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The helicopter is crisscrossing the city, like a lawn mower covering a lawn, flying as low as just 150 feet off the ground. CNN spotted it northwest of downtown on Monday, flying low over the buildings, back and forth, east to west. The purpose: to produce a baseline scan of the natural radiological readings in the capital. Once the map is done, any new anomalies - or suspicious radioactive activity - could be more easily detected.
If authorities ever need to find stolen radioactive material in the capital or a dirty bomb, they would want to be able to separate out any new spikes in the radioactivity readings. "If sometime in the future you have a reason to be looking for something radiological, it's very necessary to have the original background so you don't chase a high-radiation area that's part of the background," said Joseph Krol of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, which is conducting the work. "If there was some type of threat," he said, "we would do the aerial survey first." Then, officers with sensors would go on foot to the location where an anomaly was found. A team could be deployed anywhere in the country within two hours, he said. "The way we operate," he said, "we assume every time we get a call, that this is the big one."
The scan of the District of Columbia will cover 70 square miles and take about two weeks to complete. But if authorities were urgently trying to find nuclear material, Krol said, "we would hope that scanning the entire city would not be necessary. You always have other indicators, like intelligence, that narrows down the search area." A dirty bomb - a bomb with no atomic explosion, but spewing enough radioactive material to require evacuations and quarantines - is a method of attack that terrorists would be highly interested in, according to Randy Larsen with the Institute for Homeland Security. "The good news is, it wouldn't kill a lot of people," he said. "But if you did it here in downtown Washington D.C., or Wall Street in New York City, and the people can't go back in that area for a long time, that's a pretty significant event."
But could a hidden dirty bomb be detected from a helicopter? "Absolutely," said Larsen, but only after a detailed scan has been done. "This would tend to make something stick out like a sore thumb. Without it, it would be looking for a needle in a haystack." Two pilots, a scientist, a technician and equipment for detecting gamma radiation are aboard the flights. Everyday radiation can come from several common urban sources, including industrial sites, construction sites, hospitals that use radiological materials, and even the stone used in buildings and monuments.
The agency has already scanned the capital once before, as well as New York, Baltimore, and San Francisco. Larsen said the New York scan turned up unexpected sources of radiation - industrial accidents that were never been reported. "They were surprised how many hot spots they found," he said. The helicopter in Washington is making an exception for the National Zoo, giving it a wider berth to avoid scaring the animals. But Krol said the public should not be worried about the survey's potential impact on people. "These scanners are passive," he said. "All they're doing is measuring the emanations coming from the ground."
Taking to the air on hunt for dirty bomb threats – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs
What kind of a dumbass question is that?I understand that the blast may snap trees and cause other mechanical damage. But how about the radiation? I saw an article somewhere a long time ago, that plants actually clean the environment from the radiation because they suck up the radio-active agents from the soil and that way they heal the animal wildlife. So don't plants die from the radiation like he animals?
I understand that the blast may snap trees and cause other mechanical damage. But how about the radiation? I saw an article somewhere a long time ago, that plants actually clean the environment from the radiation because they suck up the radio-active agents from the soil and that way they heal the animal wildlife. So don't plants die from the radiation like he animals?
Plants are better at sucking up radiation than animals, but too much and they are toast, too. Radation kills and it doesn't care what it kills.
Even with a nuclear war destroying humanity, I don't think we would kill every plant. We just haven't perfected our destruction that well. Give us time and we'll get better and yes it's sarcasm!
It's dumb to kill, period.
I understand that the blast may snap trees and cause other mechanical damage. But how about the radiation? I saw an article somewhere a long time ago, that plants actually clean the environment from the radiation because they suck up the radio-active agents from the soil and that way they heal the animal wildlife. So don't plants die from the radiation like he animals?
Plants are better at sucking up radiation than animals, but too much and they are toast, too. Radation kills and it doesn't care what it kills.
Even with a nuclear war destroying humanity, I don't think we would kill every plant. We just haven't perfected our destruction that well. Give us time and we'll get better and yes it's sarcasm!
It's dumb to kill, period.
We humans, as a species, would probably survive a nuclear war between the big powers. Our human civilization would not. And our descendents that were left would curse us every day of their lives.
Wouldn't take many nukes to completely destroy all life on the planet.
Plants are better at sucking up radiation than animals, but too much and they are toast, too. Radation kills and it doesn't care what it kills.
Even with a nuclear war destroying humanity, I don't think we would kill every plant. We just haven't perfected our destruction that well. Give us time and we'll get better and yes it's sarcasm!
It's dumb to kill, period.
It isn't really so great at killing animals either. Take a look at Johnson Atol...one of the most nuked places on earth. Looks fine, doesn't it? In fact it is a national wildlife refuge.
I wonder how you guys manage to get through each day....scared and worried about the sky falling down on you every minute. What keeps you from just calling it quits and eating a bullet?
I understand that the blast may snap trees and cause other mechanical damage. But how about the radiation? I saw an article somewhere a long time ago, that plants actually clean the environment from the radiation because they suck up the radio-active agents from the soil and that way they heal the animal wildlife. So don't plants die from the radiation like he animals?
The plant life came back just fine after the Atomic tests on Bikini Is. in the Pacific except for one species of plant. Apparently the Bikini Islanders who returned to their island were sickened by a plant that they used to eat in abundance. As an afternote, the US government was criminally negligent in subjecting Sailors to radiation but the media didn't care. Sailors were forced to reboard ships soon after the blast and the Navy thought they were clean because they were hosed down with sea water which was radioactive. It's hard to find the casualty estimate but it's interesting to note that the original casualty statistics for the 3 year Korean War was around 55,000 but reduced by Clinton's DOD to 35-38,000 to indicate only the Troops who were killed on the Peninsula. What happened to the other 20,000 Americans who died during the Korean War? My guess is that the Atomic tests had something to do with it and the government prefers not to address the issue.
