POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF AN RDD ATTACK: Though experts believe that the likelihood of a terrorist group deploying a dirty bomb in the Unites States is low, the consequences of an RDD attack would be quite significant. An RDD attack, would cause mass panic, disrupt the local economy, as well as causing sickness and death. The effectiveness of an RDD attack is dependent on the environmental conditions at the time of the attack as well as characteristics of the explosives and radiological materials used. The environmental conditions at the time of the attack have the ability to greatly reduce the effectiveness of the weapon. First, the location is key. Building characteristics, construction materials, vegetation level and population are all factors. Were a bomb to go off in a large, densely packed city in a building made with weak construction materials, the outcome would be far worse than a more rural, sturdy location. Second, weather conditions are key to determining the dispersal pattern of the radiological material. “Wind, rain, and other meteorological factors will influence dispersion patterns. The radioactive material’s plume will be determined by the wind’s speed, direction, and thermal currents. Rain or snow can concentrate the material in rivers, lakes, and seacoasts.” …show more content…
As discussed below, most deaths in an RDD attack are from the blast itself not from the radiological material. Therefore, the quantity and type of explosive used is critical. These factors also have an effect on the size of the contaminated area. Additionally, certain types of explosives have the ability to interact with the radiological
Early in the morning of April 27, 1986, the world experienced its largest nuclear disaster ever (Gould 40). While violating safety protocol during a test, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant was placed in a severely unstable state, and in a matter of seconds the reactor output shot up to 120 times the rated output (Flavin 8). The resulting steam explosion tossed aside the reactor’s 1,000 ton concrete covering and released radioactive particles up to one and a half miles into the sky (Gould 38). The explosion and resulting fires caused 31 immediate deaths and over a thousand injuries, including radiation poisoning (Flavin 5). After the accident more than 135,000 people were evacuated from their Ukrainian homes, but the major fallout occurred outside of the Soviet Union’s borders. Smaller radioactive particles were carried in the atmosphere until they returned to earth via precipitation (Gould 43). The Soviets quickly seeded clouds to prevent rainfall over their own land, so most of the radioactivity burdened Western Europe, Scandinavia, and the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans (Flavin 12). This truly international disaster had far reaching effects; some of these were on health, the environment, social standards, and politics.
Dropping the atomic bombs was not a new calamity at the climax of World War Two. The United States had already “fire bombed” the cities of Tokyo and Dresden. During the Tokyo firebombing, an estimated 200,000 civilians were killed instantaneously. The Dresden fire bombing also produced a total of 25,000 civilian deaths. Fire bombing was also a more vicious tactic by the United States than the atomic bombs were. Fire bombing consisted of a two wave attack where the first wave would come through and detonate bombs about 100 feet above the ground in order to blow out the building’s windows. This technique was used to expose the internal contents of buildings so that they could burn faster. Immediately after the first wave, the second wave would come through and drop bombs that were created with the sole purpose of starting fires. The whole city would erupt in a big fire that would absorb the air from the atmosphere. The civilians in those cities would die either by being charred to death, or by suffocating to death due to the lack of oxygen. Therefore, the atomic bombs were not a new thing, but rather they were another domino that fell on the gameboard of bombing raids. Another incentive to use the bomb involved the time and money spent by the Manhattan Project on the creation of the bomb. The Manhattan Project spent five years and two billion dollars on the atomic bombs. That money could not go to waste
...ve material, and detonators. As a result, the bomb casing was destroyed; most of the explosive material burned up, but a case of four spare detonators and the nuclear capsule were recovered undamaged. Since the components were separated, it was impossible for a nuclear detonation to occur. Had these safety measures not been put in place, the situation could very well have been much worse.
The history of atomic testing begins during the Second World War. The majority of testing during this period was done at the Los Alamos test site in New Mexico. All of the locations where testing was done have several key things that make them good locations for nuclear testing. They are all away from areas of large population density. For example the Nevada Test Site is 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas but has little or no population in the immediate area. They are also in areas where there is little or very deep ground water aquifer...
Contamination from the depleted uranium weaponries and other pollution caused by war is alleged for the rise in congenital birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses (Jamail, 2013).
Partial detonation in the middle of nowhere would be trivial, but even partial detonation would destroy a lot in a big city like Hiroshima with fallout. To not drop it at all would be even more foolish. Imagine you bought $1000 worth of supplies to make a poster for a class final and you set it aside and don’t turn it in at all. That is completely
Headquarters (Robinson). In order to monitor all of the results, the city had to be untouched, meaning the target had to have no signs of previous bombings. Based on these requirements, the designation of Hiroshima for the bombing was not a simple determination. After a target was selected and the weapon was developed, testing was set to begin. On July 16, 1945, the first test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, proved that the bomb was prepared for release onto the Japanese population (Robinson).The calculations revealed the bomb’s maximum blast effect was intended for a target over one mile in radius, meaning the population had to be crowded, making it perfect for urban Hiroshima.
Although nuclear technology can be used for good, it can also be used for destruction. One example of this was the bombing of 2 Japanese cities using the a...
When it comes to the topic of explosions, most people are not as aware of blast overpressure as they are about fragmentation material. Fragmentation material is the items that are thrown though the air at very high speeds from an explosion. The fragmentation is designed to cause injuries to the human body. Most of the time an individual is able to see and hear this material coming through the air. Contrary to fragmentation, blast overpressure is silent and can cause injuries inside the human body that cannot be seen externally. Stephen Wolf explains, “Although most blast-related injuries (eg, fragmentation injuries from improvised explosive devices and standard military explosives) can be managed in a similar manner to typical penetrating or blunt traumatic injuries, injuries caused by the blast pressure wave itself cannot” (406). Imagine ripples in the water, when you place a drop in the center there are waves that move out from the center point of the drop. This is similar to ho...
...ontamination methods and permit training people in radiological safety and decon procedure. When the troops of operation crossroads returned to Pearl Harbor many of them became sick the doctors could not figure out why. Some of them died a slow death from the radiation that they were exposed to during the operation.
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.
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
Waterman, Shaun. "Obama Hits Pause on U.S. Action in Face of Crippling Cyber Strikes from Syria, Iran." Washington Times 28 Aug. 2013. Print. (Source B)
Radiation is one of the most dangerous and easiest way of having health effects. Radiation was first discovered by Roentgen. Hazards are the first things people need to know in order to understand what it can do to your body. It causes many health effects on everyone out in the world. It harms people in the dentistry and field and even in the medical field. Normal people out the world can also be exposed when coming into one of these offices and getting x-rays of some type.
Technological and accidental hazards can be occur without warning and can be both hazardous material incidents and failures at nuclear power plant. In some cases, victims that have been exposed to harmful chemicals or radiation show little to no symptoms until several years later. There are an increasing number of new substances and chemicals being manufactured which has increased the likelihood of a hazardous material spill or release. This also increases the risk to the environment and to the health and safety of a community.