The reported foiling of a “dirty bomb” plot by UK intelligence agencies has left experts divided over the likelihood that the chemical cited, osmium tetroxide, would be a weapon of choice for terrorists. The alleged plot to attack the UK, revealed by unnamed sources, is said to have been discovered after the interception of emails and phone calls referring to osmium tetroxide by UK agencies working with the US National Security Agency. While the content of those communications has not been made public, the suggestion is that adding the toxic chemical to a conventional explosive device would increase the harm it caused on detonation by poisoning people in the vicinity. “But the question really is ‘what happens if it is used in a bomb?’,” says Alastair Hay, an environmental toxicologist and a chemical weapons expert at Leeds University, UK. Full Story
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