Benchmark II, Section I:Historical Incidents and Potential Misuses

In this section the students looked into historical events involving radioactive materials. They also will report on how radioactive materials could be used by military forces or terrorist groups and the effects of these uses.

Historical Incidents

Use of Radioactive materials by Terrorists

Historical Incidents with Radiologic Materials

Preston Simic

The catastrophic history of nuclear energy has been, to the eye of the public, for the most part summed up in the events at the Chernobly and Three Mile Island reactors… this propaganda is not only highly misleading, but also entirely incorrect. Since first governmental use of nuclear technology for industrious or warfare purposes, the instances of anti-productive occurrences, if not always deadly, are still extremely numerous, and tend to cause disruptions of public lifestyle—releasal of radiation, for one thing, and extensive injury high cost of cleanup/cover-up. It is almost exclusively, and not always even then, the deadly incidents that reach the public eye, in an understandable attempt to maintain a source of power for humanity, when we are consuming so rapidly all others… Such attempts by government associations worldwide traverse simple lies to entire cover-ups, destruction of documentation, and relocation of persons under false premise. June of 2001, the American Treasury Secretary Paul o’Niell stated to the media that “If you set aside Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the safety record of nuclear [power] is really very good.” After the Ukrainian Chernobyl incident the Soviet Republic kept the catastrophe a total and entirely unsuspect secret, only to be dawned later when Western Europe began receiving abnormal measures of radiation ‘drafts.’
Due to the situations in which incidents involving radioactive materials may occur, it’s not surprising that there are many different definitions as to what an ‘incident’ of significant proportions would imply—for example, a significant incident to Greenpeace would be a faulty switch in a nuclear plant which may have eventually caused contained leakage, and resulted in a 40,000 dollar fine. However, something like this would be essentially insubstantial to an organization as the NIS, which may consider a radiation incident to be international, like smugglers attempting to sell enriched fuel rods.
For the sake of keeping an open mind, I have tried to draw on several different organizations’ impressions of ‘major incidents,’ ranging from Greenpeace to various national militaries, but I’ll set out a rough guideline anyway. The United States Navy’s definition of ‘Nuclear Accident’ is the following:
(1) [Nucflash] Any accidental or unauthorized incident involving a possible detonation of a nuclear weapon by U.S. Forces which could create the risk of nuclear war between the U.S. and another country.
(2) [Broken Arrow] The accidental or unauthorized detonation, or possible detonation of a nuclear weapon (other than war risk); non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon; radioactive contamination; seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon or component (including jettisoning); public hazard, actual or implied.
(3) [Bent Spear] Any significant nuclear incidents, other than nuclear weapons accidents or war risk detonations, actual or possible.
(4) [Faded Giant] Any nuclear reactor or radiological accidents involving equipment used in connection with nuclear reactors or other nuclear energy devices while such equipment is under the custody of the U.S. Government.
In turn, the DoD’s (Department of Defense) Definition of Nuclear Accident is an unexpected event involving nuclear materials or nuclear weapons/components that results in any of the following:
(1) Accidental or unauthorized launching, firing, or use, by U.S. forces or supported allied forces, of a nuclear-capable weapon system which could create the risk of an outbreak of war;
(2) Nuclear detonation, non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon or radioactive weapon component, including a fully assembled nuclear weapon, an unassembled nuclear weapon, or radioactive nuclear weapon components;
(3) Any unauthorized distribution of radioactive materials causing radioactive contamination;
(4) Seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon component, including jettisoning;
(5) Any distribution of radioactive materials which may otherwise cause public hazard, actual or implied.
(6) An increase in possibility of explosion or radioactive contamination.
(7) Errors committed in the assembly, testing, loading or transportation of equipment, and or the malfunctioning of equipment and material which could lead to an unintentional operation of all or part of the weapon arming and/or firing sequence, or which could lead to a substantial change in yield, or increased dud probability;
(8) Any act of God, unfavorable environment, or conditions resulting in damage to the weapon, facility or component. (“BY ORDER OF THE CINC NI10-19 NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE COMMAND.”)

