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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: pgerassi who wrote (130915)1/29/2001 10:30:45 AM
From: combjelly  Read Replies (1) of 1571314
 
"a suitcase bomb while relatively safe to the carrier, can be detected at very long ranges (in the dozens of km). "

Are you sure of this? Of the four detectible particles generally emitted, only the gamma has the characteristics you name, being a photon with a bad attitude. Now Plutonium-239, the stuff in weapons, is a very weak gamma emitter, it mostly emits neutrons and alpha, with some beta. Now true, the neutrons are harder to shield than the alpha or beta, but can still be done, especially with certain plastics. Since a nuclear weapon is going to emit radiation spherically with no bias in any particular direction, to detect a small weapon even 10 km. away would mean that the detector would be on a sphere some 1.25 * 10^9 meters in area. Given the weak gamma emissions from a device, and the degree that air absorbs gamma, I would be dubious if the detector would pick up even a single gamma particle. Detection from orbit would be even less likely.

Check this like for plutonium info

ieer.org
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