These locations are generally not as well protected as nuclear facilities. Even a relatively small amount of material such as cobalt-60 – used in radiotherapy – could cause serious harm if combined with conventional explosives in a so-called dirty bomb (or otherwise deliberately used to expose the public to dangerous radiation).
大部分非法交易案例并不包括核材料；而是牵涉医院、工厂和其他世界各地场所使用的发射性物质。这些场所一般不像核设施那样得到良好的保护。即使相对较小数量的钴（用于放射治疗）等材料，若加入常规爆炸物制成所谓的脏弹（或故意用来让公众接受危险的辐射）也能造成严重伤害。