Dirty bomb

The term dirty bomb is most often used to refer to a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD), a radiological weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. Though an RDD is designed to disperse radioactive material over a large area, the conventional explosive would likely have more immediate lethal effect than the radioactive material. At levels created from most probable sources, not enough radiation would be present to cause severe illness or death. A test explosion and subsequent calculations done by the Department of Energy found that assuming nothing is done to clean up the affected area and everyone stays in the affected area for 1 year, the radiation exposure would be "fairly high".

Related Topics:
Radiological weapon - Radioactive - Explosives - Radiation

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Because a terrorist dirty bomb is likely to cause few deaths (from the conventional explosive), many do not consider one to be a weapon of mass destruction. Its purpose would presumably be to create psychological, not physical, harm through mass panic and terror. Additionally, decontamination of the affected area might require considerable time and expense, rendering affected areas unusable, and causing extensive economic damage.

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Essentially, this kind of weapon is a terror weapon preying on public radiological ignorance. While it's fact that even detonated in a large population center that such a device would cause perhaps ten deaths from thyroid cancer within the next fifty years, this did not stop some degree of media hysteria. Indeed, it's thought that the Chechnyans (mentioned below) had no idea of the ineffectiveness of such a device.

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During the 1960's, it's thought the UK Ministry of Defence evaluated RDDs deciding that a far better effect was achievable by simply using more high explosive in place of the radioactives. Assumedly, this indicates that the effect of the radiological component would be negligible.

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However it is important to understand that the aims of terrorists are to terrorise and it isn't necessary to cause destruction in order to inflice terror and hysteria. The mere threat, even if that threat isn't real, can be enough to achieve a terrorist goal.

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