Discussion: The Likelyhood of Dirty Bombs

[kota1342000]

Originally Posted by oldschoolgm

I also like what you have to say about the Bio/Chem question too Kota, and that is also a thought, though without a decent lab, I would imagine it would be harder to do a bio/chem bomb than it would be a nuclear one.

True, but a decent lab for building or manufacturing biological weapons isnt really that hard. Ever find a "science experiment" in your fridge? "WTF WAS THIS??? I WAS GOING TO EAT THIS??? AND WHATS THIS GREENISH FUR ON IT?!?" Same principle. Weaponizing anything you grow is typically the toughest part. Or it can be as simple and brutal as throwing something dead in a community water supply.
But youre right about chemical weapons. Even the out in the woods/improvised lab would work but one screw up and you may not have to worry about it anymore. Might be difficult to justify unless you characters or NPCs really knew what they were doing.

Also real quick, there seems to be a misconception of what a "dirty bomb" is. Perfectly reasonable, I taught this to lots of students.
Dirty Bombs or RDDs are simply radioactive material wrapped around and explosive. The only thing the explosive does is scatter the material all over the place, and in some cases it isnt really that effective of a weapon; Helbent and Paul are right on the money with the psychological effect. A common thought that enters into the mind is a "blue flash" kind of explosion or a "miniature nuclear blast"...neither of which happen with an RDD. The blue flash actually comes from criticality incidents (most of these during manufacture of fissile material for nuclear weapons) and for a miniature nuclear blast you would need to build a nuclear weapon as usual...just much less fissile material in the core.

But the discussion here is making me revise my initial thoughts about the value of an RDD. If you could find sufficiently active material, especially something difficult to work with and tough to clean up, I can see that being a potent weapon in the hands of players or NPCs without scruples.