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Nuclear Weapons Latest : (14th July) : Britain on Dirty Bomb alert Nuclear weapons can be classified in four categories : Fusion, Fission, Neutron and "Dirty" bombs. Fusion bombs, known as Hydrogen Bombs or H-Bombs are the highest power weapon, but are only possessed by the superpowers and are therefore outside of the scope of this page. Neutron bombs (which characteristically have a lower explosive yield but generate greater levels of neutron radiation) are also unusual and outside of the scope of this page. We will concentrate on the weapons are being constructed by foreign governments unfriendly to the West (Fission bomb), and that al-Quaeda are alleged to have intended to construct to use against Washington (Dirty Bomb - see below). While blast, radiation, flash and heat are outside of the scope of this page, we will deal with Fallout which is generated from Fission and Dirty bombs (below). Fallout is the highly radioactive dust created by these weapons, which creates a cloud of particulates which fall from the atmosphere. Fallout is highly dangerous from the radiation damage it can give, but also can contain traces of highly poisonous heavy metals (radioactive in their own right). To improve protection from fallout, a Hazmat suit should be warn in addition to a gasmask and filter.
DIRTY BOMB: Latest : Uranium theft puts Britain on Dirty Bomb alert (Sunday Times,13th July 2003) 17th June 2003: (Sky News): MI5 issue warning to the press about the possibility of a Dirty Bomb attack. "Only a matter of time before one is used by terrorists against us", was the message, although it was emphasised that the terrorists preferred weapons are still high explosive. This warning came during the same week that two arrests took place (one in Georgia, one in Asia) of dealers offering radioactive materials for sale on the open market. One dealer claimed to be offering Uranium, but this turned out to be radioactive Caesium, which was seized by the police. In Georgia, the material seized was Caesium & Strontium, both suitable for use in Dirty Bomb weapons. On Monday 7th July, all Police forces received an alert after the theft of 30lb of depleted Uranium from a radioactive waste reprocessing plant in Purfleet. Essex Police confirm that the uranium would be "radioactive if ignited". It has been suggested that this material could be used for a Dirty Bomb. Dirty bombs do not create blast from an atomic reaction, rather they use conventional explosives to vaporise radioactive material to create clouds of "Fallout" and contaminate a larger area. In comparison to a Fission weapon, construction does not require anywhere near the amount of cost or effort, and in theory such a weapon could be built in a garage or shed (if the radioactive material can be acquired). There have been many stories in the press about the power of such a weapon, and it should be remembered that the contamination created will be in proportion to the amount and grade of radioactive material used. It may be considered that the real power of such a weapon would be the panic and terror created in a population that it was used on, rather than the effects of the weapon itself. On 8th November 2002, the UK Government accidentally issued a press release warning that they believed terrorists were about to detonate a dirty bomb or release chemical weapons on targets in the UK, only to retract the press release minutes later and replace it with one that was less specific. At the end of January, the BBC ran a Horizon program called "Dirty Bomb", warning of the lasting effects of these weapons. It gave an example of a medium sized weapon, constructed by suicide bombers and detonated inside a Transit van in Trafalgar Square, London. The resulting fallout would render the centre of London uninhabitable for decades. The only options available would be to seal the area off for that time, or demolish the entire area and remove the rubble for burial elsewhere. To explain why this is such a problem, simply consider the incident on Goianas, Brazil in 1987. Scrap merchants unknowingly opened a container which was discovered to contain the radioactive material " Caesium Chloride". This simple act resulted in the contamination of 200 people in the area, of which four died. The authorities chose to attempt to decontaminate the area. All the homes in the area were demolished and the top soil removed over a period of six months. This exercise generated 3000 cu M of contaminated clean-up material (more than the amount originally contaminated by the incident). This amount of material could cover a football field up to waist height. The extreme cost of this clean-up has led experts to believe that a wiser course of action is simply to seal off an area contaminated in this way until the radioactivity has decayed to safe levels over time. The problem is that this would take years (possibly decades). In the event of a Dirty Bomb attack, what would the authorities choose to do in the U.K. ? Demolish or Seal off ?. Although the thought of the use of a Dirty Bomb seems unthinkable, it should be remembered that one has already been discovered and defused. Moscow, 1995, in a park near the Kremlin, a Dirty Bomb was discovered after authorities received a tip off. Luckily no-one was killed on this occasion. In November 2001, allied forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, were searching through a building previously occupied by al-Quaeda forces. They claim to have found detailed plans and documents showing exactly how to manufacture a Dirty Bomb. On 10th June 2002, the US Government announced the arrest of Abdullah Al Mujahir (aka Jose Padera). He was arrested for allegedly conspiring with al-Quaeda to construct and detonate a dirty bomb in the USA. The ease by which a Dirty Bomb can be constructed should not be underestimated. Not only the obvious terrorists could be the source of such a threat. An American schoolboy was discovered to have made a Dirty bomb / reactor in his own home. The source of radioactive material ? : commercial "ionisation" smoke detectors which contain a radioactive element, supplied to him by fire alarm companies fooled into thinking he was providing a disposal service. Although the individual source in a smoke detector is small, he had been able to build a considerable collection over a period of time. Also known as Atomic bomb or A-Bomb, this is what most people mean when they talk about Nuclear bombs. Using the fission principle the weapon creates a massive explosion, flash, heat, radiation and fallout (radioactive dust). The power ratings of these weapons are usually kiloton (kt), being the equivalent explosive force as 1,000 tonnes of TNT (a 20kt weapon therefore has the power of 20,000 tonnes of TNT). Two Fission bombs were used by US Forces on Japan at Nagasaki and Hiroshima in the Second World War. A detonation of a 20kt (relatively small) warhead above a city centre might flatten an area of approximately 3 square miles. Within 1.6 miles of detonation, blast damage and radiation would cause 80% casualties, 75% of which would be fatal. Between 1.6 and 3.1 miles from detonation, there would still be 10% casualties. RESPIRATORY PROTECTION FROM FALLOUT
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