Radiological warfare

{{Short description|Attacks using radioactive material with intent of contamination of an area}} [[File:Seabees assigned to U.S. Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 1 participate in a chemical, biological and radiological warfare drill Oct 081028-N-OA833-001.jpg|thumb|United States Navy Seabees donning NBC suits during a CBRN defense drill in 2008]] {{Weapons of mass destruction}} {{War}} '''Radiological warfare''' is any form of warfare involving deliberate radiation poisoning or contamination of an area with radioisotopes, but without the use of nuclear weapons.<ref name="j693">{{cite book |title=United Nations Disarmament Yearbook |date=1979-12-31 |publisher=UN |isbn=978-92-1-057983-4 |page=462–465 |chapter=Agreed joint USSR-United States proposal on major elements of a treaty prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling and use of radiological weapons |doi=10.18356/760331ca-en |issn=2412-1193}}</ref> While radiological weapons were researched and in some cases tested during the Cold War, there is no evidence any military has ever deployed operational radiological weapons, although they have been used for assassination.<ref name=":0" />

Nuclear warfare, both via fission and fusion weapons, creates radioisotopes in the form of fission products and neutron-activated surface material. This fallout is incorporated into military planning. Neutron bombs are designed to maximize the lethal radiation area and minimize the blast. These uses are generally not considered direct radiological warfare, but salted bombs, which maximize radioisotope production in a nuclear blast area.

Radiological weapons are normally classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMDs),<ref name="Safire 1998 NYT">{{cite web |last=Safire |first=William |title=On Language; Weapons of Mass Destruction |website=The New York Times |date=1998-04-19 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/19/magazine/on-language-weapons-of-mass-destruction.html |access-date=2019-06-25}}</ref> with delivery methods explored including aerial dispersal and missile warheads. They can also be targeted at individuals, such as the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko by the Russian FSB, using radioactive polonium-210.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/key-findings-who-killed-alexander-litvinenko-how-and-why |title=Key findings: who killed Alexander Litvinenko, how and why |last1=Addley |first1=Esther |date=2016-01-21 |work=The Guardian |access-date=2019-07-02 |last2=Harding |first2=Luke |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Numerous countries have expressed an interest in radiological weapons programs, several have actively pursued them. Radiological weapons have been tested in the United States, Soviet Union, Ba'athist Iraq,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Meyer |first1=Samuel |last2=Bidgood |first2=Sarah |last3=Potter |first3=William C. |date=2020-10-01 |title=Death Dust: The Little-Known Story of U.S. and Soviet Pursuit of Radiological Weapons |journal=International Security |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=51–94 |doi=10.1162/isec_a_00391 |issn=0162-2889 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Israel,<ref name="v987">{{cite web |date=2015-06-08 |title=Report: Israel built, exploded 'dirty bombs' in nuclear test |url=https://apnews.com/general-news-f6a40b71fbec4472b707fbf125489a3a |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=AP News}}</ref> and China.<ref name="Mac">{{cite book |last1=MacFarquhar |first1=Roderick |title=Mao's Last Revolution |last2=Schoenhals |first2=Michael |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674-02332-1 |pages=218-220}}</ref> Some evidence also exists that Egypt and North Korea pursued radiological weapons.<ref name=":0" />

The United States and Soviet Union during the 1980s jointly attempted to promulgate a comprehensive prohibition treaty on radiological weapons via the Committee on Disarmament, but negotiations stalled over the prohibition of attacks on nuclear facilities, in the wake of the 1981 Israeli bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor.<ref name=":0" />

== History ==

=== Early development === The first high-activity radioactive material suitable for radiological warfare was produced in the reactor spent fuel of the Hanford Site, during the Manhattan Project. Over two months prior to the Trinity test, a calibration test was carried out using an assembly similar to a dirty bomb. On May 7, 1945, 108 tons of explosives dispersed a single slug irradiated at the Hanford Site to over 1,400 curies. [[File:Collection of Geiger counters - Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas 07.jpg|left|thumb|Geiger counter collection, including those designed to pre-empt Nazi German radiological warfare during Operation Peppermint.]] Prior to the Normandy landings, members of the Manhattan Project anticipated a risk that the German nuclear program had operational reactors and would use plutonium isotopes or fission products from the spent fuel as a radiological weapon. The Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force authorized Operation Peppermint, to develop and distribute Geiger counters, film packets, and other radiation survey meters to detect radiological warfare.

