Recently, top Russian officials phoned their Western counterparts to tell them Moscow suspected Kyiv of planning to use a so-called dirty bomb.
- Russia has made similar claims to the United Nations Security Council and said using a dirty bomb would be an act of nuclear terrorism.
About a Dirty Bomb
- A dirty bomb is a bomb that contains radioactive material, such as uranium, which is scattered through the air when its conventional explosive detonates.
- It is not a nuclear bomb. The blast from a dirty bomb is generated by conventional explosives. The blast from a nuclear weapon is generated by a nuclear reaction, such as the atomic bombs the US dropped on Japan in World War II.
- Dirty bomb doesn’t need to contain highly refined radioactive material, as is used in a nuclear bomb. Instead, it could use radioactive materials from hospitals, nuclear power stations or research laboratories.
- This makes them much cheaper and quicker to make than nuclear weapons.
- Since radioactive fallout can cause serious illnesses, such as cancer, such a bomb would cause panic among the targeted population.
- A wide area around the blast zone would also have to be evacuated for decontamination, or abandoned completely.
- It would make the whole area of the city uninhabitable for decades.
WAs a dirty bomb every used?
- In 1996, rebels from Chechnya planted a bomb containing dynamite and caesium-137 in Moscow’s Izmailovo Park. But they failed to detonate it. The caesium had been extracted from cancer-treatment equipment.
- In 1998, Chechnya’s intelligence service found and defused a dirty bomb that had been placed near a railway line in Chechnya.