Some chronologically offered incidents:

2 September 1944 Douglas Meigs and Peter Bragg, two Manhattan Project chemists, were killed when their attempt to unclog a tube in a uranium enrichment device led to an explosion of radioactive uranium hexafluoride gas at the Naval Research Laboratory in Philadelphia, PA. The explosion caused the rupturing of nearby steam pipes—the two men were killed in by the scalding, acidic, radioactive gas that formed thereby a short while later.
21 August 1945 Physicist Louis Slotin died during the final stages of the Manhattan Project undertaken at Los Alamos, New Mexico when a radiation burst was caused by a critical assembly of fissile material being brought together by hand. At this point in time, remote-assembly of such materials was an option inaccessible. Nine months later, a similar such incident occurred, which was dramatized in Fat Man and Little Boy. 8 people were injured, one killed. Both of these events occurred during a procedure known as “tickling the dragon’s tail.”
13 February 1950 A B-36 en route from Alaska to Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, developed serious mechanical difficulties, complicated by severe icing conditions, leading to the world's first nuclear weapons accident. The crew was forced to drop the nuclear weapons approximately eight-thousand feet off the coast of British Colombia. Although the nuclear devices detonated on impact, the crew parachuted to safety, and most radiation was confined to the local ecosystem (cheerio).
August 5, 1950 A B-29 bomber crashed and burned in a trailer park inhabited by more than two hundred families. The plane had been experiencing some problems with the landing gear, and crashed while attempting an emergency landing. Onboard was one nuclear weapon without its fissile core, and ten to twelve 500lb. conventional explosive bombs. These detonated about fifteen minutes after the wreck, the blast being felt as far as 30 miles away and created a crater 20 yards across and six feet deep. The crash and subsequent detonation killed eighteen personnel, including Air Force General Travis, and injured 60 others.
10 November 1950 A B-505 travelling to Davis-Monthan Base in Tucson Arizona jettisoned the nuclear weapon it was carrying over St. Lawrence River near the Canadian city of St. Alexandre-de-Kamouraska. No nuclear studies took place.
1954 The USS Seawolf, America’s second nuclear submarine, scuttled its prototype reactor in 9,000 feet of water off the Maryland coast. The reactor contained an estimated 33,000 curies of radiation, and is figured to be the largest radioactive object dumped in the ocean deliberately. All attempts to locate it have been futile.
10 March 1956 A B-47 bomber flying nonstop from MacDill at Tampa, Florida to an undisclosed overseas base disappeared over the Mediterranean betwixt its first and second fueling rendezvous points. Onboard were two nuclear weapons cores and a full crew. There has never been any sign of crew, plane, or nuclear cores.
1957 A capsulette of radium salt burst at the Keleket, leading to a quarter million and five months in decontamination.
22 May 1957 A B-36 was transporting a nuclear weapon without its fissile core from Biggs Air Force to Kurtlands Air Force. The weapon fell from the bomb bay at about 1,700 feet. The parachutes did not work properly, and the nuclear weapon was totally decimated in the incurred explosion, which was about 4.5 miles south of the Kurtland control tower. The blast crater exceeded 25 feet in diameter, 12 feet deep. Little radioactive contamination traversed the rim.
31 January A B-47 was simulating takeoff when the casting failed, the tail struck the runway, and the gas tank ruptured. There was one nuclear weapon onboard; it did not explode, but there was extensive radioactive contamination in surrounding areas. The base was Slidi Slimane, an American base in French Morocco; there were several rescue vehicles and personnel that were extensively exposed.
