How to make a dirty bomb

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How to make a dirty bomb

• Fissile and non-fissile nuclear materials shipped
  illicitly into the United States pose a serious
  threat to U.S. national security, as does the
  possible existence of clandestine undeclared
  nuclear materials processing facilities.
• Few groups possess the technical expertise and
  sophistication to produce an efficient nuclear
  bomb. However, highly effective weapons of mass
  destruction and radiological dispersion devices
  (RDDs) could be assembled from readily available
  materials.

2

• Terrorist and criminal groups have demonstrated
  the ability to obtain small quantities of weapons
  grade 235U and 239Pu, and 137Cs, 60Co, and 241Am
  are available as medical wastes and in commercial
  irradiators.
• Numerous studies and incidents in which nuclear
  materials have been accidentally released have
  shown the damage that could potentially result if
  a Curie or less of pulverized or aerosolized
  nuclear material were to be released in a crowded
  population center by even a low power
  conventional explosive.

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• In the case of the 1987 incident in Goiânia,
  Brazil, a quantity of powdered 137CsCl from a
  scavenged radioteletherapy machine was
  accidentally released. Although only a few deaths
  resulted, cleanup and decontamination costs
  amounted to approximately 20M and economic
  losses have been estimated to be hundreds of
  millions of dollars.
• Studies have suggested that 1 10 Curies of
  137Cs or 241Am, amounts characteristic of medical
  gauges and oil well surveying sources, released
  and dispersed with a few pounds of TNT in
  downtown Manhattan or Washington, DC might result
  in long term health hazards, immense
  psychological effects, and decontamination and
  cleanup costs possibly in excess of 50B.

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• Muller is correct A dirty bomb attack on this
  scale would result in very few deaths. But it
  would have immense effects nevertheless.
• Note 1 Curie is the amount of material that
  produces 3.7 x 1010 radioactive decays per
  second, equivalent to 1 gram of radium.

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First, recall the different forms of energetic
radiation we have talked about

• X-rays Light with wavelength size of an atom,
  used for medical imaging therapy,
  nondestructive testing (e.g., examining luggage
  at airports, checking weld joints, measuring size
  of heads of lettuce, food irradiation to kill
  germs, etc.).

American Science Engineering
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• Gamma rays (g rays) Light with wavelengths
  factor of 10- perhaps several thousand times
  smaller (and energies correspondingly higher)
  than x-rays, used for testing in places where
  deep penetration is required (e.g., monitoring
  cargos in shipping containers in a harbor).

John Gibbons, chief of clinical physics at Mary
Bird Perkins Cancer Center and an adjunct
professor in the Dept. of Physics Astronomy,
has helped introduce a new treatment for a rare
form of eye cancer, choroidal melanoma, in which
low-dose radiation is applied to the affected
area in an ingenious way Radioactive "seeds"
about 3 millimeters long are placed inside a
solid gold cap, or plaque, that is attached to
the eyeball. Approximately two thousand new cases
of choroidal melanoma are diagnosed in the United
States every year. Gibbons' new treatment
procedure is available through a partnership
between Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center and Our
Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and is
described in the March 25, 2008 issue of the
Baton Rouge Business Report.
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• Alpha particles ionized helium nuclei, very
  lightly penetrating, can be stopped by outer
  layer of skin, dangerous if ingested
• Alpha emitters may be used to treat cancer by
  injecting small amounts directly into the tumor.
• 210Polonium serves as a static eliminator. The
  alpha particles, due to their positive charge,
  attract loose electrons, thus reducing static
  charge.
• Smoke detectors use the alphas from 241Americium
  to produce an electric current in a small gap.
  When smoke particles enter the device, they
  interrupt the current and set off the alarm.

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• Beta particles (electrons) Travel several feet
  in air
• Medical treatments (131Iodine is absorbed by
  thyroid, used to treat thyroid disorders)
• Phosphorus-32 is used in molecular biology and
  genetics research.
• 90Strontium and tritium (3H) are used as
  radioactive tracers (e.g., tracing ground water,
  sources of pollutants).
• Tritium is used for luminous dials, gauges and
  wrist watches.
• 14Carbon is used in radioactive dating.
• Beta emitters are used to measure thickness of
  very thin materials.

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• Cosmic rays

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Using penetrating cosmic rays to search for
hidden chambers in pyramids.

• Neutrinos Extremely penetrating
• Neutrinos that penetrate the Earth are used to
  study particle physics effects and measure the
  rate of nuclear reactions in the Suns core

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137Cs-accident, Goiânia, Brazil September 13, 1987
Goiânia
Rio de Janeiro
Angra NPP
Sao Paulo
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Goiânia, Brazil incident Sept.
1987(Description from Global Oneness, IAEA,
SRP-UK)
In 1984, a hospital was abandoned, leaving behind
a radioactive cesium chloride source from a
radiotherapy machine. Source was encased in a
lead-steel shield with an iridium window. On
Sept. 13, 1987, two scavengers found the source,
broke the window, and saw the deep blue light
caused by the fluorescence of the chloride salt
illuminated by the cesium gamma rays. They sold
the object to a junkyard dealer who intended to
make a ring for his wife out of the beautiful
blue material.
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Goiânia Source Data, 9/87

• Activity 50.9 TBq (1375 Ci)
• Half life 30 years
• Output 4.56 Gy h-1 at 1 m
• Origins Probably Oak Ridge
• Form Compacted CsCl
• 31 cm3
• 93 g
• International capsule

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Using penetrating cosmic rays to search for
hidden chambers in pyramids.

