A well-executed “dirty bomb” attack on a U.S. city could expose hundreds of people to potentially lethal amounts of radiation, researchers said yesterday in a Pentagon-funded study that sharply raises estimates of the human toll from such an attack. The study also predicts massive financial losses — perhaps greater than those caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — if a large dirty bomb were set off in the heart of New York or Washington. A dirty bomb uses conventional explosives or other means to spread radiation. “The threat of a radiological attack on the United States is real, and terrorists have a broad palette of [radiological] isotopes to choose from,” says the study by the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University. “It could cause tens to hundreds of fatalities under the right circumstances, and is essentially certain to cause great panic and enormous economic losses.” Full Story
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