February 1958 A B-47 jettisoned two 1,700 gallon fuel tanks from about 8,000 feet due to engine troubles. They missed the targeted area, instead exploding within 70 feet of another B-47 with several nuclear weapons on board. The ensuing explosion scattered radioactive material everywhere, most of that being powdered uranium and plutonium. As much as 20 grams of that specifically was found off base. A nearby hangar was damaged, which lead to the hosing of all of the planes in order to prevent more explosions. Two people were killed.
30 December 1958 A nuclear criticality incident occurred involving a plutonium solution. The operator at the lab died later of acute radiation poisoning. March ’61 Journal of Occupational Medicine devoted an entire section to how the even occurred.
25 May 1958 Over the ocean off Savannah, Georgia a B047 collided with a jet, causing it to drop a hydrogen bomb, which to this day remains unrecovered.
7 June 1960 A high pressure helium tank exploded, igniting the gas tank of a BOMARC defense missile. The safety devices acted properly, the warhead did not erupt, but there was much contamination due to water runoff from the firefighting.
3 January 1961 Attributed to sabotage by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a reactor explosion at the Reactor Testing Station cased the deaths of three military technicians, during what should have been a routine prep for the reactor sequence. As they moved the fuel rods, one man was blown to the ceiling where he was impaled on a rod and was only taken down six days later, all were so badly contaminated they had to bury the hands with the radioactive waste and encase the bodies in lead.
24 January 1961 When a B-52 bomber underwent structural failure and began to disintegrate, midair, 12 miles north of Seymour Johnson in North Carolina, five of the crew bailed on parachutes—the other three died as it exploded in midair. Tow hydrogen bombs were jettisoned, one parachuted intact and well, the other became stuck in the swampy farmland, deep enough there has never been any removal attempt.
10 December 1961
Clouds of radioactive steam escaped from an underground nuclear test, closing several New Mexico highways.
13 November 1963 The HE components of the bomb being dismantled began burning spontaneously, triggering the blast of 120 pounds of HE. Eventually, the radiation was contained to the surrounding area.
8 December 1964 A B-58 slid off a runway at Bunker Hill (now Grissom) Air Force Base in Peru, Indiana. The fire consumed parts of the 5 nuclear weapons onboard. There was extensive contamination.
5 December 1965 An A-4E Skyhawk strike aircraft with a nuclear weapon onboard rolled off an elevator on the U.S. aircraft carrier Ticonderoga and fell into the sea. Since the depth was about 16,000 feet, Pentagon officials feared that intense water pressure could have caused the B-43 hydrogen bomb to explode. Still nobody knows if that happened, as no attempts to find out have been made.
17 January 1966 A bomber collided with a jet tanker over Spain, igniting the tanker’s gas tank. Two of the hydrogen bombs on the bomber ruptured, scattering radioactive materials all over the fields of Palomares, a third landed near the village itself, a fourth lost at sea. The US eventually settled the issue with a $200,000 desalinization plant gift.
22 January 1968 During a disastrous wreck of an American aircraft in Greenland, four nuclear weapons were destroyed, and much radioactive material was spread. Making an emergency landing, the pilot was on his was to Thule AFB, but it bust into flames upon grounding—the explosion scattered much radioactive material, about 300 metres in diameter, and most of it in larger chunks.
21 May 1968 The U.S.S. Scorpion sank ‘mysteriously.’ Along with it went all 99 crew members and a nuclear weapon. The American government only recently admitted the ‘possibility’ that it was accidentally sunk by another submarine.
