Hi. Newbie here, but I've been following this story. It sounds rather tragic. This might be slightly off-topic, but is there any possibility that someone could

Hi. Newbie here, but I've been following this story. It sounds rather tragic. This might be slightly off-topic, but is there any possibility that someone could conceivably "weaponize" an x-ray or gamma-ray emitter, e.g., for a terrorist plot? I came across this article about an earlier half-baked plan from 2012. Some white supremacist had "allegedly planned to use a remote-controlled X-ray weapon hidden inside a van to vaporize Muslims in upstate New York and launch an attack on the White House." This seems to be stretching the limits of plausibility. (Obviously, this wouldn't have been some science fiction "disintegration gun.") https://news.vice.com/article/this-kkk-guy-tried-to-build-an-x-ray-weapon-to-kill-muslims-and-obama-feds-say https://news.vice.com/article/this-kkk-guy-tried-to-build-an... However, let's assume that we had some James Bond super-villain who had unlimited resources and a stable of highly-trained engineers and Nobel physicists as his minions. Would it be within the realm of plausibility to build such a thing? Or would this still be complete science fiction? More specifically, could an emitter be be made that generates x-rays or gamma rays in a non-directional way so that everyone in the vicinity received a lethal radiation dose over the course of a few minutes? How much electricity would this take, and what type of potential range might it have? Would buildings or car doors tend to block the radiation? Would the victims somehow sense that they were being irradiated (e.g., a burning sensation)? I'm not looking for technical blueprints or anything, of course. It's just a thought experiment. (Hi, NSA!)