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Because a terrorist dirty bomb is unlikely to cause many deaths as a result of the conventional explosives, 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. Additionally, Decontamination of the affected area might require considerable time and expense, rendering affected areas partly unusable and causing some economic damage. During the 1960s it is thought that the UK Ministry Of Defence evaluated RDDs, deciding that a far better effect was achievable by simply using more high explosive in place of the radioactives. In addition, any form of weapon designed to provoke any kind of biological damage short of killing a person outright is banned under the Geneva Protocols , making the development, deployment and use by any state illegal. INCIDENTS In 1996, rebels from Chechnya planted, but did not detonate, an RDD in Moscow 's Izmailovo Park . The bomb consisted of dynamite and Caesium -137 removed from cancer treatment equipment. Reporters were tipped off about its location and it was defused. OTHER USES OF THE TERM The term has also been used historically to refer to certain types of Nuclear Weapons . Due to the inefficiency of early nuclear weapons (such as " Fat Man " and " Little Boy "), 2% or less of the nuclear material would be consumed during the explosion. Thus, they tended to disperse large amounts of unused Fissile Material (and the products of fission, which are on average even more dangerous) in the form of Nuclear Fallout . During the 1950s, there was considerable debate over whether "clean" bombs could be produced and these were often contrasted with "dirty" bombs. "Clean" bombs were often a stated goal and scientists and administrators said that high-efficiency Nuclear Weapon Design could create explosions which generated almost all of their energy in the form of Nuclear Fusion , which does not create harmful Fission Products . But the and its subtype, Cobalt Bomb ) which would generate large amounts of long-lasting fallout when irradiated by the weapon core. In the post-Cold War age, this usage of the term has largely fallen out of use. DIRTY BOMBS IN FICTION In the 2004 made for TV movie Dirty War, terrorists detonate a Dirty Bomb in downtown London. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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