An Olympics dirty bomb being set off during the games in Rio de Janeiro is a real enough fear that the International Atomic Energy Agency has sent hi-tech radiation monitors to Brazil, reported The Sun.
The United Nations also was sending detection gear to Brazil to intercept possible terrorist communications, reported The Daily Mail.
A Brazilian official said there is a "credible threat" from ISIS to target Rio de Janeiro. National counter-terrorism director Luiz Alberto Sallaberry said the threat of an attack at the Olympics has "increased dramatically" after terrorists attacks recently in Europe, said The Sun.
IAEA's monitors being used at the Olympics include personal detectors and portable scanners, noted The Sun.
According to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a dirty bomb is a "radiological dispersal device" that combines conventional explosives, such as dynamite, with radioactive material.
"… A dirty bomb's radiation could be dispersed within a few blocks or miles of the explosion. A dirty bomb is not a 'weapon of mass destruction' but a 'weapon of mass disruption,' where contamination and anxiety are the terrorists' major objectives."
Fears of terrorists setting off a dirty bomb increased after the Brussels attack in March and claims that some of those involved tried to get nuclear material to build their own bomb, noted the Sun.
The Daily Mail said the Islamic State has already used chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria and terrorists tied to attacks in Paris and Brussels had been studying a Belgian nuclear power plant.
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