Posted on 04/15/2010 5:34:29 PM PDT by Candor7
While the White House was engaged in hosting a Nuclear Security Summit in Washington D.C., a major nuclear incident occurred in India that escaped the attention of the international press.Five people suffering from serious radiological burns were hospitalized in West New Delhi this week from contact with nuclear material in a Delhi scrap market.
The material has been identified as Cobalt-60 which may be used for making a dirty bomb.
Indian police sectioned off the 200 market stores in the thickly populated city of 14 million and sealed nearby establishments within a one-kilometer radius.
Scrap dealer Deepak Jain and his helpers lost consciousness when they came into contact with an irradiated piece of scrap metal. A white fluid oozed out, causing the burns. Jain's hair fell out and within minutes his skin turned black. His workers immediately manifested signs of radiological poisoning, including severe nausea and discoloration of the skin.
With the opening of the summit on Monday came word that Mr. Jain had died and the chance of recovery for the four workers remained slim.
Nuclear scientists from the Baba Atomic Research Center and Narora Atomic Power Plant identified the material and have been working around the clock to locate its source.
German chancellor Angela Merkel asked to talk with President Obama about the dirty bomb terrorist threat when they met on Tuesday.
Cobalt-60 is used in radiotherapy for treating cancer and welding steel.
A 2009 U.S. report recommended monitoring this material along with Caesium-137, Strontium-90 and Plutonium to effectively counter nuclear terrorism.
Unlike a nuclear bomb, a dirty bomb does not involve nuclear fission and can be used like a conventional weapon.
Ahead of the Washington conference, U.S. president Barack Obama called nuclear terror "the single biggest threat to U.S. security, short term, medium and long-term."
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Paul L. Williams is the author of The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World, The Al Qaeda Connection, and other best-selling books. He is a frequent guest on such national news networks as ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, MSNBC, and NPR. Visit his website at http://thelastcrusade.org.
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (2)
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Again, where is the major media? Coverage of events such as these should supercede the bombast and hot air that came from President Obama at his nuclear disarmament summit.
posted by : pat hopkins Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 10:44 AM
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If true, this story is huge. It certainly demonstrates the extraodinary danger of loose nuclear material. There needs to be mainstream media all over this story for further investigation. Steven Emerson Executive Director The Investigative Project on Terrorism.
posted by : Steven Emerson Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 07:49 PM
Ping
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Misleading headline. Junk yard workers find radioactive junk. Not an attack.
I recall a similar incident a few years ago in one of the former Soviet republics. Someone found a device abandoned beside a road, and it turned out to be a highly radioactive heater of some sort that was hot enough to kill. I don’t think we ever got an accounting of where that came from either.
But this was not a “Dirty nuke attack” as the headline claims. Speculating what the material might have been used for is just that, speculation; and inflammatory speculation at that. While this is news worthy, it is not a terrorist incident.
I think its a little overdone to call this an attack. This sort of thing has happened before. There was a similar case in Brazil some years ago. Highly radioactive metal has turned up in Europe with shipments from China. We’ve also had a couple of incidents of radioactive medical waste coming into Michigan from Canada.
Don’t quite know what to make of this. Is this a case of someone inside India’s nuke infrastructure trying to make a quick buck by selling material? Epic fail on someone trying to make a bomb? An actual dirty nuke attack?
article from India:
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_police-in-dark-over-origin-of-cobalt-60-in-delhi_1370189
This may have been an accident. Somebody was careless about disposing nuclear materials, or someone stole it and abandoned it. But this is certainly more than the usual story of something mildly radioactive. And I’m surprised that the media haven’t picked it up, since if it’s an accident it’s certainly an accident that shouldn’t have happened.
yep...and that wasn’t a “dirty nuke” either...
Thats the point. If its in junk yards, how many terrorists have it in a bomb which is now on its way to Washington DC?
Pretty drastic and rapid physical effects. THey didn’t tell all either. SOme of its Obalt 60, the other was called “the substance”, maybe a white liquid.The other material remains unreported but identified y scientists. What do you think it is?
Whatever it was put a man down within a few minutes.
This is not “hysteria.” It is accurate and needed reporting.
The headline is exactly as appears in the original article.
And how do you know it was not an attack? Know much about terrorism?
Lookin to get a mod job eh? LOL.
You don't know that. It should be treated as such. Its the ultimate terrorist weapo. Just get a lead lined trung and dunp items in various places and see who gets it.
Lovely . Made for terrorists, no explosion, no big hoopla, just devastating rapid death.
How do you know it wasn’t an attack? Your logic as we wage war in international terror is mind boggling .
The perfect terrorist attack is one that does not even look like one. You are a perfect terrorist foil.
What an awful way to go : (
If Steve Emerson thinks this is important then i take it seriously. He knows the subject.
It is a safe bet that Mother Theresa or her nuns had nothing to do with this.
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