Yah Dirty Bombs are pointed out as myths in The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004) (TV).
Even look what it says at wikipedia.org
"hough 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".
For this reason, a dirty bomb is not 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."
"Everybody be cool... you be cool" George Clooney as Seth Gecko in From Dusk Till Dawn
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B-Ellison
19 years ago
I see the points of the actual physical damage of the "dirty bombs". But you mentioned it would NOT be a WMD? Wrong, fear itself is a WMD and if one of these went off in England or even America, or anywhere for that matter, it would cause WORLD wide panic. This in itself would be a weapon, and the destruction would be MASSive. So it IS a WMD no matter how you look at it.... America ITSELF is a WMD, causing fear in the rest of the world AS WELL as in its own people, lol. You think 19 FOREIGNERS pulled off 911 alone? Or with only the help of bin Laden? LOL come on now, dont be ignorant.
FACTS!
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Airwolf-4
17 years ago
Dirty Bombs are not WMD's. They're RDD's meant not to cause massive destruction, but to throw out tons of radioactive particles over a location. The aim is cause terror and panic.
don't confuse the two
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sweetlusciousangel
15 years ago
RDD's are not a form of WMD however they can do a lot more damage than causing terror and panic depending on the radioactive element dispersed with the explosion. Cesium 137 is one of those elements that can have long term health consequences for the public and can very well cause death. And as for those above who made a reference to the explosion at chernobyl in the 1980's people DID die from the radiation released from chernobyl, even today there is still a 100 mile radius from the plant that has been rendered permanently uninhabitable. Do not underestimate the potential for an RDD to cause damage, if detonated in a heavily populated area during the right weather conditions and time of day, it can do a lot of damage both short and longterm. the point of this film is not to display a Radiation dispersal device as one as powerful as a nuclear bomb but to show that more needs to be done in preparation against such an attack. It is easier to get ahold of radioactive materials that can cause death and long term health problems and use conventional means to blow them up than obtaining a sufficient amount of fissile material and fashion a working nuclear weapon. Keep that in mind.
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