Fun in the modern age

Technology Review: How (not) to Build a Dirty Bomb

When I call Matthew Bunn, of the Nuclear Threat Initiative think tank in Washington, he says he is a little worried about this idea.

"One does not want to provide a cookbook for terrorists," he says. Nonetheless, he recommends that I try Russia.

"If I was building a dirty bomb," he says, "that's what I would do. In the nuclear age, they were building nuclear airplanes and nuclear rocket-ships. They were digging canals using nuclear bombs. There was a great deal of nuclear enthusiasm, and now loads of these big, hulking, nasty radioactive sources are scattered around all over. Those are the absolute worst. And loads are still missing in breakaway republics."

Entertaining reading, of a sorts.