dirty bomb

American  

noun

1. a nuclear warhead designed to produce a great amount of radioactive debris by use of a fusion core, fission trigger, and casing of uranium-238.

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dirty bomb British  

noun

1. informal a bomb made from nuclear waste combined with conventional explosives that is capable of spreading radioactive material over a very wide area

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Example Sentences

This would be similar to the detonation of a "dirty bomb," which, depending on wind direction and dispersion radius, could result in radioactive contamination.

From Salon

A dirty bomb is not a nuclear bomb - it is "weapon of mass disruption" rather than "mass destruction", says the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

From BBC

ChatGPT and other “large-language models” — artificially intelligent systems trained on vast troves of text — can turn into liars or racists or terrorist accomplices that explain how to build dirty bombs.

From Washington Post

Getting International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into Ukraine — and, in early November, when the agency found no evidence of a dirty bomb — helped ease tensions.

From New York Times

Fears of dirty bombs have emerged from time to time in the nuclear age, stirring public fears.

From New York Times