DIRTY BOMB

2.Dirty Bomb

• The term 'Dirty Bomb' refers to explosive devices that disperse the radioactive material, such as Uranium, or Plutonium, after being triggered when the conventional explosives denote. It is different from nuclear bombs as it doesn't need highly refined radioactive material.
• Using radioactive materials from hospitals, nuclear power stations, and even research laboratories, it can be made. They can be transported quite easily as well. Moreover, it doesn't create a radiation cloud as in the case of a nuclear bomb. Instead, it scatters the radioactive material over a radius spanning a few hundred meters.
• There is no recorded use of 'dirty bombs. They have, so far, been tested only. They are designed to disperse radioactive material over a certain area. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the dispersal agent/conventional explosion with radioactive material, serving primarily as an area denial device against civilians.
• The aftermath of the use of such an explosive device can be devastating for the area and the clean-up could be highly expensive and time-consuming. It may well be rendered unusable for a long time, depending on the amount of radioactive material used in the bomb.

• Cesium-137
• RDX(Explosive)
• Like Cobalt-60(High-energy gamma emitters)

4.How much damage they can do?

• Dirty bombs do not create city-flattering atomic explosions 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 cesium 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.

5.Response of Ukraine and the west