[bvw]

When the suitcase fails to lite the nuclear candle, it is then still an effective dirty bomb ... all it's innards get highly irradiated by the high, yet non-explosive neutron flux and the explosion expels fragments and aerosols that are radiocative.

[bonesmccoy]

You guys keep writing about radiological contamination from an explosive. I'm not very concerned about our ability to contain and handle such problems. While the area would be radioactive for a while, my understanding is that very few isotopes have such extended half-lifes that it represents a long-term problem.

If it were plutonium that would be one thing, but other elements do not have such lengthy half-lives.

[JustPiper]

Don't we have plenty of radiation detectors that are not visible?