Hermann J. Donnert letter to the editor

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10-14-05

Editor:

The disinformation regarding the security of nuclear research reactors operated by universities in the U.S., including the TRIGA reactor at K-State, disseminated by the ABC-TV's Primetime last Thursday (13 October 2005) cries out for some factual response to correct ridiculous assertions. Having been forewarned, I watched that program. What was billed as an investigative documentary, proved to follow the typical modus operandi of such journalistic ventures: collect bits and pieces, taken out of context, to support some cockamamie and a-priori ordained conclusion. Whatever does not fit their mold, is edited out, such as any use of the reactor at Mizzou except the commercial work to enhance the brilliance of gem stones.

ABC's investigative reporters, masquerading as plain graduate students, assert that they did not lie, but it is obvious that they did not tell the whole truth. I contend that their ethics as journalists have an odious smell like three-day-old unrefrigerated fish; a demeanor akin to dancing on thin ice.

The fundamental thesis of ABC's program, which is full of germane allusions, is the fear that terrorists could somehow use a nuclear research reactor coupled with a conventional chemical explosive (such as dynamite or a concoction of fuel oil and agricultural ferilizer) to create a "Dirty Bomb," popular lingo for a Radiological Dispersion Device. This inspires me to comment on that subject: It seems that dumb ideas, like a "Dirty Bomb," have the proverbial nine lives of a cat! Some time ago, I responded as follows to an inquiry concerning "Dirty Bombs."

The concept of a "Dirty Bomb," a device to spread radioactivecontamination by a non-nuclear detonation, was studied in the early 1950s at the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Laboratories, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. It was determined that such a system would be impractical and ineffective, so that the project to develop a dirty bomb was, mirabile dictu, abandoned. (I was actually hired to work on the dirty-bomb project, but, alas, by the time it took for all the red tape involved for my immigration to the United States from Europe under the auspices of OPERATION PAPERCLIP, the "Dirty-Bomb" idea had bit the dust). Only the radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion would be an effective means to disperse practically significant levels of radioactive contamination. Any significant physical damage caused by a dirty bomb would be the the result of the conventional chemical explosion, like that experienced at the Marine Barracks in Beirut, at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, at the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, just to cite some examples. The radioactive material involved would be of no practical import whatsoever.

The only real consequence of exploding a "Dirty Bomb" would be psychological, an uninformed population being driven by senseless hype into a raging panic.Of course, it is virtually impossible to root out ignorance and combat rampant stupidity. My wife and I experienced a vivid example and typical case study shortly after the Chernobyl accident during our visit in Innsbruck, Austria - our original home town. There was general panic that 'deadly radiation' would create an unacceptable health hazard in all of Europe, including Austria, which is a very substantial distance away from the Ukraine, the venue of the Chernobyl event. The socialist government of Austria, further inflaming the hype and panic, decreed that all agricultural crops were dangerously contaminated, unfit for consumption by humans and animals, and had to be destroyed. Of course, the farmers clamored for financial indemnification - naturally, at taxpayer expense! It was not very popular with the conservatives!

Against dire warnings and advice from my mother and aunt, my wife and I went into the garden, harvested some beautiful veggies, and turned them into a delicious salad, which we consumed with great gusto. This convinced mother, aunt, and assorted acquaintances that the general panic was just a tempest in a teapot. This was the same message that the IAEA experts in their research facility at Seibertsdorf were trying to convey and disseminate; but they could not influence the socialist politicos in Vienna, who were pursuing their own anti-nuclear agenda.

It appears that the old saw of the dangers presented by a Radiological Dispersion Device, a "Dirty Bomb," is being warmed over again. Why do people refuse to learn from past research? There seems to be some truth in saying: Those who refuse to learn from history are programmed to repeat the mistakes and follies of the past!

-- Hermann J. Donnert, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering, Kansas State University