Re: 'Dirty Bomb' Was Major New Year's Worry

[Kai Kaletsch <eic@shaw.ca>]

Gerry Blackwood wrote: "...most concerns the USG and most any other

government is HEU..."



Why is HEU a dirty bomb concern? It contains no bone seekers, gives off very

little gamma and has very low specific activity. What am I missing here?



Kai



----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Gerry Blackwood" <gpblackwood@justice.com>

To: <eic@shaw.ca>

Cc: <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 4:02 PM

Subject: Re: 'Dirty Bomb' Was Major New Year's Worry





> "If that is a statement of fact, then the government

> must know something about the availability of these

> materials that they are not sharing with us. As someone

> else mentioned, the obvious candidates for a dirty bomb

> are all gamma emitters. So, if the government is

> ignoring gamma emitters and is only

> looking for neutrons ... (you fill in the blank!)"

>

> Lets see......I do not want to get into any details so

> lets stay on what is known on the record. The material

> that I believe most concerns the USG and most any other

> government is HEU. Without a 233u tag to brighten the

> signature its detection is very difficult. The old

> Soviet Republic are loaded with this material, like to

> the tune of about 410 metric tons of which is not very

> secure. As far as the detectors are concerned yes, the

> teams are using both neutron and gamma. As far as the

> security is concerned we call it, "Security Theater".

> The fact is the USG and many other governments need to

> do a heck of a lot better in this arena.

>

> " said it before and I'll say it again: The decision to

> exclude citizens from civil defense was a bad one. If

> there is someone running around with a bunch of spent

> fuel or enough Pu to make an effective dirty bomb, then

> the public should know!"

>

> As far as the citizens are concerned. There is a pro

> and a very big con here. Heck most people think

> asbestos is very dangerous element. No, I think

> education is a key here, but I will add that the USG

> should be reaching out to industry professionals, they

> do not have the equipment nor the manpower to deal with

> something like this.

>

> As far as First Responders are concerned. Start

> screaming otherwise your basically screwed.

>

> To give you an idea of the problem;

>

> http://www.nti.org/e_research/cnwm/overview/report.asp

>

>

> Gerry Blackwood

>

>

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