It's the word of the moment, the latest entry in a horrible dictionary that since last February unfortunately we are learning more and more. Last Sunday the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has told his counterparts in Britain, the United States, Turkey and France that Ukraine plans to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb on its territory as part of a plan to discredit Russia.
Although it was quickly dismissed by NATO ministers as a twisted attempt to break the Western Front (or even the staging of a false flag attack to justify another Russian offensive), the accusation raises the question: what is a bomb dirty and how dangerous is it?
Differences between atomic bomb and dirty bomb
Essentially, a dirty bomb is a way to spread radioactive material across a large area. While an atomic bomb triggers a nuclear chain reaction to release massive amounts of energy in an instant and radioactive fallout as a byproduct, the dirty bomb uses a conventional explosive to disperse a cloud of radioactive dust and contaminate a target area.
A long-standing horror, because the idea wasn't born yesterday. As is often the case, science fiction predicts (or perhaps inspires) the future. Robert A. Heinlein anticipated the dirty bomb in his 1941 science fiction short story “Unsatisfactory solution”, in which a US Army general develops a way to spread radioisotope dust over Europe to end World War II.
A few years later, science fiction became a reality.
How they “soiled” the bomb
In the immediate post-war period, the gentle nuclear powers toyed with the idea of enclosing materials such as cobalt and iodine in a nuclear warhead to produce even more radioactive fallout. From that wickedly ambitious idea, however, we came to a toxic but decidedly simpler and cheaper alternative. And this is not good news.
A dirty bomb is so simple to make that anyone could build one. All you need is TNT, appropriate detonating and fusing devices, and a container filled with a dangerous radioisotope: cesium-137 for example.
And radioisotopes are very common in the world. They are used in medicine, industry, science, food preservation, agriculture and many other fields. It's one reason why governments place heavy restrictions on the free trade of these isotopes and monitor them closely.
There is not only the risk of military use, but also that of an accident. In Brazil, in 1987, a pair of thieves broke into an abandoned clinic and stole a teletherapy capsule: the thieves were unaware that it contained caesium-137 powder. Result? 249 people contaminated, 20 seriously, and five dead.
Dirty bomb: has it exploded in the past?
There have only been two past attempts to detonate a dirty bomb, in 1995 and 1998 by a Chechen separatist group. Neither, in the end, exploded.
What would happen if that happened? It depends on many factors. The isotopes used, the target, the type of surrounding territory and the number of people in the area. In any case, opinions on the matter are divided.
Mini disclaimer: the now almost inextricable intertwining between media and politics makes it difficult to collect sufficiently reliable opinions, so I'm posting them as I found them.
The US Department of Energy, for example, has led a series of simulations dirty bomb attack and concluded that such a device is largely useless as a weapon intended to achieve a military objective or even to cause death and damage. It would cause the deaths of only a few people (and only from the explosion), and would produce as much of an increased cancer risk as two full-body CT scans.
I frankly have my doubts
The target area of a dirty bomb must be contaminated by radioactive dust: a difficult and very expensive task that could require billions of euros and decades.
The physical, social, psychological, economic impact of such an event is gigantic, no one dares to minimize it.
The "normalization" of nuclear and radioactive dangers certainly has a strategic function, that of combating panic among the population. In some ways it's right. But for this very reason a dirty bomb must be considered an abominable weapon.
What to do if a dirty bomb explodes?
I can't believe I wrote this paragraph. According to the CDC, Center for Disease Control USA, if you are outdoors when a dirty bomb explodes the best thing to do is cover your mouth and nose with a cloth to avoid breathing the dust, avoid touching anything and entering a building with intact windows, doors and walls. Once inside, remove your outer clothing and close them in a plastic bag: they are no longer usable and must be disposed of. Finally, wash your body and hair thoroughly with soap and water.
Little Apocalypse lessons, hoping that the reference to the dirty bomb is only part of this absurd chess game that has already cost many, too many lives.
