Dirty Bomb

About Dirty Bomb:

• It is a bomb that contains radioactive material, such as uranium, which is scattered through the air when its conventional explosive detonates.
• It 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. They can also be carried in the back of a vehicle.
• However, as weapons, they are very unreliable.
• For the radioactive material in a dirty bomb to be scattered across its target zone, it has to be reduced to powder form.
• But if the particles are too fine or released into strong winds, they will scatter too widely to do much harm.
• Material used:
  • Cesium-137
  • Cobalt-60 
  • Iridium-192
  • Dynamite 

Source : Times of India

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