Even if it’s been 2 half-lives since the theft, that just means it’s 1/4 as powerful as when it was stolen. That can still be a lot of activity. Industrial and medical isotope capsules are incredibly powerful to begin with.
The Times of Israel has a tiny bit more detail, but the photo is most germane.
The caption reads:
This undated photo provided by the Georgia Interior Ministry shows part of a seizure of radioactive substances including iridium-192 and europium-152. Police in Kutaisi, Georgia arrested two people involved in the smuggling in February 2011 (photo credit: AP/Georgia Interior Ministry)
It certainly looks like a shielded suitcase sized thing, holding five cylinder-type things (for 2mg each, if it’s the same?).
Your username is à propos! “Gray” being a unit of radiation exposure, and “Ghost”… well, you know…
…too many Grays and yer forever gonna be wearing a sheet with holes for eyes.
That pig looks pretty small though. I don’t know how well they’ll notice a lead lunchbox.
Is it okay to stop running around with my hair on fire now?
Yeah a dirty bomb is a weapon of terror more than a weapon of mass destruction. The “catastrophes” highligthed by grey ghos each resulted in a handful of deaths and a couple of hundred “exposed” most of whom will probably have no effects. Overall less damaging than the boston bombing, which was done with pressure cookers and nails.
On the other hand, one would expect that if the thieves (or their customers) intended ill use for this stuff, they’d do it before it decayed so far. The fact that it hasn’t been used in a dirty bomb yet might be an indication that either the thieves don’t have ill will, or they’ve been having a hard time finding a buyer.
…or they’re so sick/vomiting/hair falling out they haven’t been able to set up a buy/sell situation…
If the people who grabbed it didn’t really know what it was they could really hurt themselves unintentionally, like junkers who have unwittingly come across medical isotopes improperly dumped.
You’ll be wanting to spread your dirty bomb dust over at least a few square blocks.
That’s going to cause quite a serious dilution of even 10 g pure Ir[sup]192[/sup].
I think that’s a special case of “having a hard time finding a buyer”. I didn’t say why they were having a hard time, after all.
But this side convo doesn’t necessarily jibe with the (unresolved) question of the (long-term?) shielding of the “suitcase-like” device.
Yes, they might have broken open/unscrewed the cylinders and sprinkled it in their cereal. But not necessarily.
Also, is “pig” in Ruken (sorry for third-person) an inside-term for "carrying case made out of lead?
Apparently mis-understanding the term “dirty bomb”, they threw it in a dumpster.
Wow–what a nice ending for one of these threads/IRL events.
Although I always suspect the extent of truth or concealed information with published accounts of mischief with equipment of such concern to public security.