What is "dirty bomb"

n. 1 A device containing conventional explosives and radioactive material, designed to spread radiation over a wide area. 2 A nuclear bomb that spreads radiation over a wide area due to inefficiency or design.

n. an atom bomb that leaves considerable radioactive contamination

A dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device (RDD) is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the dispersal agent/conventional explosion with radioactive material, serving primarily as an area denial device against civilians. It is however not to be confused with a nuclear explosion, such as a fission bomb, which by releasing nuclear energy produces blast effects far in excess of what is achievable by the use of conventional explosives.

Though an RDD would be designed to disperse radioactive material over a large area, a bomb that uses conventional explosives and produces a blast wave would be far more lethal to people than the hazard posed by radioactive material that may be mixed with the explosive. At levels created from probable sources, not enough radiation would be present to cause severe illness or death. A test explosion and subsequent calculations done by the United States Department of Energy found that assuming nothing is done to clean up the affected area and everyone stays in the affected area for one year, the radiation exposure would be "fairly high", but not fatal. Recent analysis of the nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl disaster confirms this, showing that the effect on many people in the surrounding area, although not those in close proximity, was almost negligible.

Since a dirty bomb is unlikely to cause many deaths by radiation exposure, many do not consider this to be a weapon of mass destruction. Its purpose would presumably be to create psychological, not physical, harm through ignorance, mass panic, and terror. For this reason dirty bombs are sometimes called "weapons of mass disruption". Additionally, containment and decontamination of thousands of victims, as well as decontamination of the affected area might require considerable time and expense, rendering areas partly unusable and causing economic damage.

Dirty Bomb is the first album by KGC a collaborative project between Sascha Konietzko, Dean Garcia and Lucia Cifarelli, released in 2006.

Dirty Bomb is a 2011 Finnish comedy film written and directed by Elias Koskimies.

Dirty Bomb, formerly known as Extraction, is a free to play first person shooter multiplayer video game set in London after a radiological attack. It was developed by Splash Damage and published by Nexon America for Microsoft Windows, and was released in June 2015. The trailer was first released at the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Dirty Bomb was Splash Damage's first intellectual property.

A dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon.

"Dirty bomb" can also refer to:

• Dirty Bomb (video game), a video game developed by Splash Damage
• Dirty Bomb (album), an album by KGC
• Dirty Bomb (film), a Finnish film