DIRTY BOMB

 Disclaimer: Copyright infringement not intended.

Context: In Russia’s latest advocacy campaign over its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has focused on accusations that Kyiv might be planning to use a so-called “dirty bomb” – a conventional explosive device laced with toxic nuclear material.

Details:

• Dirty bombs do not create city-flattening atomic explosion but are designed to spread toxic waste.
• Security experts have worried about them mostly as a form of terrorist weapon to be used on cities to cause havoc among civilians, rather than as a tactical device for use by warring parties in conflict.
• Immediate health impact would probably be limited, since most people in an affected area would be able to escape before experiencing lethal doses of radiation.
• But the economic damage could be massive from having to evacuate urban areas or even abandon whole cities.
• A bomb using radioactive caesium from a misplaced or stolen medical device might require the evacuation of an area of several city blocks, making it unsafe for decades.
• A piece of radioactive cobalt from a food irradiation plant could, if blasted apart in a bomb in New York, contaminate a 380 square mile (1,000 square km) area and potentially make the island of Manhattan uninhabitable.
• Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow’s allegation that Ukraine would intentionally make some of its own territory uninhabitable is absurd, especially at a time when Ukrainian forces are recapturing territory on the battlefield.
• In a joint statement, the United States, Britain and France called the Russian allegations “transparently false” and warned Moscow against using them as a “pretext” for escalation.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-global/what-is-a-dirty-bomb-and-why-is-russia-talking-about-one-now-8229688/