A radiological attack would not be an easy task for terrorists to carry out, but if they manage to do it, most likely it will be through radiological dispersal devices (RDDs) that could be explosive or nonexplosive (Medalia, 2011). Explosive RDDs could be compared to an improvised explosive device (IED), but the difference is that an explosive RDD contains radioactive materials inside, which once the RDD is detonated it will spread out radioactive material that will affect anyone or anything that is exposed to the radioactive material (Medalia, 2011). Nonexplosive RDDs can be any nonexplosive device that can help spread out radioactive material, an example of this could a duster crop airplane (Medalia, 2011). Generally, the aftermath of a …show more content…
Moreover, a radiological attack will cause panic; it could disrupt the functions of critical infrastructures; and it would lead people to loose confidence in their government, which would just add more stress to people (Khripunov, 2007). Authorities may not be able to provide too much information during the first steps of the criminal investigation, which will cause uncertainty to people (Khripunov, 2007). Therefore, most likely most people will not be properly informed about what actually is a radiological attack and they will face a lot of fear, which would result in radiophobia (Khripunov, 2007). This means that in the aftermath of a radiological attack people would be taking unnecessary safety measures due to the panic and fear that people will have as well as from the uncertainty or the lack of knowledge about RDDs other than knowing that they are WMDs (Khripunov, 2007). Therefore, one way in which psychological effect could be reduce or prevented is by ensuring that the authorities and the media are adequately informing the public about what is going on as well as involve the public in the decision making process to reduce the public’s fear, uncertainty, and helpless feelings (Khripunov,
also concerned. Therefore, I think that it is best to not have nuclear weapons that cause panic
Following a severe earthquake and Tsunami, 3 reactors were damaged, similar to Chernobyl. However, the event was contained with minimal nuclear leaks and no deaths. The surrounding area has already been deemed safe. Despite this, many still fear events such as this. The problem is, they should not. “As a nuclear engineer, it is depressing to read the recent reports on the Fukushima nuclear incident — not because of the incident itself (at this point I strongly believe that we will remember Fukushima as evidence of how safe nuclear power is when done right) — but because the media coverage of the event has been rife with errors so glaring that I have to wonder if anyone in the world of journalism has ever taken a physics class.” (Yost, Keith. What happened at the Fukushima reactor? Mit.edu) What he is essentially saying is that the nuclear reactors were properly managed during the event, and a major incident was avoided. He believes it instead to be a testimony to the safety of nuclear
When there is a weapon that can level an entire city and killing 66,000 people while injuring 69,000 people (atomicarhive.com) with long term health effects, people will obviously be scared. People fear that there won’t be a future for humankind. If a nuclear war were to happen, half a country to an entire country can easily be destroyed to the point where it becomes inhabitable due to radiation. Through a Stanford University psychological study of young survivors of World War II, it has been found that almost half the subjects surveyed believe that a nuclear war will result in the complete annihilation of humankind (Koschin and Kabachenko 4). The study also found that “95 percent [of the subjects] expressed a serious concern about the danger of war and 44 percent lived in fear, waiting for war” (Koschin and Kabachenko 2). Generations after the atomic bomb era will continuously fear that every war can become the world-ending nuclear war. The American government also sees the catastrophic potential of nuclear weapons and began to disarm their nuclear weapon stockpile and ban future nuclear test from being performed. Treaties such as the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of N...
could kill animals (source 2). If the radioactive material gets in water it could pollute the water. When
Undoubtedly the NRC is committed to protecting the public against nuclear products that may be inadvertently or deliberately released into the environment. To this end, the agency in collaboration with other governmental security agencies has invested tremendously in the security of nuclear plants within the United States. The agency has increased security at nuclear plants by upgrading the physical security plans of each respective nuclear facility, increasing security personnel and has heightened the restrictive access controls to all nuclear facilities (“Radiation and National,” 2014).
In 1917 a young female right out of high school started working at a radium factory in Orange, New Jersey. The job was mixing water, glue and radium powder for the task of painting watch dials, aircraft switches, and instrument dials. The paint is newly inventive and cool so without hesitation she paints her nails and lips with her friends all the while not knowing that this paint that is making them radiant, is slowly killing them. This was the life of Grace Fryer. Today there are trepidations on the topic of radiation from fears of nuclear fallout, meltdowns, or acts of terrorism. This uneasiness is a result of events over the past one hundred years showing the dangers of radiation. Although most accidents today leading to death from radiation poisoning occur from human error or faults in equipment, the incident involving the now named "radium girls" transpired from lack of public awareness and safety laws. (introduce topics of the paper)
Direct radiation occurs at the time of the explosion and can be very intense, but its range is limited. For large nuclear weapons, the range of concentrated direct radiation is less than the range of lethal blast and thermal radiation effects. Seeing that there was a total collapse of society in the story, it is safe to assume that this was a very large weapon, so I suspect that the city fell and succumbed to the weapon quickly – leaving behind the last two stages, radiation and radioactive fallout.
