From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!leichter Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Re: "Re: Cosmos A-Bomb" Article-I.D.: yale-com.710 Posted: Sat Jan 22 10:45:20 1983 Received: Mon Jan 24 03:57:13 1983 References: duke.2934 As several people have pointed out, the use of the word "radioactive" would probably be enough to cause a panic if a terrorist group claimed to have added such material to a water supply, for example. This is true, and it's exactly because of such unreasoning reactions that it's important to look at the reality. People have become so irrational on this subject that they are ready for panics - or witchhunts. Consider that radio- active materials OTHER than those useful for making bombs are actually quite easily available. For example, Cobalt-60 is widely used as a gamma-ray source in industry & medicine. Any terrorist group that wished could easily steall \\\steal it in large quantities. As a powerful gamma-ray emitter, it would actually be much more dangerous than some uranium or even plutonium. Given this inevitable vulnerability, it's essential that we try to explain to people who haven't looked at it what the actual dangers actually are and are not, and where our safety comes from, such as it is. -- Jerry decvax!yale-comix!leichter