24 July 1969 U.S. missile production stopped for a while, due to a series of fires in the Atomic Energy Commission's Rocky Flats plutonium bomb factory. The surrounding countryside was irradiated by plutonium, and several buildings at the factory were so badly contaminated that they had to be dismantled.
18 December 1970 An underground nuclear test in Nevada resulted in a cloud of radioactive steam to be thrust 8,000 feet in the air over Wyoming.
1971 After experimenting with disposal of radioactive waste in salt, the Atomic Energy Commission announced that "Project Salt Vault" would solve the waste problem. But when 180,000 gallons of contaminated water was pumped into a borehole; it promptly and unexpectedly disappeared. The project was abandoned two years later.
19 November 1971 The water storage space at the Northern States Power Company's reactor in Monticello, Minnesota filled to capacity and spilled over, dumping about 50,000 gallons of radioactive waste water into the Mississippi River. Some was taken into the St. Paul water system. (The numbers vary. A government source said 500 gallons. Ha ha.)
1972 When the West Valley fuel plant was closed after 6 years of operation, they left 600,000 gallons of wastes in tanks… It caused considerable contamination of Lake Ontario and Erie.
December 1972 A large fire and two explosions occurred at a plutonium fabrication plant in Pauling, New York. The amount of radioactive plutonium scattered was undetermined, but resulted in the closing of the plant.
1974 New Jersey Isomedix Company whistleblowers relinquished that amounts of contaminated water was flushed down toilets. Later that year, one of the employees was exposed to lethal levels of radiation, and only just survived.
October-November 1975 A Geiger counter showed the USS Proteus to be discharging enough to make the shoreline water 100 millirems/hour, about 50 times what’s acceptable, in Guam Apra Harbor.
28 March 1979 A major incident at Three-Mile Island reactor o9f Middleton, Pennsylvania. At 4 AM, the core was suffering almost a complete lack of coolant due to mechanical and human error. By 8, half of the reactor’s core had melted. Contaminated coolant escaped the premises, causing the displacement of about 200,000 people. The nuclear industry claims "no one died at Three Mile Island," but many private studies have offered evidence to the contrary.
16 July 1979 A dam holding back uranium tailings and other radioactive wastes broke, releasing in excess of 100 million gallons of radioactive liquids and 1,000 tons of solid wastes.
August 1979 A large quantity of highly enriched uranium was released near Erwin, Tennessee from a top secret plant, contaminating about 1,000 people with 5 times more radiation than one normally receives in a year. Between this year and 1983 more than 200 pounds of highly enriched uranium were mysteriously ‘lost,’ leading to the shutdown of the plant.
19 September 1980 An Air Force repairman doing routine maintenance dropped a wrench socket in a Titan II ICBM silo at Damascus, Arkansas, which fell to the bottom of the silo. The missile was struck by the wrench and thus sprung a leak in a fuel tank. Eight hours later, built-up gasses cause the missile to explode in the silo, killing one specialist, injuring 21. Since the silo was thereafter filled with gravel, radiation risks are at a minimum.
21 September 1980 ON route 17, two canisters of radioactive material fell off the truck transporting them. The driver never noticed.
11 February 1981 A Unit Operator, on his untrained first day, accidentally opened a valve that caused the contamination of eight men by over 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant.
15-16 January 1983 Over 200,000 gallons of contaminated water was pumped into the Tennessee River by the Browns Ferry Power Plant.
