Abstract
A historic moment in terrorist bombing in the world was the explosion of the twin towers in the USA, starting a new series of attacks. The bombing brought up many concerns for security authorities all over the world. However, no study about this kind of terrorism involving Olympic venues or big events has ever been published considering dirty bombs with radiological material. This study aims to present, using US NARAC HotSpot Code, a procedure that combines two realistic potential scenarios in the event of a terrorist attack involving the explosion of a Radiological Dispersion Device (dirty bomb) that contains two radionuclides, 137 Cs and 241 Am, in the Olympic Village. The results are shown in terms of effective dose (E) and deposition of radioactive material in the soil, which will provide security authorities with information for immediate radiological emergency response actions in order to protect the public and emergency first responders. This study considers a scenario with a dirty bomb explosion during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games that hosted 10,500 athletes from 205 different countries in the Olympic Village. For the calculations of this study the HotSpot code was applied, allowing for emergency response teams to predict the environmental impact depending on the radionuclide used, of the Pasquill stability class, according to the different quantities of explosive, the height of the explosion and the distance in meters from the point of the explosion. It was observed that 241 Am has a higher dose level than 137 Cs, while the ground deposition of 137 Cs was higher.
Highlights
Since terrorists bombed the twin towers on September 11, 2001, other terrorist attacks continue to take place
Authorities that respond to radiological emergencies are concerned that a radiological dispersion device (RDD) [1] or dirty bomb explosion could be used by a person or group and cause psychological and material damage to the population, with the dispersion of radioactive material in the environment
Considering that current terrorist attacks are increasingly sophisticated, with the use of explosive devices, using an RDD as a dirty bomb can no longer be neglected. This is because: (a) it could occur anywhere and at any time during a big event, shocking people, families, society as a whole, and bringing major concerns, in particular, to members of the response teams; (b) the first actions of an emergency team are still based on general response procedures, which, in turn, are supported by information obtained in guides and manuals adapted from experiments acquired in radiological accidents and/or in nuclear installations, for example Goiânia and Chernobyl; and (c) due to the lack of a minimum foreknowledge about the explosion of RDDs in big public events, the first actions related to an attack could be conducted in an improvised way, based only on empirical data and on members’ personal experiences [5]
Summary
Since terrorists bombed the twin towers on September 11, 2001, other terrorist attacks continue to take place. Considering that current terrorist attacks are increasingly sophisticated, with the use of explosive devices, using an RDD as a dirty bomb can no longer be neglected This is because: (a) it could occur anywhere and at any time during a big event, shocking people, families, society as a whole, and bringing major concerns, in particular, to members of the response teams; (b) the first actions of an emergency team are still based on general response procedures, which, in turn, are supported by information obtained in guides and manuals adapted from experiments acquired in radiological accidents and/or in nuclear installations, for example Goiânia and Chernobyl; and (c) due to the lack of a minimum foreknowledge about the explosion of RDDs in big public events, the first actions related to an attack could be conducted in an improvised way, based only on empirical data and on members’ personal experiences [5]. Such study could be applied in other important cities in the world that will host big events
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