Editing Dirty bomb (section)

== Public perception of risks ==
Although the exposure might be minimal, many people find radiation exposure especially frightening because it is something they cannot see or feel, and it therefore becomes an unknown source of danger.<ref>Johnson (2003)</ref>  When United States Attorney General [[John Ashcroft]] on June 10, 2002, announced the arrest of [[José Padilla (prisoner)|José Padilla]], allegedly plotting to detonate such a weapon, he said:

{{Blockquote|[A] radioactive "dirty bomb"&nbsp;... spreads radioactive material that is highly toxic to humans and can cause mass death and injury.|Attorney General John Ashcroft<ref name="Zimmerman and Loeb"/>}}

This public fear of radiation also plays a big role in why the costs of a radiological dispersal device impact on a major metropolitan area (such as lower Manhattan) might be equal to or even larger than that of the 9/11 attacks.<ref name="Zimmerman and Loeb"/> Assuming the radiation levels are not too high and the area does not need to be abandoned such as the town of [[Prypiat (city)|Pripyat]] near the [[Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant|Chernobyl reactor]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010210215449/http://www.time.com/time/daily/chernobyl/860623.pixact.html "The Lifeless Silence of Pripyat"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', June 23, 1986.</ref> an expensive and time-consuming cleanup procedure will begin. This will mainly consist of tearing down highly contaminated buildings, digging up contaminated soil and quickly applying sticky substances to remaining surfaces so that radioactive particles adhere before radioactivity penetrates the building materials.<ref>Vantine and Crites (2002); Zimmerman and Loeb (2004); Weiss (2005)</ref> These procedures are the current state of the art for [[radioactive contamination]] cleanup, but some experts say that a complete cleanup of external surfaces in an urban area to current decontamination limits may not be technically feasible.<ref name="Zimmerman and Loeb"/> Loss of working hours will be vast during cleanup, but even after the radiation levels reduce to an acceptable level, there might be residual public fear of the site including possible unwillingness to conduct business as usual in the area. [[tourism|Tourist traffic]] is likely never to resume.<ref name="Zimmerman and Loeb"/>