Dirty bombs are post-9/11 weapons.
Utter nonsense. During the Manhattan project radiological dispersal devices were considered as an alternate to fission weapons; indeed efforts were made to plan for mass production of Co
60 for use against Germany. Then there was Heinlein's "Solution Unsatisfactory", published in 1940 (
before the Manhattan project began). It was an excellent prediction of the project, by the way.
My immediate reaction, above, was that this is nonsense. Now I've had a chance to do a tiny amount of research, I can say categorically that it is complete bollocks. The fear of a terrorist dirty bomb may have increased after the WTC attack, but that was just due to increased awareness of terrorism, particularly in the US (outside the US, we've been aware of terrorism for some time). For example, in 1990s, Chechen separatists placed a couple of dirty bombs (although they may not have ever intended to detonate them). The idea of a terrorist dirty bomb goes back much further.
Indeed during WW2 the allies were concerned about possible German use of radiological weapons, especially against the Normandy landings; this lead to "Operation Peppermint" and the production of hundreds of radiation detectors for military field use (such as the Victoreen 247 a friend of mine has).
As for Magz's ludicrous claims that Nazi Germany built a workable fission or fusion bomb, well where did they get the fissile material? Germany didn't (couldn't) build a workable reactor to produce Plutonium
239 (or U
233 from Thorium) and hadn't the resources to enrich Uranium to a weapons usable level. Then there was the lack of Uranium, heavy water (the Germans didn't figure out how to use graphite as a neutron moderator). They didn't even have a workable
theory because they worked from the perspective of slow neutron fission, leading to the premise that a bomb would be a reactor going through a deliberate meltdown. Fast neuton fission wasn't researched in depth, not least because of Heisenberg's errors in estimating the minimum critical mass (tonnes rather than kilograms) even after the war was over.
Nazi arrogance also hindered the project; despite having access to some intelligence on the Manhattan project (via Soviet espionage efforts relayed by German agents) they did not accept the allies could be making better progress. Ironically the Manhattan project was heavily motivated by fear that Germany might build atomic weapons first (hence Teller and Szilard persuading Einstein to write to Roosevelt).
If anyone's interested in the Nazi nuclear programme I suggest they study "Operation Epsilon"; the Farm Hall transcripts are publicly available.
As for US production of radioisotopes as a potential weapon, I refer you Nichols' memo "Use of Radioactive Materials as a Military Weapon" (30 October 1943).