• Two initial scavengers were severely irradiated.
  One had his arm amputated.
• Two junkyard workers who hammered open the lead
  casing died of radiation poisoning.
• Junkyard owners brother scraped dust off the
  rod, spreading some of it on the floor of his
  house. His six-year-old daughter later ate dust
  while sitting on the floor, absorbing some of the
  radioactive material. She died a month later and
  was buried in a lead coffin, sealed with
  concrete.
• Several people who visited the home came into
  contact with the dust and spread it around the
  local neighborhood and to other towns nearby.
• Another brother of the junkyard owner used the
  dust to paint a blue cross on his skin. He also
  contaminated the animals at his farm, several of
  which died.

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The junkyard owner's wife was the first to notice
that many people around her had become severely
sick all at the same time. On September 28 (15
days after the item was found), she took the
canister to a hospital, the physician there
suspected that it was radioactive, and two local
physicists confirmed its radioactivity. She died
a month later from the effects of the radiation,
though she may have saved the lives of many
others by finally disposing of the
innocent-looking but dangerous object.
About 100,000 people were examined for
radioactive contamination 244 were found to have
significant levels of radioactive material in
their body. It is unclear how many were exposed
to the radiation itself. Of those contaminated,
ten people needed intensive care for radiation
poisoning. It seems reasonable to assume that
more people died than are clearly accounted for.
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• 85 houses decontaminated
• 7 houses demolished

• 200 people evacuated
• Top soil removed

38042
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Environmental monitoring

• Soil
• Vegetation
• River
• Public water supply
• Groundwater
• Rainwater
• Air

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Radiological triage
112 000 persons monitored 249 identified
contaminated 120 only clothing and shoe
contamination 129 internal contamination 50
subjected to direct medical surveillance
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Environmental aspects of 137Cs accident in
Goiania

• Initial surveys conducted in suspect homes and
  work areas
• 67 km2 urban area of Goiania city monitored using
  helicopter to identify all hotspots (few mGy/hr
  to gt2 Gy/hr)
• 2000 m2 contaminated
• Several household pets (cats and dogs) and some
  livestock (pigs) slaughtered
• Air and water samples negative
• 3000 m3 contaminated (radioactive) material
  collected, 50.6 TBq 137Cs recovered lt0.37 TBq
  remained

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Medical aspects
250 persons exposed
50 persons WB exposure or local radiation injury
28 local radiation injury
14 bone marrow depression
8 ARS
4 died
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Radiation skin injuries

• Radiation induced skin injuries caused by gamma
  and beta radiations observed in 28 who had
  handled source housing or fragments of source
• 12 of the 28 victims had multiple injuries
  affecting predominantly upper limbs
• Injuries did not heal completely and relapsed in
  8 patients, who then required surgical
  debridement, amputation of digital extremities
  and plastic skin grafts
• In 1997 one severely irradiated patient developed
  a malignant skin lesion on lower limbs which was
  surgically excised

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Medical follow-up of Goiania accident victims

• Status of skin injuries after initial healing
• 8/28 patients required surgery in 1989, and 6/28
  in 1990
• One patient required repeated surgery in 1991,
  92, 93
• Skin lesions tended to be affected by stress
• Sperm count in males now normal - 2 exposed in
  teenage males have fathered healthy children
• Follow-up of children
• - 7 exposed in utero have no abnormalities
• 10 conceived post-accident born with no
  abnormalities

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Psychological and social follow-up of Goiania
accident victims

• Psychological alterations
• increase in psychosomatic disorders
• fear of leukaemia and early death
• increased use of alcohol and drugs
• lack of self-confidence
• Discrimination
• by others due to fear
• self-discrimination from social contact
• Stigmatization
• victims blamed for accident by many citizens

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Other potential radioactive sources

• 90Strontium used to power remote lighthouses in
  Soviet Union. In areas without electricity,
  90Sr-powerd radio thermoelectric generators
  produced heat to power generators. Reliable, long
  lived, did not need to be inspected and not all
  accounted for.
• Commercial devices used to measure ground water
  at construction sites, inspect welds, etc.
• Medical wastes, medical devices.

Imagine the effects of a stolen source,
pulverized into a powder, dispersed by a
conventional explosive in downtown Washington or
Manhattan.
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• In the case of the 1987 incident in Goiânia,
  Brazil, a quantity of powdered 137CsCl from a
  scavenged radioteletherapy machine was
  accidentally released. Although only a few deaths
  resulted, cleanup and decontamination costs
  amounted to approximately 20M and economic
  losses have been estimated to be hundreds of
  millions of dollars.
• Studies have suggested that 1 10 Curies of
  137Cs or 241Am, amounts characteristic of medical
  gauges and oil well surveying sources, released
  and dispersed with a few pounds of TNT in
  downtown Manhattan or Washington, DC might result
  in long term health hazards, immense
  psychological effects, and decontamination and
  cleanup costs possibly in excess of 50B.

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What do black holes have to do with dirty bombs?
GLAST, NASA spacecraft now renamed Fermi,
launched July, 2008 LSU involved in analyzing
Fermi data

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CASTER a Beyond Einstein Black Hole Finder
Probe concept designed to cover energy range 10 -
600 keV with minute of arc angular resolution and
good energy resolution using scintillator-based
techniques
Central detector uses LaBr3Ce with mm-scale
position resolution ? gt 10,000 electronics
channels Need for low-cost, low-power, reliable
electronics, mechanical systems engineering,
software and data acquisition on large scale
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• A high sensitivity, high resolution x-ray / gamma
  ray astronomy detector on a balloon or satellite
  platform looks up into the sky. Turn CASTER on
  its side, mount it on a truck on a dockside, and
  it is an ideal device for detecting shielded
  contraband cargos of nuclear material being
  smuggled into a harbor or across a remote border
  entry point.

• Long Range Imager coded aperture schematic.

LRI mounted in its modified Ford F650.
LaBr3 detector development work currently funded
by DOE National Nuclear Security Administration.