December 1984 The Department of Energy discovered that the Fernald Uranium Plant had released over 200 tons of radioactive material, 40 tons of uranium dust, and almost 400 tons of uranium sulfide disappeared with no known whereabouts. The plant was only shut down in ’89.
6 January 1986 At the Sequoya Fuels Corporation processing factory in Oklahoma, a canister of highly toxic gases exploded, causing the death of 1 worker when his lungs were destroyed, 130 others seeking treatment.
1986 One of 32 major discrepancies in security while dealing with radioactive materials, including throwing radio-active waste in the dumpster instead of disposing of it properly, a security device that would prevent people from enter-ing the irradiation chamber during irradiation process, resulting in a worker getting a near-lethal dose of radiation.
1986 Between the years of 1944 and 1966, the eight reactors belonging to Hanford Engineer Works, a major source for plutonium production, released an estimated billions of gallons of liquids and tens of billions of cubic metres of gases containing plutonium and other radioactive elements. The detrimental effects (especially to the Colombia River, adjacent, and thus a direct victim of the aforesaid actions) were noticed as early as 1948. Of less than 270,000 people living in the area, it is estimated that 16,000 of them suffered directly harmful effects. 1986 is the date that the U.S. government released more than 19,000 pages in documentation on the issue, which had before been classified.
6 June 1988 The company of Radiation Sterilizers Incorporated found that a Cesium-137 leak had occurred at the Georgia branch. They recalled 70,000 medical supply containers and milk cartons. Along with those were ten contaminated employees, three of whom were contaminated enough they contaminated other surfaces, including materials at the home and cars.
December 1991 While moving four cold fusion cells in Menlo Park, California, one exploded, killing electrochemist Andrew Riley and injuring three others. The three other ells, being buried on site, gave rise to the rumors of nuclear reactions having taken place. However, conclusive reports have shown that it was a chemical mixture of oxygen and deuterium that caused the incident.
24 November 1992 The Oklahoma Sequoyah Fuels Corporation processing factory closed for the final time after one of the worst ongoing reactor records there is; an accident in 86 killed 1 worker, injuring dozens. Later, such an amount of toxic gases caused 34 people to seek medical assistance. The plant was, at one point, shut down a year due to the anomalously high uranium content of a construction pit nearby. For decades, the plant had been allowing uranium to sink into the ground at rates 35,000 times in excess what federal law allows.
January 1994 An incident, caused by uncontrollable weather circumstances, caused the release of 55,000 gallons of contaminated water into the containment building, which caused the uncovering of highly radioactive ‘spent’ fuel. This resulted in up to 2700 rems/hour in less than an hour.
31 March 1994 A firefight at a nuclear research facility in Long Island, New York caused three firefighters, three reactor operators, and one technician to be contaminated, and radiation released into the environment.
5 Sept 1996 Illinois Power's Clinton reactor shut down when a recirculating pump leak resulted in spilling 7,000 gallons of radioactive water into the reactor building.
May 1997 An illegally stored 40 gallon tank of toxic materials, located at the government’s Hanford Engineer, causing 20,000-30,000 gallons of plutonium contaminated water to be released. A cover-up ensued.
(“U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents.”)
(“Radioactive Decay: Illinois Reactors, 1996-1997.”)
(“Radioactive ‘Decay,’ 1992-1994.”)
("Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2001 Review.")

