CHAPTER 1. CRIME AND WARS (Part 32)

How to Make a Dirty Bomb

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The following is largely excerpted from Chapter 1 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:

Jon Ronson of The Guardian was commissioned in July 2002 to purchase materials to make a nuclear weapon, but was admonished to be careful with the expenses. He couldn’t have gone to “How to Build a Nuclear Bomb and Other Weapons,” because Frank Barnaby did not publish that book until 2004.

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Ronson very quickly found that The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists indicating it could take billions of dollars was probably true. So Ronson set out just to make a dirty bomb—typical terrorist weapon laced with radioactive material. No, he couldn’t have accessed the Al Qaeda website on the subject, containing 80 pages of detail, because that manual was not made available until 2005. Russia seemed to be the best place to secure a supply, but some simple intelligence showed this was just too scary, so he ended up calling the Nuclear Security Administration in Las Vegas, where Darwin Morgan told him that U.S. businesses have misplaced some 1,500 pieces of radioactive equipment, especially density gauges, because they are commonly used by road building crews. But securing one would be a problem.

At this point he had come to the conclusion that actually killing a victim through radiation was not necessary, for the mere detection of any sort of radiation would discombobulate the citizenry. So, perhaps the internet? Ronson asks Jeeves, which sends him to eBay, which had an ongoing uranium auction: 22 grams of U-238 now going for $18.41, but useless as an A-bomb material. His expert contact said that was not frightening enough, so on to Cobalt-60 from food processing plants, which are mostly poorly guarded. Al Qaeda, incidentally, recommends radium. At this point, his expert stops giving him information, so he came to the conclusion that a terrorist posing as a Guardian reporter might someday be able do better than he. Ronson’s article is worth a read.

There is a second type of dirty bomb, a biological one. Al Qaeda actually has a website on how to build such a bomb. Posted on October 6, 2005, the forum, titled Al Firdaws, or Paradise, provides lessons, and more.

To be operationally feasible, the biological weapon of mass destruction (WOMD) will probably not be a bomb. Other than actually gaining access to anthrax, botulinum toxin, ricin, smallpox, tularemia, plague and viral hemorrhagic fevers (these are the Category A BWOMD, while B's include Q fever and C's hantavirus) a second important step will be the delivery system. The U.S. Post Office has been used with devastating results, but, some means of aerosolization and dissemination in the field to maximize breathing the biological agent is also known as germ warfare.

So making a dirty bomb is not a particularly difficult challenge. Why such a device has not been exploded in America defies all logic.
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As would be expected, the Dow Jones Industrials saw some correction, as there was a drop of 116 to 7660. World markets were mixed, but mostly up. Crude oil dropped 35 cents to $53.54/barrel. Gold sunk $23/toz to $930.
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President Barack Obama, who appears daily now at some function for a talk of some kind, gave a full press conference tonight to sell his $3.6 trillion budget proposal. Republicans provided their usual histrionics in response, but even key Democratic senators seem to now be recoiling from the resultant projected budget deficit.
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As if Madagascar is not having enough troubles, Tropical Cyclone Izilda at 40 MPH popped up in the West, but seems to be moving towards Africa. Tropical Cyclone Jasper at 50 MPH has appeared far East of Australia and is moving further east.

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Cold fusion is getting a little more respect.

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