[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

High-level waste (i.e., stuff that emits heavily) can cause radiation sickness. Low-level waste is likely to give you cancer in 20 years or cause you to have FLKs.

AND, any amount of NW can and will render any area that has been comtaminated ECONOMICALLY AND OTHERWISE USELESS. Think NYC, DC, etc.

[No Blue States]

Dirty bomb effects:
A dirty bomb is made of radioactive material attached to conventional explosives.

If the weapon explodes, there is a risk of both direct casualties and illness caused by exposure to radioactive material.

It's hard to imagine any kind of dirty bomb producing the kinds of mass casualties that we saw on September 11

Mark Gwozdecky, International Atomic Energy Agency
A dirty bomb differs from a nuclear bomb in that it does not generate a massive explosion caused by nuclear fission.

Potential sources of material used to make a dirty bomb include radioactive waste from industry and medicine:

Spent rods from nuclear power stations
Radioactive material from hospitals that carry out radiotherapy
Devices used in industry for food irradiation or to check welds in pipelines.
According to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an average of 200 radiation sources used in medicine or industry are stolen, lost or abandoned in America each year.

What are the potential health hazards?

Anyone exposed to extremely high levels of radioactivity is likely to suffer radiation sickness.

The radiation destroys cells it comes into contact with. It is most dangerous when it enters the body by being swallowed, breathed in or entering through an open wound.

At lower levels, radiation is linked with cancer.

These are not weapons of mass destruction, they are potentially a weapon of mass disruption.

"There's limited lethality," he added. "You would have to swallow and breathe in the material before you could become a casualty."