The incident at Three-Mile-Island was an unexpected concoction of bad luck, human error, and mechanical/electric failure. Commercial nuclear power and the American government maintain the stance that no deaths were caused by the incident, but studies and opinions of private parties differ from that greatly—for example, studies by Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass professor of radiation physics at the University of Pittsburgh, brought evidence that the accident led to a minimum of 430 infant deaths, including substantial ecological damage.
Around 4 AM, the main water pumps stopped working, so the steam generators couldn’t get rid of heat. Because of the automatic shutdown, pressure began building elsewhere. The depressurizer, which was operator-triggered, failed to close after it was opened. So, it depressurized too mush, too much coolant was released, the core began to overheat. Since there’s no measure to determine the amount of coolant in the core, the operators misdiagnosed the situation, and even further decreased the amount of coolant going through the system. The core got even hotter. Once the core had heated to a certain level, the rods containing the nuclear pellets melted, and they themselves began to melt. About one-half of the core melted in the early stages of the Three-Mile accident alone.
The NRC’s regional office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania was notified of the accident at about 7:45 that morning… Operations Center in Bethesda, Maryland and NRC headquarters (D.C.) were alerted around eight. Bethesda mobilized a team of inspectors. Although at this point they did not know the core had melted down, their immediate intent was to regulate the plant themselves. The White house was alerted at 9:15, and within two hours of that, all non-essential personnel were off-grounds. The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency were there by this time, as were helicopters on General Public Utilities Nuclear payroll, all testing radioactivity in the atmosphere and surrounding area.
By that evening, it appeared all was settled and the core was cooled. The next morning, however, a significant amount of radiation released from the auxiliary building, done to relieve pressure on the primary systems, greatly confused. Soon, a hydrogen bubble began to build within the pressure vessel. This was pretty scary, in that it might have burned, or even ruptured and have taken out the pressure vessel, compromising containment. On April 1st, experts decided it could no longer explode, as it had no more oxygen. Besides, by this time its mass had increased. (“Meltdown at Three-Mile Island”)
A far more serious accident occurred seven years later at reactor no. 4 in Chernobyl, in what was then still the Soviet Union. It occurred April 25-26, during a test. The operating crew wanted to test whether or not turbines could produce sufficient enough energy to keep the coolant pumps running if there were a loss of power, at least until the emergency diesel generator could be activated. In order to prevent the run from being interrupted, essentially all the safety systems had to be turned off. For the test the reactor had to be powered down to about one quarter power capacity. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as planned—for whatever reason, it fell to less than 1% power. Therefore it had to be slowly increased, but when they tried that, there was a sudden energy surge. The reactor’s emergency shutdown process, which should have halted the sequence, failed.
Within a fraction of a second, power level and temperature compounded on each other several times over, until past temperatures of 2000°C degrees, the entire thing went crazy. The 1,000 ton ceiling cap on the reactor building was blown off, and all the radioactive fission elements which were released during the core meltdown were sucked up into the atmosphere. (“Explosion of the Reactor.”)
The two occurrences of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl represent extreme instances of the problem that seems to trouble the American public more than any other about commercial nuclear power: its apparent danger. But risk is always relative. There comes a point when you have just as high a risk for danger while avoiding the danger than the danger itself.
These incidents should be teaching us about future possibility of catastrophe—but what does one learn from such a thing? If you say that 30,000 people die from a nuclear accident, look at it rationally; 30,000 people die annually from coal burning power plants in the United States alone. In reality, the consequences of any nuclear disaster, with the exception of a Nucflash, is so insignificant that it pales in comparison to so many other things we take for granted. There’s so much we can do about, we don’t do shit about—then it comes to something like this, and Sure, there, is always the risk of nuclear catastrophe—but everything we do involves risk. There are dangers in every type of travel, but there are dangers in staying home--25 percent of all fatal accidents occur there. There are dangers in eating--food is one of the most important causes of cancer and of several other diseases--but most people eat more than is necessary. There are dangers in breathing--air pollution probably kills 100,000 Americans each year, inhaling radon and its decay products is estimated to kill 14,000 a year, and many diseases like influenza, measles, and whooping cough are contracted by inhaling germs...There are dangers in working--12,000 Americans are killed each year in job-related accidents, and probably ten times that number die from job-related illnesses--but most alternatives to working are even more dangerous. There are dangers in exercising and dangers in not getting enough exercise. Risk is an unavoidable part of our everyday lives. (Nuclear Renewal)
So, the avoidance of the risk of nuclear disaster/terrorism is impossible, and must be faced… It cannot be prevented, and the lesson we need to learn from it is that loss of life is a necessary incident in a world full of life, that it will come in many packages, that it will usually be unavoidable and/or unseen until it occurs.

