re: Red Zone Travelogue
Excellent link--thanks! This brings home what would be the worst effect of a "dirty bomb": sheer fear.
While the author of the article speaks of hundreds of thousands of dead, in a 1996 Vienna conference sponsored by the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the European Union, the results of the accident, while not inconsequential, are considerably less dramatic.
A terrorist could set off a bomb with little real radiation hazard, but the area would become a useless "ghost town," just like the one described. Wouldn't matter if there was real danger or not.