The United States pursued research into an offensive radiological weapons program in the post-war period. Supporters included Ernest Lawrence and Edward Teller. Zirconium and niobium radioisotope fission products were originally considered, but tantalum-182 was concluded to be most effective. Inherently, a radiological weapons stockpile requires constant operation of production reactors, to replenish the rapidly decaying weapon material. This came into conflict with the infrastructure requirements of the emerging nuclear industrial complex, which was demanding all US production reactor capacity for plutonium, but especially the short half-life polonium-210, at the time crucial for neutron initiators.<ref name=":0" />

== Salted nuclear weapons == A salted bomb is a nuclear weapon that is equipped with a large quantity of radiologically inert salting material. The radiological warfare agents (ie. radioisotopes) are produced through neutron capture by the salting materials of the neutron radiation emitted by the nuclear weapon. This avoids the problems of having to stockpile the highly radioactive material, as it is produced when the bomb explodes.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Samuel|last1=Glasstone|title=The Effects of Nuclear Weapons|year=1962|publisher=U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ovu108BraNUC|pages=464–465|quote=9.111 Even if a radioisotope with suitable properties and which could be readily manufactured were selected as a radiological warfare agent, the problems of production, handling, and delivery of the weapon emitting intense gamma radiation would not be easily solved. In addition, stockpiling the radioactive material would present a difficulty. ... 9.112 Instead of preparing and stockpiling the contaminating agent in advance, with its attendant difficulties, the radioactive substances are produced by fission at the time of the explosion. Radiological warfare has thus become an automatic extension of the offensive use of nuclear weapons of high fission yield.}}</ref> The result is a more intense fallout than from regular nuclear weapons and can render an area uninhabitable for a long period.

The cobalt bomb is an example of a radiological warfare weapon, where cobalt-59 is converted to cobalt-60 by neutron capture. Initially, gamma radiation of the nuclear fission products from an equivalent sized "clean" fission-fusion-fission bomb (assuming the amount of radioactive dust particles generated are equal) are much more intense than cobalt-60: 15,000 times more intense at 1 hour; 35 times more intense at 1 week; 5 times more intense at 1 month; and about equal at 6 months. Thereafter fission drops off rapidly so that cobalt-60 fallout is 8 times more intense than fission at 1 year and 150 times more intense at 5 years. The very long-lived isotopes produced by fission would overtake the cobalt-60 again after about 75 years.<ref name="Nuclear Weapons FAQ: 1.6">{{cite web|url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html|title=Nuclear Weapons Frequently Asked Questions (Section 1)|last=Sublette|first=Carey|access-date=25 July 2014}}</ref>

Other salted bomb variants that do not use cobalt have also been theorized.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Samuel|last1=Glasstone|title=The Effects of Nuclear Weapons|year=1962|publisher=U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ovu108BraNUC|pages=464–465|quote=9.110 ... To be effective, a radiological warfare agent should emit gamma radiations and it should have a half-life of a few weeks or months. Radioisotopes of long half-life give off their radiations too slowly to be effective unless large quantities are used, and those of short half-life decay too rapidly to provide an extended hazard.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Sublette |first=Carey |work=Nuclear Weapons Archive Frequently Asked Questions |title=Types of Nuclear Weapons – Cobalt Bombs and Other Salted Bombs |date=May 1, 1998 |url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html#nfaq1.6 |access-date=October 23, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928225008/http://www.nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq1.html#nfaq1.6 |archive-date=September 28, 2019}}</ref> For example, salting with sodium-23, that transmutes to sodium-24, which because of its 15-hour half-life results in intense radiation.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine = Time|url = http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,828877,00.html|title = Science: fy for Doomsday|date = November 24, 1961|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160314102436/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,828877,00.html|url-status = live|url-access = subscription|archive-date = March 14, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | first=W. H. | last=Clark | title=Chemical and Thermonuclear Explosives | journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | year=1961 | volume=17 | issue=9 | pages=356–360 | doi=10.1080/00963402.1961.11454268| bibcode=1961BuAtS..17i.356C }}</ref>

