Explosives terrorist

Fire, explosions, terrorist acts and extreme weather are examples of situations that may force the crew on an offshore installation to evacuate. There have been several tragic accidents were a large number of the crew have been injured or lost in the mustering and evacuation phase. It is therefore important to better rmderstand the risk and performance of barriers (both technical and not-technical) in an evacuation situation. 

Critical Infrastructures (CIs) are exposed to a wide spectrum of hazards and threats which vary in nature (natural, technological, human-intentional or non-intentional) and, that can be internal (e.g. technical failure, sabotage, human error) or external to the infrastructure (e.g. flood, chemical explosion, terrorist attack). As such, hazard and threat assessment is a key element within CIP strategies and Cl risk assessment. However, it is difficult for Authorities or Operators to get comprehensive information of all potential disruption scenarios relevant for CIP, since ... 

Fast detection of trace explosives in air is an urgent analytical problem, which solution will allow one efficiently to perform anti-terrorist measures. The difficulties that one runs into solving this problem are due to low vapor pressure of these compounds and the presence of interference compounds in air. 

The recent rise in the use of expolosives in terrorist activity poses new challenges to industry and law enforcement. This challenge is being met by the use of sophisticated chemical detection devices to screen for bombs and more rigorous explosive inventory safeguards and controls. Plans have also been proposed to tag explosives with isotopes to make them easier to trace if misused. 

Based on the history of terrorist attacks, which have mostly involved hijacking and bombing of aircraft, current threat-detection measures have concentrated on detecting weapons or explosives. In the future, terrorist attacks could also involve the use of toxic chemicals, chemical and biological warfare agents, or even radiological and nuclear materials.1 2... 

The danger that nuclear explosives may be used by waning nations or terrorists. 

The combination is powerfully explosive and has been widely used in recent terrorist activities. 

Rapid and reliable detection of dangerous disease organisms, highly toxic chemicals, and concealed explosives (including those in land mines), is the first important step in responding to threats. The next important step for chemists and chemical engineers will be to devise methods to deal with such threats, including those involved in terrorist or military attacks. 

The most dangerous in their long-term effects are the tailing dumps containing radio-active waste, which are also located in the vicinity of the Dnepr bed or near smaller rivers in the Dnepr catchment basin. Many tailing dump levees and toxic radio-active waste hoarder dams are in extremely poor condition. They can be easily destroyed by natural factors (minor earthquakes, floods, rise of subterranean waters) or by man-made acts (like a terrorist act with the use of explosives), with all ensuing consequences. 

Another class of environmentally hazardous projects comprises finished stores of toxic, explosive, and flammable substances. In Ukraine, it comprises depositaries of benzene, petroleum, and oil products, ammonia, inorganic acids, rubber resin, pesticides, mineral fertilizers, and many other materials. The quantities of substances kept in those stores amount to tens and hundreds of tons. Many of them are situated near beds of potable water bodies. Besides being environmentally hazardous, they present attractive targets for terrorist acts, since in case of their damage the chemical contamination of the environment may spread over vast territories and water areas creating an extremely dangerous situation for the population. 

The terrorist attack is very difficult to be predicted and it could be performed everywhere, anytime. A wide range of weapons and methods could be used by the terrorists to achieve their goals. Explosives, guns, chemical and biological agents may be used. Water and food contamination, pollution of air controlled systems and many others could be listed, and the imagination has no limit, as shown by the 9/11 attack. 

Owing to the high accessibility of firearms and explosives, most of the terrorist acts committed so far were efficient, and to a greater extent meant to frighten the citizens (Israel) or to imposeon autorities (Iraq) decisions beneficial to terrorists. . To a lesser extent, they were intended for causing considerable damage to property or mass destruction of people. 

Terrorist threats or incidents using chemical, biological, nuclear / radiological or large explosive devices ... 

There can be no doubt that, if given the opportunity, terrorist groups such as al Qaeda would not hesitate to use disease as a weapon against the unprotected to spread chemical agents to inflict pain and death on the innocent or to send suicide-bound adherents armed with radiological explosives on missions of murder [10]. 

Despite significant interest in unconventional weapons, there have been few instances of widespread death or incapacitation due to CBRN use by terrorists, and the number of casualties pales in comparison to those killed by more conventional explosives, armed attacks and arson. Since 1968, more than 14,000 people have been killed by bombing, and nearly 6,000 by armed attack, but CBRN attacks have accounted for less than 20 deaths [41]. The two most notorious unconventional attacks in modern history, Aum Shinrikyo s gassing of a Tokyo subway in 1995 and the anthrax attacks in the U.S. in the fall of 2001, killed a total of 17 people. The food poisoning by the Rajneeshees in Oregon in 1984 has also received much attention. While there were no fatalities when the cult poisoned several salad bars with Salmonella, there were more than 700 injuries. 

Mechanisms and conventional explosives that terrorists could use to disperse nuclear, chemical, or biological agents... 

This suggests that terrorists are driven to use bigger bombs or more deadly weapons. Based on this premise, it seems very likely that in the near future terrorists will elect to use more weapons of mass destruction rather than traditional explosives or firearms. Biological weapons are particularly likely to be used by terrorist groups because they ... 

Biological agents also provide terrorists with a wide variety of alternatives for dispersion. For example, rather than using explosives to disperse biological agents, these materials could potentially ... 

Bombing of U.S. Marine Barracks, Beirut — On April 18, 1983, a vehicle driven by a member of the Islamic Jihad crashed into the outer wall of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 67 people, 17 of whom comprised the majority of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) staff in Lebanon. In retaliation, the U.S. Navy bombarded terrorist positions designed to aid the Lebanese army in Beirut. In response, on October 23,1983, the Islamic Jihad fitted two trucks with 12,000 pounds of explosives and sent them on a suicide mission. The trucks passed the lax security at the U.S. Marine guardhouse and crashed into a wall of a four-story concrete barrack. All 241 marines and 58 French soldiers inside were killed in the explosion. 

If al-Qaida or another terrorist group gained control of one or more Russian suitcase nuclear weapons, they could be smuggled into the U.S. by small boat or overland from Mexico or Canada. The explosion of such a device in a crowded city could cause immediate deaths of tens of thousands and lead to cancer for many of the survivors. 

Experience from the 1986 Chernobyl reactor accident in the Ukraine shows the potential magnitude and impact of a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant. The accident involved an explosion in a reactor that releases very high levels of radiation for miles surrounding the reactor site. Low levels of radiation were spread by wind currents throughout Europe and the rest of the world. According to Caldicott 2002,... 

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