LETTER: Putin and dirty bombs
In this Monday, May 29, 2017 photo released by the Sputnik news agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during an interview in Paris, France. (Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
In your Saturday editorial, you said Putin claimed that Ukraine is planning “to use a dirty bomb, which is a low-yield nuclear weapon.” A low-yield nuclear weapon is a device that creates energy yield through fissioning uranium or plutonium, creating concussion and distributing the resultant radioactive particles. A dirty bomb is a conventional explosive that disperses already-existing radioactive material.
The implications of confusing these two are as egregious as confusing a conventional explosive, or even a nuclear reactor, with a nuclear bomb.
