Ukrainians have reason to fear the coming weeks. Moscow claimed on Sunday October 23 that kyiv forces were preparing a dirty bomb, raising fears in the West that the weapon would be used by the Russians in order to justify further escalation in the war in Ukraine, and perhaps even the use of the atomic weapon.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, among other things, that ” if Russia calls and says that Ukraine is preparing something, it means that it has already prepared all this”.
Radiological dispersal device
The dirty bomb, also called a “radiological dispersal device” (RDD), is based in part on the same principle as its nuclear equivalent. It is made up of a mixture of conventional explosives, such as dynamite, and radioactive elements. Among these, there is plutonium 238 or polonium 210, already used to poison Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian secret agent exiled in the United Kingdom.
The dirty bomb does not generate a nuclear reaction and therefore does not have the destructive potential of the nuclear weapon at all. On the other hand, it disperses fine radioactive particles with the aim of contaminating the population.
If the risk is real, only people close to the site of the explosion are likely to ingest doses large enough to cause serious illness in the short term. As with conventional bombs, it is the conventional explosion that constitutes the most immediate danger.
Dirty bomb and salty bomb
More than destruction or strategic effectiveness, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission believes that “contamination and anxiety are the main objectives” of a dirty bomb. Indeed, RCDs are capable of contaminating an area for months. Hitting a strategic area can thus hamper the operations of enemy soldiers. Above all, a dirty bomb, which strikes indiscriminately, will instill panic in the population and paralyze the targeted society in a given region.
The dirty bomb should not be confused with the “salt bomb”, which combines the characteristics of a DDR and an atomic weapon. Instead of a conventional explosive like dynamite, a nuclear reaction causes the salt bomb to detonate, which is additionally constructed to maximize the dispersal of radioactive material, much like a dirty bomb.