When there is a weapon that can level an entire city and killing 66,000 people while injuring 69,000 people (atomicarhive.com) with long term health effects, people will obviously be scared. People fear that there won’t be a future for humankind. If a nuclear war were to happen, half a country to an entire country can easily be destroyed to the point where it becomes inhabitable due to radiation. Through a Stanford University psychological study of young survivors of World War II, it has been found that almost half the subjects surveyed believe that a nuclear war will result in the complete annihilation of humank...
“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) has recorded 54 accidents at 132 irradiation facilities worldwide since 1974.” (What’s Wrong with Food Irradiation?). Food irradiation plants used nuclear substances which are extremely dangerous if they get into the wrong hands because they are deadly. “It has been reported that numerous unrecovered losses and thefts of radioactive materials occur each year. Recent events have raised concerns over the potential for terrorists to obtain these materials for the use in ‘dirty bombs’”(Food Irradiation, Health Risks, Misleading Consumers, Misuse of the Technology). There needs to be extensive security around these facilities. This risks national security. In addition to the risking national security, these facilities also threaten public safety. “In 1974, an Isomedix facility in New Jersey flushed radioactive water down toilets and contaminated piped leading to sewers. In the same year, a worker received a dose of radiation considered lethal for 70 percent of the population.”(Mercola) This is outrageous. If a nuclear power p...
A radioisotope is an isotope that emits radiation as it has nuclear instability(Prostate Cancer; Fusion imaging helps target greater doses of radiation).Those who are not too familiar with radioisotopes may think their use is for harmful radiation, nuclear weapons, and the possibility of turning into a giant, raging, green monster. However, there are much more positive uses for radioisotopes. There have been many medical advances thanks to the benefit and practice of radioisotopes in nuclear medicine. These advances have been able to diagnose and treat a variety of diseases.
In the Chernobyl meltdown, most of the exploding was due to containment failure and explosions from steam build-up. The meltdown has produced a far higher amount of radioactive materials, because fission explosion at ground level creates more radioactive isotopes due to neutron activation in soil. Furthermore, the half-lives of the isotopes made in the Chernobyl accident are longer. Having more fissionable material increases the amount of radiation that can be produced as well as the amount of radioactive
Those estimates above do not include the additional deaths from fires, starvation, or the lethal fallout showering to the ground downwind of the explosion. Skin burns, acute radiation sickness(which includes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever), and noticeable blood changes are just a few of the effects of radiation on the body.
In order for a radiological attack to kill or sicken mass amounts of people would require a very large weapon with highly radioactive material. Although producing a radiological weapon is much easier than building a nuclear weapon, fabricating a very highly effective radiological dispersal device that could be transported to a particular location is very difficult. One of the problems in building a large device is the heavy shielding necessary to work with a significant amount of radioactive material. Otherwise, it would melt the container carrying the radiological material and sicken or kill anyone who is attempting to put together or transport the weapon.
There used be a time when Americans, and much of the world lived in constant fear of Nuclear annihilation. In the 1950 the U.S Government would release propaganda videos that would instruct Americans to “duck and cover” in case of a nuclear blast. Because that reasoning is sound right? Ducking under a picnic table or covering your head with your hands is enough to withstand millions of pounds of force and deathly radiation. In today’s day and age we don’t really consider the dangers of a nuclear explosion; we live oblivious to the fact that we still have, according to the U.S Department of State over 4,000 nuclear warheads ready to be fired at a moment's notice. With this excess of weapons we also face an excess of problems, which is what
During the immediate response phase, a first responder may get physically injured or be killed. They also have the risk of developing long term health effects or mental illness including stress disorders. Other risks to emergency responders can happen before the terrorist attack occurs. Collecting information and intelligence properly allows agencies to connect the dots so that they prevent, deter, and combat terrorism (Policing, 2008). Once the information is analyzed, it is important to make sure it is shared with agencies at the federal, state, and local levels. If information on terrorism and terrorists is not collected and shared, it may prevent emergency responders from properly doing their jobs. For instance, “police came face-to-face with three of the 9/11 hijackers in traffic stops” prior to the terrorist attack (Policing, 2008). Due to lack of information sharing, the police officers did not arrest the terrorists, which may have prevented the 9/11 attacks. It is also important that emergency responders recognize and understand the signs of terrorism. “Surveillance, elicitation, tests of security, funding, acquiring supplies, impersonation, rehearsal, and deployment” are eight signs of terrorism according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (Recognizing, 2009). If emergency responders are not familiar with the signs of terrorism they will not be able to properly document