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I have added all the top stories from past TMs to the offsite index:

http://www.ianlivingston.com/threatmatrix/top/
http://www.ianlivingston.com/threatmatrix/top/1-19.htm

Second link above should read:

http://www.ianlivingston.com/threatmatrix/top/1-20.htm

Excellent work Ian, I sure do appreciate all the effort you have put into organizing TM.

Manhattan Nuclear Nightmare
What if New York City was dirty bombed? We'll pop some pills and see the "walking dead." New Scientist.

Nuclear nightmare in Manhattan
18 March 2006 • Bruce Goldman

A TRUCK pulls up in front of New York City's Grand Central Station, one of the most densely crowded spots in the world. It is a typical weekday afternoon, with over half a million people in the immediate area, working, shopping or just passing through. A few moments later the driver makes his delivery: a 10-kiloton atomic explosion.

Almost instantly, an electromagnetic pulse knocks out all electronics within a radius of 4 kilometres. The shock wave levels every building within a half-kilometre, killing everyone inside, and severely damages virtually all buildings for a kilometre in every direction. Detonation temperatures of millions of degrees ignite a firestorm that rapidly engulfs the area, generating winds of 600 kilometres an hour.

Within seconds, the blast, heat and direct exposure to radiation have killed several hundred thousand people. Perhaps they are the lucky ones. What follows is, if anything, even worse.

The explosion scoops out a crater 20 metres across and 10 metres deep, sending thousands of tonnes of highly radioactive debris into the air as a cloud of dust. What goes up must come down, and radioactive detritus starts piling up.

Within the first hour, enough fallout settles to fatally irradiate tens of thousands of people in the immediate area. Even 20 kilometres downwind, the majority of people caught in the path of the plume are exposed to life-threatening levels of radioactivity. Anyone less than 30 kilometres downwind will need to get out or find shelter, fast. For 150 kilometres or more downwind of the blast, dangerous amounts of fallout continue to drizzle down.

more:

http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=35501_0_24_0_C

This is excellent, thank you