Anything Radioactive Topic

[Dave]

So a couple of days ago, Kelpie had an X ray for a suspected broken toe (it's not). She put her foot right on the sensor of my geiger counter as soon as she got home. No noticable increase in radioactivity.

That would be because being exposed to Ionising radiation doesn't make a human "radioactive".

X-rays are produced by passing a high voltage across a cathode tube (usually composed of a cathode filament and a spinning anode disk). Pass a current through the filament causes electrons to cloud around it, and then apply a huge (50 to 120,000v) potential difference across the tube and those electrons then fly across the tube smashing into the anode, this creates 99% heat and 1% x-rays.

The moment you kill the voltage (after a few milliseconds) the x-rays cease being produced, those that where produced are either attenuated by the body or by some form of shielding but they just give up their energy usually as heat.

To become radioactive you either need to be covered or have ingested something that is undergoing radioactive decay (we do this in nuclear medicine and PET scanning but all other diagnostic tests use some variation of the x-ray tube method, or something that doesn't use ionising radiation (Ultrasound, MRI)).

 

[DiogoJ42]

I didn't expect her to be glowing. It was really just an answer to the question asked a while back about testing after an X-ray.

 

[Dave]

I didn't expect her to be glowing. It was really just an answer to the question asked a while back about testing after an X-ray.

I can't help showing off!

 

[DiogoJ42]

Remind me to run my counter over YOU next time we meet. Surely over the years you must have absorbed a few rads!

 

[Poisson]

BBC would abandon ship and radio would be broadcast from a bunker somewhere. Not seen the vid but they'd report NOTHING to the plebs. It'd be claimed as terrorism as well...

 

[Dar]

Some really, really clever bloke decided that it would be a great idea to sneak into the Fukushima Red Zone and take pictures. In shorts and flip flops. I'm sure he'll be fine though, he was wearing a mask after all.

I'm sure he'll be fine.

http://imgur.com/a/KabxJ

 

[DiogoJ42]

Hey kids, come here! Watch this, we're about to see evolution in action!

 

[Poisson]

What. An. Idiot.

 

[DiogoJ42]

Thought you'd all like to know, yesterday @Danny (who shall henceforth be known as Radioactive Man) was reading 500cpm, with peaks of 900cpm depending what body part I was waving the Geiger over! My meter tops out at 1000cpm. Background level in the room before he turned up was negligable.
This was such an amazing sight that after lunch a few people came back to our room to witness this for themselves! (Didn't want to have to explain the Geiger counter to BPB security staff, so left it in the hotel). I believe some pictures were posted to farcebök.

Thanks to the good old inverse square law, you only had to stand a couple of meters away from him to be safe. Typically, he went out of his way to stand as close to me as possible all day.

I dread to think what kind of doseage we all must have recieved over the weekend. Especially anyone who shared "intimate" ride seating with him. I think we need @Islander to tell us how to equate cpm in to doseage over time.

ETA:
I'll let Danny himself tell you about the note he left for the hotel housekeeping staff.

 

[DiogoJ42]

I found this page about how many clicks is "bad".

How many CPM of radiation is bad?
Answer: It depends on how long you are exposed at any given level. The Radiation Network website, for example, uses a threshold warning level of 100 CPM, mainly because it is unusual to observe levels of 100 or higher without something more going on in the area than just background level.

(More details in the link).

I've seen other sites in the past say that if it goes above 20cpm, you shouldn't hang around too long.

.... So yeah, did anyone ride with Danny on Mouse / Avalanche, etc? If so, and your hair starts falling out over the next few weeks.... it's been nice knowing you!

 

[Poisson]

Hinkley Point C is on hold, as I believe Bradwell is. China giving threats won't help even though we should build and operate themselves instead of Chinese and French really.

 

[delta79]

I see @Danny has a new outfit, here is a image of him in it

I do wonder who on here is fallout boy (looks at @DiogoJ42 )

 

[Danny]

I avoided Mouse and rode solo on 'Lanche, @DiogoJ42

 

[Martin]

 

[DiogoJ42]

Jiminey Jillikers!

 

[DiogoJ42]

Wasn't sure whether to put this in the space topic or here, but it's radiation related, so....

Results show there were no differences in CVD [(cardiovascular disease)] mortality rate between non-flight (9%) and LEO [(low-Earth orbit)] (11%) astronauts. However, the CVD mortality rate among Apollo lunar astronauts (43%) was 4–5 times higher than in non-flight and LEO astronauts.

Seems astronauts that have been exposed to cosmic radiation are screwed.
Article link.

 

[Rojo]

I've seen a cropped version of the image in this article before but never the full image. The thought you can be 62 miles away and still receive 3rd degree burns is as interesting as it is horrifying.

http://www.care2.com/causes/terrifying-infographic-reveals-the-power-of-modern-nukes.html

 

[DiogoJ42]

Oh yes, you only have to use Nukemap to plonk a Tsar Bomba on London to see how insane it was. And remember, that was a half-yield prototype!

 

[Rojo]

Oh yes, you only have to use Nukemap to plonk a Tsar Bomba on London to see how insane it was. And remember, that was a half-yield prototype!

There goes my bugging out plans in the Cotswolds I think I've just lost my afternoon to Nukemap.

 

[MattyH]

Oh yes, you only have to use Nukemap to plonk a Tsar Bomba on London to see how insane it was. And remember, that was a half-yield prototype!

At least my house is safe. We might have 6 fingers but at least were safe from a nuke on London.