ANFO of Shijiazhuang, China, on 16 March 2001. A total of 108 people were killed, and 38 others injured when, within a short time, several ANFO bombs exploded near four apartment buildings. Improvised bombs made with agricultural-grade AN are less sensitive and less efficient than the explosive-grade variety. In November 2009, a ban on ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, and calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizers was imposed in the former Malakand Division – comprising the Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Swat, Chitral and Malakand districts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan – by the NWFP government, following reports that those chemicals
Commonly used gamma-emitting isotopes of normal non-radioactive cobalt and iridium metal in a nuclear reactor, creating radioactive nuclides of these elements which contain extra neutrons, compared to the original stable nuclides. In addition to their uses in radiography, both cobalt-60 (Co-60) and iridium-192 (Ir-192) are used in the radiotherapy of cancer. Cobalt-60 tends to be used in teletherapy units as a higher photon energy alternative to Cs-137, while iridium-192 tends to be used in a different mode of therapy, internal radiotherapy or brachytherapy. The iridium wires for brachytherapy are a palladium-coated iridium/palladium alloy wire made radioactive by neutron activation. This wire is then inserted