[extropy-chat] Suitcase nukes (was: let's say)

[Mike Lorrey]

Industry doesn't disperse highly concentrated plutonium. The radiation
from plutonium is of such high energy that it quickly destroys lung
tissue when inhaled, leaving that which survives to develop cancer.

Plutonium is a much different animal than depleted uranium (or even
undepleted).

--- "J. Andrew Rogers" <andrew at ceruleansystems.com> wrote:
> Spike wrote: 
> > Terrorists might choose to use the fission elements 
> > to make a dirty bomb we could suppose, perhaps even
> > using a subway to spread radioactive material.  Subways 
> > might be a technological dead end, for they appear
> > inherently undefendable against this sort of thing.
> 
> 
> I don't consider "dirty bombs" a real threat, so this type of thing
> does
> not concern me to any great extent.  Dirty bombs are primarily a
> psychological weapon, targeting the same irrational response that
> makes
> it politically impossible to build nuclear power plants.
> 
> What's a few kilograms of radioactive material scattered to the four
> winds, when thousands of metric tons of the same materials are
> scattered
> to the four winds near population centers by industry?  This is the
> same
> perceptual asymmetry that makes the depleted uranium indignation so
> absurd.  A few tons of DU in the desert is an outrage, dumping a few
> THOUSAND tons of *un*-depleted uranium (and worse, thorium) next to
> an
> American city is not worthy of mention.  Fear and outrage is very
> selective when it comes to anything nuclear.
> 
> 
> j. andrew rogers
> 
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Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com

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