The Change Mariner

Threat of 'Dirty Bomb' Growing

Los Angeles Times:

Concerns are growing that Al Qaeda or a related group could detonate a "dirty bomb" that would spew radioactive fallout across an American or European city, according to intelligence analysts, diplomats and independent nuclear experts.

Although safeguards protecting nuclear weapons and their components have improved, experts said the radioactive materials that wrap around conventional explosives to create a contaminating bomb remained available worldwide -- and were often stored in non-secure locations.

Detonating a dirty bomb would not cause the death and devastation wrought by a nuclear weapon, but officials and counter-terrorism experts predicted that it would result in some fatalities, radiation sickness, mass panic and enormous economic damage.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at May 9, 2004 10:35 PM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Area - Social - Crime | Quadrant - Political | Theme - 'Response to Terrorism'

Dirty Bomb: Weapons of Mass Disruption
Chamberlain Brothers

Amazon Price: $10.36

How to Build a Nuclear Bomb: And Other Weapons of Mass Destruction
Nation Books

Amazon Price: $11.16

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
Simon & Schuster

Amazon Price: $11.20

The Radioactive Boy Scout : The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor
Random House

Amazon Price: