroze@netvision.net.il
Israel