I love these discussion. I used to wear a TLD because I worked at a nuc plant. I decided to take a TLD on a flight just to see what kind of exposure I'd get--4 hour flight about 50mR. 1 month of doing primary samples--25mR. Flying was about twice as bad as standing in front of a sample sink...
While I agree with you in principle I disagree with your facts. Nuclear plans produce a little more than mining waste. Kim-wipes, primary samples, secondary samples, spent fuel, waste water, etc are all waste byproducts of nuclear power which needs to be stored for long periods of time. Granted...
I don't think anyone here disputes the fact that DU is a know carcinogen. The sun is a know carcinogen. Diesel fuel is a know carcinogen. Acrylamide is a known carcinogen. Smoking is a known carcinogen... I could go on but it'd be pointless. The simple fact that a material is a carcinogen...
Correlation and Causality.* One common mistake made by people interpreting a correlational coefficient refers to causality.* When we see that depression and low self-esteem are negatively correlated, we often surmise that depression must therefore cause the decrease in self-esteem.* When...
What? Thermonuclear? U-238 just doesn't go super critical, on the contrary it is "fairly" stable. There's a reason they (we) isolate U-235/234 from natural uranium and that is because 234/235 will go super critical fairly easily from instinsic neutron production when a critical mass is reached...
There seems to be a little intellectual dishonesty on both sides of this debate. Those who preach DU weapon safety are disregarding the effects of U exposure from other sources and the valid studies associated with Rn (alpha emitter that release about twice as much energy per decay). It's not...
The dose of U-238 isn't the problem. The large moving charged particle resulting from a decay of U-238 is. If you have paint on your walls then chances are you are breathing in a little bit of alpha radiation. If you are below ground level then chances are you are breathing in a little alpha...
I don't know if I'd go so far as to say significant. DU weapons and armor are made of alloyed U238 which is an alpha emitter. Granted alphas are easily blocked; however they are much more detrimental to one's health when ingested or inhaled. Is it as bad as cobalt-60 (that lovely deep blue found...
They use Halfnium because it is an excellent neutron absorber. Halfnium can absorb 6 neutrons and the daughter particles also absorb neutrons. I believe each atom in a Halfnium rod can absorb up to 10 neutrons including the daughter particles (its been a long long time since I last made big...