== Surface-burst nuclear weapons == An air burst is preferred if the effects of thermal radiation and blast wave is to be maximized for an area (i.e. area covered by direct line of sight and sufficient luminosity to cause burning, and formation of mach stem respectively). Both fission and fusion weapons will irradiate the detonation site with neutron radiation, causing neutron activation of the material there. Fission and fusion weapons (which derive most of their energy from fission reactions) release fission product fallout, which if the bomb is air burst will be dispersed globally. Air will not form isotopes useful for radiological warfare when neutron-activated. By detonating them at or near the surface instead, in a ground burst, the ground will be vaporized, become radioactive, and when it cools down and condenses into particles cause significant fallout.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Samuel|last1=Glasstone|title=The Effects of Nuclear Weapons|year=1962|publisher=U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ovu108BraNUC|pages=28–47,109–116,414,465|quote=(page 465) 9.112 ... The explosion of such devices at low altitudes can cause radioactive contamination over large areas that are beyond the range of physical damage. Consequently, they are, in effect, weapons of radiological warfare.}}</ref>

== Dirty bombs == {{main|Dirty bomb}} A far lower-tech radiological weapon than those discussed above is a "dirty bomb" or ''radiological dispersal device'', whose purpose is to disperse radioactive dust over an area. The release of radioactive material may involve no special "weapon" or side forces like a blast explosion and include no direct killing of people from its radiation source, but rather could make whole areas or structures unusable or unfavorable for the support of human life. The radioactive material may be dispersed slowly over a large area, and it can be difficult for the victims to initially know that such a radiological attack is being carried out, especially if detectors for radioactivity are not installed beforehand.<ref>{{cite report|title=Individual Preparedness and Response to Chemical, Radiological, Nuclear, and Biological Terrorist Attacks|publisher=RAND Corporation|author=Lynn E. Davis |author2=Tom LaTourette |author3=David E. Mosher |author4=Lois M. Davis |author5=David R. Howell |date=2003|pages=30–31|url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1731.html}}</ref>

Radiological warfare with dirty bombs could be used for nuclear terrorism, spreading or intensifying fear. In relation to these weapons, nation states can also spread rumor, disinformation and fear.<ref>{{cite report|title=Report of the Secretary of Defense's Ad Hoc Committee on Chemical, Biological and Radiological Warfare|author=Earl P. Stevenson |author2=E. Gordon Arneson |author3=Eric G. Ball |author4=Jacob L. Devers |author5=Willis A. Gibbons |author6=Fredrick Osborn |author7=Arthur W. Page |date=30 June 1950|page=18,22|url=https://www.osti.gov/opennet/servlets/purl/16008529-aMEBjr/16008529.pdf|quote=(page 18:) With respect to its advantages, the Committee has learned ... that RW (radiological warfare), as a new weapon about which most people are poorly informed, is potentiaily valuable for harassment through rumor. (page 22:) Each of these modes of warfare has an unusually high anxiety-causing potential.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/25/europe/dirty-bomb-russia-ukraine-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html|title= What is a dirty bomb and why is Russia talking about it?|first1=Brad|last1=Lendon|date=2022-10-25|publisher=CNN}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/27/vladimir-putin-says-dirty-bomb-claims-to-nato-were-made-on-his-orders|title=Vladimir Putin says 'dirty bomb' claims to Nato were made on his orders|date=2022-10-27|first1=Andrew|last1=Roth|work=The Guardian}}</ref>

