How Hospital Equipment Allows Terrorists To Easily Make Dirty Bombs That Could Irradiate Entire Cities
When ISIS took control of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, it apparently had the makings of a devastating dirty bomb at its fingertips. Cobalt-60 is a common element in medical radiotherapy equipment used in cancer treatment. For about three years after ISIS overran the city, wary U.S. intelligence agencies were aware that two caches of potentially dangerous cobalt-60 were in storage on a Mosul college campus in machines that were estimated to be 30 years old. Officials notified Iraqi military commanders about the threat, as their army battled ISIS block-by-block for control of the city for the past year or so. A dirty bomb is an explosive device laced with radioactive material. According to the Daily Sheeple , had the terrorist army weaponized the cobalt-60 , all bets would have been off. The isotope emits gamma rays at high intensity, making it effective in radiotherapy cancer treatments, however its high radioactivity also makes it perfect for a “dirt