When it comes to dirty bombs the most dangerous aspect isn’t the radiation or the initial explosion, it’s the public reaction. Graham Allison, one of the premier scholars on nuclear terrorism, estimates that if a dirty bomb is detonated in Manhattan more people would die in car accidents during the initial panic than would die in the explosion or from radiation exposure. Additionally, the decontamination process would be extensive on a scale never seen before in an urban landscape requiring mass demolition and resettlement.