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swallows contaminated mucous from the nasal area, the material may enter the body through the gastrointestinal tract. Certain types of radioactive material can be absorbed through the skin or mucous membranes. It may also penetrate the body through cuts, wounds, and punctures in the skin.

Such materials can be delivered by a wide variety of means. Human agents can be used to spread radiation if the radioactive material touches the person. If the radiation but not the radioactive material reaches a victim, the victim is not contaminated and does not emit radiation. This means that they cannot be a hazard to themselves or to anyone else. Other methods can include the destruction of a facility or vessel containing radioactive material, remote control devices to explode and disseminate the agent, contaminating facilities or water supplies, or through the use of aircraft, missiles, and rockets, which could similarly be used to deploy nuclear weapons. RDDs can be used against livestock, fish, and food crops as well, potentially contaminating the food supply.

Terrorists may use ceramic or metallic pellets to contain radioactive materials, which could then be crushed into powders put into an RDD that could then be placed in or near a target facility. Detonating the RDD would spread the radiological material through the force of the explosion and in the smoke of any fires that resulted from the explosion. The larger the targeted area, the smaller the resulting dose rate.

Of course, human deaths are not typically the reason why radiological weapons are deployed. If a combination fertilizer truck bomb such as the one used in the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 had been used in conjunction with radiological material, it might have rendered a considerable chunk of prime real estate in a major world financial center permanently unusable due to radioactive contamination. The disruption to commerce that could have resulted, as well as the publicity that went with it, would have arguably been more maleficent than a far more lethal weapon.

 

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