ADVISORY/ NOVA Asks the Questions, What Is, and How Dangerous Is, a Dirty Bomb?Business Editors and Entertainment Writers ADVISORY...for Tuesday (Feb. 25) --(BUSINESS WIRE) 'Dirty Bomb' Tuesday, February 25, 2003 At 8PM ET On PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, WHO: NOVA, PBS' signature science series now celebrating its thirtieth year of broadcast, is the most watched science television series in the world and the most watched documentary series on PBS. WHAT: This documentary will hope to start the discussion and answer important questions such as; What is a dirty bomb? What can a dirty bomb really do? How are we preparing should one detonate and what is the economic and social disruption if we are not prepared? How would we clean up after an attack and how much clean up is necessary? WHEN: "Dirty Bomb" airs Tuesday, February 25, at 8PM EST on PBS, check local listings. HOW: NOVA probes the realities and public health policy implications of a disaster that many consider to be all but inevitable: a terrorist attack on a major city using a radioactive "dirty bomb." Unlike a nuclear bomb, which can destroy an entire city, a dirty bomb does most of its work psychologically. Diabolically simple, the device is made of nothing more than conventional explosives wrapped around some unrefined radioactive material, such as strontium, cobalt, or cesium--all obtainable from thousands of poorly regulated sources. To test the consequences of a projected attack, NOVA dramatizes two scenarios based on sophisticated models developed by a team of radiation experts, including Michael Levi, the director of the Strategic Security Project at the Federation of American Scientists The Federation of American Scientists (FAS)[1] is a non-profit organization formed in 1945 by scientists from the Manhattan Project who felt that scientists, engineers and other innovators had an ethical obligation to bring their knowledge and experience to bear . One of these scenarios looks at the consequences of a dirty bomb detonation in the Washington, D.C., subway subway: see rapid transit. subway Underground railway system used to transport passengers within urban and suburban areas. The first subway line, 3. system, and the other at a in Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square, in Westminster, London, England, named for Lord Nelson's victory at the battle of Trafalgar. The statue surmounting the Nelson memorial column (185 ft/56 m high) was sculpted (1840–43) by E. H. Baily. , London. More sobering so·ber adj. so·ber·er, so·ber·est 1. Habitually abstemious in the use of alcoholic liquors or drugs; temperate. 2. Not intoxicated or affected by the use of drugs. 3. than the direct effects of any explosion, however, is that an incident like the ones dramatized in Dirty Bomb could cause widespread panic Widespread Panic is a southern rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring. and crippling crip·ple n. 1. A person or animal that is partially disabled or unable to use a limb or limbs: cannot race a horse that is a cripple. 2. A damaged or defective object or device. tr.v. damage to the economy--achieving the terrorists' fondest wishes--even if no one died when the bomb went off. Dirty Bomb is a BBC/WGBH Boston co-production produced for NOVA by Kirk Wolfinger and Matthew Collins
Editors note: For screeners/interviews contact Jonathan Renes, 617-300-4427. Program press release and photography available at: www.pbs.org/pressroom |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion