[Timesink]

It's more plausible in that it would be far easier to obtain and build. But it is still a stupid idea for a weapon. If you have dirty radioactive materials, you just go spread them around by hand. Using a bomb is stupid because it isn't particularly targetted, wasting you material and calling attention to the event.

And nobody discovers you've done it until everyone in town starts coming down with rare forms of cancer 30 years later. Not really the best way to terrorize a particular population.

[jlogajan]

And nobody discovers you've done it until everyone in town starts coming down with rare forms of cancer 30 years later. Not really the best way to terrorize a particular population.

Well, I didn't mean that stealthy. Obviously you'd spread it then call in the tip.

But that does highlight the general uselessness of a dirty bomb. The chemical blast will kill more people than the dirty radioactive dust -- which will be hosed down, etc, harming maybe only a few initial people. So all the resource effort to acquire, smuggle and explode the device will net only a few extra casualties.

It's not really effective unless you have truck loads of the stuff ready to be delivered and used around the nation. A one-shot with a few casualties really isn't going to strike much terror either.