Citations

Chernobyl. Info. “Explosion of the Reactor.”
http://www.chernobyl.info/index.php?userhash=1542543&navID=10&lID=2

Monterey Institute of International Studies. “2000 WMD Terrorism Chronology:
Incidents Involving Sub-National Actors and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, or Nuclear Materials.”
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/cbrn2k.htm

NAADC. “BY ORDER OF THE CINC NI10-19 NORTH AMERICAN AEROSPACE DEFENSE COMMAND.” 12 April 1996.
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/norad/ins10019.htm

Nuclear Energy Information Service. “Radioactive ‘Decay,’ 1992-1994.” http://www.neis.org/literature/Brochures/raddecay.htm

Nuclear Energy Information Service. “Radioactive Decay: Illinois Reactors, 1996-1997.” http://www.neis.org/literature/Brochures/rdecay97.htm

PBS Television Broadcast. “Meltdown at Three-Mile Island.” A Steward/Gazit Productions, Inc. film ©1999 WGBH Educational Foundation.

Rhodes, Richard. Atomic Energy Insights; Guest Columns. “Civilization and the Significance of Nuclear Development.” May 12, 2001
http://www.atomicinsights.com/Guests/RhodesJAIF.html

Rhodes, Richard. Nuclear Renewal. Viking Penguin, 1993.

Russia. Committee on Confronting Terrorism in Russia, Russian Academy of Sciences.
Europe. Office for Central Europe and Eurasia Development, Security, and Cooperation.
America. National Research Association.
Data Book: High Impact Terrorism: Proceedings of a Russian-American Workshop, 2005

Tiwari, Jaya and Cleve J. Gray “U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents.”
http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm

Warner, Jones. "Radiological Consequences Resulting from Accidents and Incidents Involving the Transport of Radioactive Materials in the UK - 2001 Review." September 2002.

 

Terroristic Uses of Radiological Sources
Zackary Kershaw

There are several different methods that terrorists could employ with radiation. They could steal or buy an intact nuclear device, steal or buy enough fissile material to construct a crude nuclear weapon, attack a nuclear reactor with the intent to cause the release of radiation, or construct and use a radiological dispersion device (RDD) commonly known as a dirty bomb. The use of a nuclear weapon would be the most destructive of the three by far, however it is also the one scenario least likely to happen. An attack on a nuclear reactor would not be nearly as damaging, but if successful could contaminate thousands of square miles of land beyond safe levels. A successful dirty bomb attack is the most likely to occur, and even though almost no people would be killed by the initial exposure to radiation the cost of cleanup and decontamination could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. (Dirty Bomb: Ask the Expert)

The term dirty bomb first entered the public lexicon following the June 2002 arrest of Jose Padilla for allegedly conspiring to construct and explode a dirty bomb within the United States. Even though there has not been an incident involving the actual use of a dirty bomb, there have been cases involving the accidental exposure of people to radioactive sources and even the placing of a working dirty bomb in a Moscow park.

One case in particular highlights the damage that a dirty bomb can entail. The incident occurred in Goiania, Brazil in September of 1987. The case in Brazil involved cesium-137 and was the second largest accident involving radiation in history (Chernobyl was the first.) The radiation originated from a lead capsule containing 1400 curies of radioactive cesium. The lead capsule came from an abandoned radiotherapy machine that was found in a warehouse by scrap collectors. The cesium powder was a luminescent blue, which the children that were exposed found very attractive to play with. The radiation exposure went unnoticed for a whole week before a person was diagnosed with radiation sickness. The Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission team that was dispatched to the site found that at least 244 people had been contaminated, with over 50 being exposed enough to warrant hospitalization. When the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission realized the extent of the accident they requested the aid of the International Atomic Energy Commission which sent a team of doctors. That team of doctors found out that of the 20 most severe cases, 19 had radiation induced skin burns, and all 20 suffered from internal contamination. Eventually 4 people died from radiation exposure. This tragic episode shows what type of harm can be done with the release of a potent, highly dispersible radioisotope. A dirty bomb using the same amount of cesium as in Goiania would affect far more people however, due to the fact that the spread of material and the amount of contamination are meant to be maximized. (Case Study: Accidental Leakage of Cesium-137 in Goiania, Brazil, in 1987)

A dirty bomb is simply put a conventional bomb with any type of radioactive source material in it. The type of explosive used is not important, the type of radioisotope used is of paramount importance however in determining the destructive power of the weapon. The degree of radioactivity and the threat that it represents can be gauged by the half life of the specific isotope used, what type of radiation it emits, and any other chemical or physical properties that it has. Dirty bombs can theoretically range in size from one stick of dynamite and a small amount of radioactive material, to a backpack or small car filled with explosives and a larger amount of radioactive materials, to even an entire truck bomb with a very large amount of radioactive material. (How Dirty Bombs Work)

