I first heard about a dirty bomb in early September 1993 when an IBM coworker, who had majored in computer science and physics at N.C. State in Raleigh told me where the university had been burying its nuclear waste since the 1960s. It was located in an area where I seldom ran near the far eastern edge of the grass-covered Carter-Finley football stadium parking lot, which was across the street from the North Carolina State Fairgrounds on Trinity Road.
I never entered the forbidden area because there was a one-lane dirt road with a rusty metal chain-link fence in front of the entrance with a white sign, and bold black letters that stated, “DO NOT ENTER.” Beyond the fence, the entire area was full of four-foot or less stunted semi-leafless twisted thin trees, eerie discolored yellowish-brush, and brownish scrub grass in stark contrast to the vibrant green grass and healthy-looking leafy trees on my side of the fence.
It was almost like one side of the fence represented death, and the other side represented life. I never ran beyond the chain-link fence, which was not much of a barrier, because I was frankly afraid.
My coworker told me that the other side of the fence was highly toxic. He said that if someone were ever to dig up the radioactive nuclear waste, and detonate it with conventional explosives such as dynamite, it would create a toxic dirty bomb polluting the air, water, and land possibly for decades depending on the size of the detonation and the amount and type of radioactive waste.
I never forgot that story.
I recently read an article entitled, “‘Dirty Bomb Attack: This Could Be Iran’s Next Move Against Israel’” by Michael Rubin published in the National Security Journal two days after the Israel-Iran war beganon June 15. The title of the article immediately caught my attention.
Ruben stated, “a desperate Iranian regime could retaliate with radiological “‘dirty bombs’” against Israeli cities” delivered by ballistic missiles. The possible use of radioactive warheads was true then, and might be true for the next five years, especially as long as the “Supreme Dictator” Ali Khamenei, the “world’s largest sponsor of state terrorism,” and his successors remain committed to the total annihilation of Israel.
What presently worries me is that “16 cargo trucks” for twenty-four hours nonstop were clearly observed by U.S. defense contractor Maxar Technologies’ satellites entering and leaving the Fordow nuclear research facility on June 19 and 20 before our attack on June 21. There is strong speculation that “‘any highly enriched uranium [still] at Fordow was likely gone before the attack.’”
That was an extremely troubling statement.
Although our attack with B-2 stealth bombers may have destroyed or buried much of the underground nuclear facility that produced the enriched uranium, not all the enriched uranium and centrifuges at Fordow may have been destroyed. My big question is what were the trucks carrying and where did they go?
Now, there is credible speculation (as of June 25) that possibly some of the centrifuges and 900 pounds of uranium may have been transported to “Pickaxe Mountain,” which is adjacent to Natanz. That information certainly would not be good news for either Israel or other Middle East countries including Europe, which might be soon within striking distance of a future Iranian radioactive or dirty bomb ballistic missile.
I am not an expert on nuclear physics, but if Israel and the U.S. had succeeded in destroying all the enriched uranium weapons-grade facilities within Iran, there could still be enough hidden radioactive waste or enriched uranium to create a dirty bomb. This might be difficult to detect by satellites or U.N. inspectors considering the immense size of Iran, which is seventy-five times the size of Israel.
The use of a dirty bomb warhead on a ballistic missile could only be prevented if Iran had accepted an unconditional surrender and allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to strictly inspect every former or existing nuclear weapons facility including the elimination of all nuclear waste throughout Iran.
This did not occur before the ceasefire ending the Twelve-Day War, which I prefer to call the Forty-Six Year War.
Only when Tehran is prohibited from possessing any ballistic missiles or ballistic missile launchers to deliver a radioactive or dirty bomb warhead will Israel ever be truly safe. And that includes the remainder of the Middle East.
Any Iranian ballistic missiles armed with a dirty bomb will remain the second sum of all fears in Israel after a nuclear warhead. It is painfully obvious that Israel’s greatest fear is a nuclear holocaust destroying Israel. In the meantime, a dirty bomb delivered by a ballistic missile would poison the land, air, and water of Israel for decades if not longer.
Israel’s current greatest fear is definitely not Hamas, Hezbollah, cyberattacks, suitcase nukes, sleeper cells, or even terrorism. An Iranian dirty bomb warhead on a ballistic missile followed by others would cause devastating long-lasting consequences in downtown Tel Aviv, Haifa, west Jerusalem, or most other Israeli cities or small towns.
How long a dirty bomb would contaminate the soil, water, and air of Israel or any adjacent country is highly problematic. It would certainly depend upon the amount and type of nuclear waste or enriched uranium combined with the “660 to 1,540 pounds” (300 to 700 kilograms) of conventional explosives inside the warhead.
A dirty bomb would not only destroy many Israeli cities making them uninhabitable for decades, but also make many farms, kibbutzim, and other agricultural areas non-arable for decades if not longer. That especially includes the soil, aquifers, and drinking water, even if it were desalinated from the Mediterranean Sea.
Dirty bombs could very well be “Supreme Dictator” Ayatollah Khamenei’s or his successor’s future wunderwaffen or miracle weapons, which would totally desecrate and denigrate much of the holy sites within both Israel and subsequently Palestine thus destroying the tourism industry because of blowing radioactive dust and nuclear exclusion zones lasting for decades. This is exactly what the “Supreme Dictator” apocalyptically means when he wants to “annihilate the state of Israel and destroy the United States of America,” which has been repeatedly expressed ad nauseum since 1979.
The last form of terrorism that Israel and the Middle East need is the potential nightmare of a dirty bomb in the next one to five years. That is the major reason why the Iranian people must eventually depose the fanatical mullahs so that Iran can never become the nuclear North Korea of the Middle East.
In the meantime, I fear that hostilities between the Islamo-Nazi mullahs in Tehran and Israel are far from over. I believe that Trump’s ceasefire will be extremely ephemeral creating only an illusion of peace as long as the fanatical Shiite mullahs govern Iran.
Robert L. Maronic