Just a thought but... how many smoke detectors do you need for this crazy scheme?

Fun with smoke detectors

How about a plot to MOAB Falluja?

I gotcher dirty bomb RIGHT HERE!!

Dan

You'd need a TON of smoke detectors to do any radiation damage. There's just microcuries of the stuff in an average smoke detector. (Remember, they are thrown in the TRASH by the thousands each year, and there's no problem with that.) And by the way, the isotope used, ironically enough, is Americium 241.

Steve Bragg
DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS blogger and electronics engineer

Steve

While I certainly believe you are right technically, the harm to the economy in any location that this might happen is comes perception. Recall the Tylenol scare of 1982.

Oh durn...I really mangled my grammar in that post! (PIMF)

apologies

"the harm to the economy in any location where this might happen comes from perception, not actual physical harm."

One would have thought that the sub-editors at Time's online division would know how to spell the preterite tense of 'to be'.

- actually there is some indication online that you'd need around 2000 units to build a creditable device....

- The real problem is there would be many more injuries from panicky reactions than the bomb itself....

- as Bill said its really more shock value than than anything.....

Bill,
Perhaps I could chime in as your self-appointed weird metals correspondent? (Weird metals are, after all, what I do for a living).
Americum oxide is indeed used in smoke detectors, and yes it is radioactive. However, annual global usage is around 5 kg a a year. About 11 pounds spread over 6 billion people. So you're going to need an awfully large percentage of all smoke detectors in the world to get a useful amount.
Americum is also only very lightly radioactive. It's an alpha emitter, the particles don't even go through paper, let alone skin. In fact, that's why it's used. The radiation from fission can move through clear air and set off the detector, but cannot pass through smoky air. It is the abscence of radiation hitting the detector which sets off the alarm.
It does not dissolve in the body, rather passing straight through. Even if it got into your lungs the minimal power of the alpha particles would not do you any harm. You'd get worse lung damage (and do) by having a BBQ once a month.
So, the physical damage done by an Americum containing bomb would be nothing, and the possibility of getting enough of it to actually do anything useful is minimal.
The lasting stigma would be zero: releasing americum oxide in any quantity likely to be available would not change the background radiation level. I'd want to check up on it before making a declaratory statement but at a guess americum oxide is less radioactive than the granite sometimes used to make statues (granite is relatively high in uranium and as such releases radioactive radon into the atmosphere as a result of the fission products). Relasing the few grammes that someone might be able to scrape together from fire detectors would not be noticeable a few hours later and probably undetectable in 24, except in an enclosed space.
All that said, the terror aspects are rather different. The general public's inability to understand radiation and risk is such that someone standing in the Tube (subway) with a Geiger counter set to too high a sensitivity could set off a mass panic and a number of deaths by crushing.

Bill, my apologies.
In the above where I use "fission" it should read "decay".
Sorry.
See how easy it is, CBS?

I heard it was a 'dirty sanchez' bomb, but my sources aren't that reliable.

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