== Radiological assassination == The death of British-naturalized Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko in London is widely believed to be assassination via polonium poisoning and on the order of the Russian FSB.<ref name="death">{{cite journal |last1=McFee |first1=R. B. |last2=Leikin |first2=J. B. |date=2009 |title=Death by polonium-210: lessons learned from the murder of former Soviet spy Alexander Litvinenko |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24206298 |journal=Seminars in Diagnostic Pathology |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=61–67 |doi=10.1053/j.semdp.2008.12.003 |pmid=19292030}}</ref> Polonium is also suspected as the cause of death for Yasser Arafat,<ref>{{cite web |date=July 10, 2012 |title=Arafat's death: what is Polonium-210? |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia-pacific/2012/07/2012746748407858.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619142649/https://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia-pacific/2012/07/2012746748407858.html |archive-date=June 19, 2019 |access-date=June 19, 2019 |work=Al Jazeera}}</ref> Yuri Shchekochikhin, Lecha Islamov and Roman Tsepov.<ref name="Sweeney">{{cite book |last1=Sweeney |first1=J. |title=Killer in the Kremlin |publisher=Penguin |year=2022 |isbn=9781804991206 |page=120}}</ref>

== Attacks on nuclear facilities == {{Main|Military attacks on nuclear facilities}}

In 1981, the Israeli Air Force bombed the unfinished Osiraq Nuclear Reactor in Iraq.

In 2007, the Israeli Air Force bombed an unfinished Syrian nuclear reactor at the Al Kibar site.

In July 2023, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia was accused of preparing to bomb the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, in order to use the nuclear reactors as dirty bombs.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-war-live-updates-zaporizhzhia-090217024.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACzNZZxfwFStY0D7nB3uJiKCfaJ2Sx-F00mndfyDo0gRB7HCM3ZaYFhvrnJxOp4sNCif_J-8kLnDbCCE5wK92G22aLFdpGnO36jINoqHNgH6b8jY4mzafO0zxDlGKNCM2j9nGFFExUdZ2EjP9xv_iMKxBW7jNpWCVia4OIrwbWvi|title=Ukraine war - live updates: Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant could become 'dirty bomb', Ukraine warns|first1=Harriet|last1=Sinclair|date=2023-07-07|work=Yahoo! News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/05/europe/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-disaster-threat-explainer-intl/index.html|title= Ukraine warns Russia might attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. How worried should we be?|first1=Christian|last1=Edwards|date=2023-07-05|work=CNN}}</ref>

In June 2025, during the Iran–Israel war, the Israeli Air Force bombed Iranian nuclear facilities including the unfinished Arak heavy water reactor and multiple uranium enrichment sites.

On June 22, 2025, during the Iran–Israel war, the United States Air Force and United States Navy bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran, including uranium enrichment sites.

==Further reading== * Kirby, R. (2020) ''Radiological Weapons: America's Cold War Experience''.<ref>[https://mwi.usma.edu/fall-in-fallout-when-the-us-military-almost-brought-radiological-weapons-to-the-battlefield/ Fall In, Fallout: When The Us Military (Almost) Brought Radiological Weapons To The Battlefield] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008080109/https://mwi.usma.edu/fall-in-fallout-when-the-us-military-almost-brought-radiological-weapons-to-the-battlefield/ |date=2022-10-08 }}. Al Mauroni, September 22, 2020; Modern War Institute at West Point.</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/radiological%5B1%5D.pdf Radiological Weapons as Means of Attack]. Anthony H. Cordesman * [https://doi.org/10.1080/10736700.2020.1775987 Radiological-weapons threats: case studies from the extreme right]. BreAnne K. Fleer, 2020; ''The Nonproliferation Review''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radiological Warfare}} Category:Radiobiology Category:Warfare by type Category:Nuclear terrorism Category:Radiological weapons