I guess the lesson is that people can disassemble a large source, and live long enough to disperse the radioactive material so that there is signifiant economic and psychological damage is inflicted on the population. And those in Goiania weren't even trying to make a dirty bomb.
"J. J. Rozental" <joseroze@netvision.net.il> wrote:
f) Over next three days various neighbours, relatives and acquaintances were
invited to see the capsule as a curiosity. During this time he and his wife
examined the powder closely She subsequently died (dose 5.7 Gy). He survived
(dose 7.0 Gy) - He died after 5 years
g) With the aid of a screwdriver friends removed some fragments of the
source. These were about the size of rice grains, but readily crumbled into
powder. This was distributed for several persons in different
places:............
II PART
A) SCREENING AND CARE OF PEOPLE
GOIANIA POPULATION 1,000,000
MONITORED 112,000
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL DOSES INDICATIVE 249
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL DOSES CONCLUSIVE 129
ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL 49
INTENSIVE MEDICAL CARE 22
DEATH 4
FOREARM IMPUTED 1
B) THE SOURCE
The best estimate of the radioactivity in the recovered waste, including
hospital was 44 TBq (1200 Ci) - Activity before accident 50.9 TBq (1375 Ci)
by S! eptember 1987
Model to Assessment the Activity was discussed with scientific community
due the difference above
Dose rate 4.6 Gy/h at 1 m.
C) ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION AND WASTE
MAIN FOCI 08
HOUSES 46
PUBLIC AREA 45
6000 Different kind of containers 3500 cubic meter of waste
. . .. ----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Hardeman
To: andrewsjp@chartertn.net ; magna1@jps.net ; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu ;
FloodJR@NV.DOE.GOV ; crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM
Cc: joseroze@netvision.net.il
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 12:02 AM
Subject: RE: Nova - Dirty Bombs - Who is their expert - FYI
In reference to this scenario below (i.e., terrorists driving around with an
unshielded 2,000 Ci Cs-137 source) do you recall right off hand the activity
of the Cs-137 source involved in the Goiania incident, and how long people
handled that source before beginning to experience ill effects?
. . .