The specific radioisotope and the amount used make a very large difference as to what the effects of a dirty bomb are. The radioisotopes that could possibly be used with the most effectiveness are americium-241, californium-252, cesium-137, cobalt-60, iridium-192, plutonium-238, strontium-90, and radium-226 (Dirty Bomb: Ask the Expert). A few of these radioisotopes are commonly used such as americium in oil exploration, cesium in radiation therapy, and cobalt in food irradiation. Others such as plutonium are extremely limited as to their commercial use. The widespread use of cesium and cobalt make them very attractive to someone seeking to construct a dirty bomb. Cesium usually comes in an easily dispersed powder form. Cobalt as used in food irradiation is usually found in solid metal “pencils” one inch in diameter and a foot long. Since cobalt is not in an easily dispersible powdered form, its use presents a technical hurdle to be overcome. While converting it into an easily usable form is not impossible, it could lead to such a large amount of acute radiation exposure to the person constructing the bomb that they die long before they are able to use it. Cesium is available in an easily used powder form, which makes it a very attractive component for would be terrorists. Cesium also chemically bonds to concrete surfaces, which greatly increases the difficulty of decontamination. (Dirty Bomb: Ask the Expert)

A scenario involving the amount of cesium that is found in medical gauges combined with two pounds of TNT could theoretically contaminate a 1 mile long section of land covering approximately 40 city blocks. If the bomb was detonated at the National Gallery of Art the contaminated area could include the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress. (Inner Ring: 5% increase in cancer, Middle Ring: 0.5% increase, Outer Ring: 0.05 increase) http://fas.org/faspir/2002/v55n2/dc-cs.htm
As can be seen from the scenario presented above, even a relatively small dirty bomb can raise radiation levels to over the maximum set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Areas that could not be decontaminated sufficiently would either have to be evacuated until the radiation levels have greatly diminished (up to 200 years in the case of cesium-137), or the demolition and removal of all buildings, soil, and other materials that could not be decontaminated sufficiently. If this took place in Manhattan it is not inconceivable that the cleanup cost involving the demolition of several buildings could potentially reach trillions of dollars. (Dirty Bombs: Response to a Threat)
While nuclear weapons are best described as weapons of mass destruction, dirty bombs are rightly weapons of mass disruption. They have little harmful effects outside of the immediate explosion; and cancers that could be caused by them would be statistically indistinguishable from naturally occurring cancers. However they can incite panic in an uneducated and unprepared populace, which would be far more harmful than the radiation itself. People would shy away from areas exposed to radiation even if it was still relatively safe. Land and structures could be contaminated to beyond what the EPA considers a safe level, and if they could not be adequately decontaminated it would lead to the loss of potentially hundreds of billions or possibly even trillions of dollars. So the value of radiological dispersion to a terrorist is not in extraordinary casualties, but rather in immense economic losses. (Dirty Bombs: Response to a Threat)

Citations

• Ferguson, C. (2003). Dirty Bomb: Ask the Expert. PBS/NOVA. Retrieved Feb. 13, 2005 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/dirtybomb/ferg-030303.html
• Harris, T. (n.d.). How Dirty Bombs Work. Howstuffworks.com. Retrieved Feb. 12, 2005 from http://science.howstuffworks.com/dirty-bomb.htm/printable
• Kelly, H. (2002). Dirty Bombs: Response to a Threat. Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved Feb. 13, 2005 from http://www.fas.org/faspir/2002/v55n2/dirtybomb.htm
• Neifert, A. (n.d.). Case Study: Accidental Leakage of Cesium-137 in Goiania, Brazil, in 1987. Retrieved Feb. 14, 2005 from http://www.nbc-med.org/sitecontent/medref/onlineref/casestudies/csgoiania.html