[FUSSBALL]

What exactly is a "dirty bomb?"

[DrCarl]

>What exactly is a "dirty bomb?"

Nuclear waste material wrapped in heavy explosives which, when detonated, will blow the waste material all over the place, killing thousands in a populated area like Manhattan.

It will also render a large piece of ground useless for a long time to come.

[jpsb]

A real "dirty bomb" is a fission (atomic) bomb those outer case is made of fissional material (like enriched U). Dirty bombs (there is no clean fission or fussion bomb) are fission/fission bombs. The fisrt reaction (always dirty) is the core and then if fissionable material is used in the out case, a second reaction occurs when the outter cast starts to react. Now if the outter case is depleted U then the bomb is called a "clean bomb) (hahahaha) but if it is enreiched U it is called a dirty bomb. You get a bigger bang for your buck with a dirty bomb.

cheers

[semaj]

Nuclear bombs are tuned to produce a certain explosive force or "yield". Along with the explosive force is also produced radioactive particles, both short-lived and long-lived (alpha and beta) particles. Dirty bombs produce more of the long-lived particles that hang around for approx. 20,000 years before breaking down into less radioactive particles (half-life). A Neutron bomb could be considered a clean bomb in that it produces a a high volume of short-lived radiation in the form of neutron particles with a smaller explosive yield.

The "OTHER" dirty bomb is a simple bomb made of conventional explosives wrapped with spent radiological material. Upon detonation this material is dispersed over an area that is now effectively contaminated with toxic fallout without the force of a nuclear explosion.