Dirty Bombs

Terrorist use of a radiological dispersion device (RDD) — often referred to as a "dirty bomb" - is considered far more likely than the use of a standard nuclear device.

Dirty bombs combine conventional explosives and radioactive material and are designed to disperse dangerous and sub-lethal amounts of radioactive material beyond the blast area. They are attractive to terrorists, because they require very little technical knowledge to build and deploy compared to that of a nuclear device. Also, these radioactive materials, used widely in medicine, agriculture, industry and research, are much more readily available and easy to obtain compared to weapons-grade uranium or plutonium.