What are dirty bombs and why are they not used in any army in the world?

The Russian government condemned the possibility of Ukraine usingdirty bombaccuse Russia of using weapons of mass destruction on its own soil and provoke a harsh response from the West, an accusation that Kyiv denies and that Paris, Washington and London consider a “cause for escalation” of the Russian military.

The possible use of dirty bombs, which to date has not been proven in any conflict, is of great concern to the population, since they contain radioactive elements, but, according to experts, their lethality is not much higher than that of conventional weapons.

What is a dirty bomb?

Also known as a radiological weapon, dirty bomb It is a conventional explosive, such as dynamite, enriched with radioactive material that is released when the explosive detonates under a doctrine of use similar to that of chemical weapons.

Despite the content radioactive elements, dirty bombs they are not atomic weapons that require a complex fusion reaction, and their range and the damage they can cause are only a fraction of what atomic weapons are capable of.

In the case of dirty bombs, a radioactive element is unlikely to directly increase lethality. explosivebut theoretically this can lead to contamination of the affected area, which will increase the impact attack with conventional weapons.

However, the dispersion caused by the explosive creates a “dilution” effect. pollutant in the environmentby drastically reducing the radioactive dose that would be received by potential victims.

For this reason beyond their possible destructive impactExperts note the ability of these weapons to cause alarm among the population.

never used in combat

Currently, not a single army in the world has in its arsenal dirty bombsaccording to a study published in 2021 by the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies (IEEE) of the Spanish Ministry of Defense indicating that only certain terrorist groups, mainly radical Islamists and US supremacists, are considering using it.

During the Korean War (1950-1953), the US considered using it and abandoned it, according to the IEEE report, but it was Saddam Hussein who in the 1980s explored the possibility of its inclusion in the regular army in order to circumvent the prohibitions. nuclear weapon. He eventually abandoned the project as well.

According to scientists from UNIraq would have rehearsed for the 1987 bombing radiological bombdismissed due to low mortality.

As the next decade rolled around, no army in the world considered using dirty bombs in combat due to their limited effectiveness and difficult handling, in addition to international prohibitions that limited their possible use to the realm of terrorist groups.

In November 1995, Chechen leader Shamil Basayev announced that there was a radioactive container in Moscow’s Izmailovo park. The container contained caesium-137, and the level of its radiation exceeded the norm by a hundred times, although the Russian authorities ruled out that it could seriously threaten people’s health.

However, military experts pointed out that its explosion in a certain place and in meteorological conditions that allow dispersal of fissile materials could be a “significant source of Nuclear pollution”.

Since then, several attempts by terrorist groups to develop dirty bombs and there is no record of any such attack.

Already in 2004, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated that “almost all countries” have the material to create “dirty bomb”and assured that more than a hundred countries have “inadequate” monitoring and control programs to prevent and detect the theft of radioactive materials.”

An atomic organism that depends on UNurged that this control be considered a “priority”.

EFE