[constant thinker]

http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2002-35.html

This isn't really a question, but it makes me wonder.
a. How did he get that stuff.
b. People aren't very well informed.
c. What if he had succeeded?

I saw the Chernobyl thing and thought of this. Since some of you here are probably expierenced with working with radio active materials, I wanted to see what you guys thought.

[mike]

Oh my goodness, that is awful!

I guess that the "smart" people hire the "not-so-smart" people to do their dirty work.

[Mitch]

Why would Ukraine have Geiger Counters and America has none along our border. That makes the above story suspect in my mind.

[jdurg]

Take everything you read on 'darwinawards.com' with a huge grain of salt, as the vast majority of the stories on there are 100% false and made up.  Something like this falls heavily into the 'full of crap' bin especially due to the date of the supposed story.  After 9-11-2001, ANY story such as the one made up here would have gotten HEAVY international attention, yet not one single source can be found to back this claim up.  

My conclusion?  This is made up and not even remotely true.

[constant thinker]

Your all inclined to your opinions. I also wasn't so sure about the story. It does make you think though the what if. There is still probably a lot of radioactive materials around the world that aren't very secure. I say radioactive in general because a dirty bomb just needs something that'll spread radioactivity over an area.

Also what if someone did succeed in smuggling material for making a nuclear bomb. Even if a facility claimed it was missing some bomb making type things; if something radioactive is properly contained in, say a lead box or lead pipe sealed at each end with lead, wouldn't a geiger counter not be of much help.

I just thought the article to be intresting.

[Borek]

I say radioactive in general because a dirty bomb just needs something that'll spread radioactivity over an area.

Mitch is probably in better position to comment but I remember reading somewhere on the dirty bomb that the idea is much overrated.

If the material is radioactive enough to pose a threat when dispersed, it generates so much heat that making a bomb is practically impossible. If the material is not so radioactive (or in minute quantities), bomb is not so dangerous.

I would say that the dirty bomb has much greater social effect unexploded (and unmade) due to general public radioactivity phobia, that it will have on the lives of the people in the perimeter (?English?) when exploded.

[Borek]

My conclusion?  This is made up and not even remotely true.

While in this particular case you are probably right there was a loud story many years ago in Poland with a man who stole radioactive material from some kind of measuring device and he went home with the radioactive material in his pocket - by bus! I remember he landed in the hospital (before the prison), and I believe people who were going by this particular bus at this particular hour were searched for by militia. I think it was back in eighties or at the beginning of nineties, perhaps AWK will remeber something more.

[mike]

Is this story true?

http://www.failuremag.com/arch_science_glow_boy.html

[jdurg]

Yup.  And it's VERY well documented by numerous media sources.  

[constant thinker]

That's a scary story kind of.