Obvious Study Report: Dirty Bomb Would Cause Panic, Cost Millions, Eh?

A new federal Canadian study examining the effects of a dirty bomb explosion near the CN Tower in Toronto finds that such a terrorist attack would result in mass civilian panic and an economic toll of up to $23.5 billion. A summary of the report, the final version of which is expected to be released next March, was made available this past June and can be read at TheStar.com.

A dirty bomb would have a devastatin' effect? You don't say, eh?

Maybe it is ignorant of me to assume the above is obvious, or, at least, superfluous, but wouldn't a report like this be more valuable if it layed out a. how to prevent such an attack, and/or b. what measures to take if such an attack occurred?

Let's just take a look at some of the quotes from TheStar.com's story:

Tom Cousins, who represented the Defense Research Agency on the study project, said about the spread of radioactive contamination, "There's no getting away from the fact that you will have areas of land that will have to be cleaned up." Duh! Glad we got that straightened out. So, how do we clean up?

"There are currently no Canadian standards for cleanup after a radiological or nuclear terrorist event," said the report. Oh, well, that's reassuring. Instead of coming up with standards, you've simply told us why we need cleanup standards. I guess it is time to draft another study then.