OT: Nuclear War???

[Slick]

At the risk of becoming a pain...

There are some reactors that produce fissionable materials. They are known as "breeder reactors". These are the kind that the nuclear capable countries try to prevent other countries from building. They are generally used for making weapons grade material. [For further reading search for Israeli bombing of 2 reactors in Iraq in 1981.] I am not sure what kind of reactors are used in Canada, but I would be surprised if they were breeders. I'd expect them to be a typical pressurized water or heavy water power reactor used for electrical power generation. I'd guess that information is readily available for anyone somewhere on the net.

Also, all reactors generate radioactive waste. Therefore all reactors produce materials that could be used in making a dirty bomb. Radioactively, the highest of this waste is spent fuel. Any rad waste can be used in making a dirty bomb. Unless the most highly radioactive material was used (unlikely), a dirty bomb is more a public panic/disruption weapon than an actual health threat. If low level radioactive material (say rad medical waste used for treating heart attack victims, which is much easier to obtain than spent reactor fuel) is used in a dirty bomb, it will cause minor contamination in a small area but no real health threat. But nobody will want to go into that area until it is cleaned up.

What people are normally oblivious to is that we live in constant fields of radiation. Naturally occurring isotopes exist in the very ground we walk on. Radon is a radioactive gas that comes out of the ground. Concrete contains trace natural uranium and other radioactive nuclides. We are bombarded by cosmic rays from space, and all kinds of radiation from the sun - what do you think gives you that great suntan??? Heck, even your smoke detector in your house has probably somewhere around 1 microCurie of Americium-241. Americium-241 is a decay product of PLUTONIUM-241. Did you know that you have a radioactive decay product of PLUTONIUM-241 in your house; maybe in your kitchen???