[Ian Scott (OP)]

It seems that Plutonium is easy to get and can be used to poison people as in the news. I also read of people placing uranium spheres together to create a nuclear reaction in their hands. They all die of course.

Nuclear  material is lost regularly and reported - how easy would it be for people to make a simple dirty bomb - sub fissionable.

We might not even know as we are not equipped to detect radiation

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[RD]

Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned using Polonium (210), not Plutonium.

[Bored chemist]

It wouldn't be that difficult to produce a "dirty bomb" you could steal a radioactive source from somewhere and spread it about with explosives. However, apart from the panic, it wouldn't be very effective. The last thing I heard was that, for the most part, the authorities would just have to wait for the rain to wash the stuff away.

[rosalind dna]

When the rain washes the dirty bomb stuff that it might contain
would have got into the air but also the drinking water and grass, plants. In fact everything that is normal to our every day stuff.

[Ian Scott (OP)]

yes Rosalind it won't magically disappear as you say. Radiation will hang about for many thousands years and we will eat it through food.

It is likely we will experience dirty bomb attacks soon so having a radiation indicator might be a good idea - say to check out a supermarket or another.

[Ian Scott (OP)]

Further the ingestion aspect shows why an instantaneous radiation detector is needed to test food - an accumulated dose is not very usefull!

Very small amounts of polonium cause death when shawoled - "Plutoniam" sounds so much more super mannish and makes me gooey - no it doesn't

[rosalind dna]

There is nothing macho as you put it Ian when Alexander Litvinenko
literally faded away after he'd been poisoned with POLONIUM 210
also he was a British citizen by the time he died.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko_poisoning

[Ian Scott (OP)]

sorry you misread me