Blow Up USSR, Nuclear Apocalypse

I'm talking gamma shielding, more dense the material the better. Alpha and beta are easily shielded and not much of a concern to specifically shield for. The martial exposed to the radiation doesn't decay, ionizing radiation effects organic matter. If you had a radioactive source in a steel room, the room will not decay, and will not be irradiated or effected once the source was removed.

We did Radiography testing of steel and aluminum while I was doing my course in materials engineering technology.
 
ShawnC6 said:
I'm talking gamma shielding, more dense the material the better. Alpha and beta are easily shielded and not much of a concern to specifically shield for. The martial exposed to the radiation doesn't decay, ionizing radiation effects organic matter. If you had a radioactive source in a steel room, the room will not decay, and will not be irradiated or effected once the source was removed.

We did Radiography testing of steel and aluminum while I was doing my course in materials engineering technology.
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Yes Alpha doesn't need to be shielded as it only travels little over 2cm in air, even on contact it would just ionize on the layer of dead skin on your body becoming helium. Beta on the other hand most definitely needs to be shielded despite the fact it only affects your eyes, skin and extremities. It may not be as penetrating as gamma but beta dose rates for example may be up to 1000 times greater than gamma dose rates on irradiated fuel meaning if there were 1 rem/hr gamma there would be 1000 rem/hr beta. You obviously wouldn't be getting anywhere near irradiated fuel but even at much lower dose rates you still need to protect yourself from beta using protective clothing, eye protection and gloves. You would also need to keep the amount of time you're at contact distance to a minimum and using outstretched arms do what you need to do while keeping the trunk of your body as far from the source as possible. Failure to properly shield yourself from beta would result at the very least in a reddening of the skin like a sunburn, and ranging up to blindness and necrosis of the flesh.
 
We were only using iridium 192 and cobalt 60 and all shielding we used was to stop the gamma radiation. However it was excessive shielding and any beta would have been stopped 20x over anyway.
 
ShawnC6 said:
We were only using iridium 192 and cobalt 60 and all shielding we used was to stop the gamma radiation. However it was excessive shielding and any beta would have been stopped 20x over anyway.
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Things are a lot different in a lab than out in the field where you're responsible for your own protection and the protection of others while having a job to do. It's much more complicated and potentially dangerous than standing behind a lead lined concrete wall, exposing a source for 20 seconds and then boxing it back up.

Basically what I'm getting at is whether it be Alpha, Beta, Gamma or Neutron they are all potentially harmful and most definitely not harmless
 
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ShawnC6 said:
We were only using iridium 192 and cobalt 60 and all shielding we used was to stop the gamma radiation. However it was excessive shielding and any beta would have been stopped 20x over anyway.
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Yo also need to keep in mind, Turk and I both said that to irradiate something you need a neutron source. Sounds like your on the right track now though. On a side note, I'd be willing to bet that I cooked your cobalt and iridium for you Shawn :)
 
BrownGuy said:
wow...I'm surprised that California still exists...and that we still have fish in the pacific...
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The reason for that is simple. Only the longest-lived radionuclides linger around in the environment for long enough to cause harm over many generations of marine life. In short, cesium-137 with a half life of 30 years is one of the issues. It bioaccumulates in an inverse relationship with external potassium concentrations, which are very high in seawater. Thus risk from Cs-137 is lowest in the marine environment. Similar relationships exist for other radionuclides, for example strontium-90, only that it responds inversely to external calcium concentration, which is also high in the ocean.
 
weasel1 said:
Your NDT guy is pretty much bang on. The question is what you have the light pointing at. Irradiated aluminum will decay very quickly, stainless steel much longer, but it will decay. Your understanding of contamination and irradiation is correct.
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Hey, I got one right! :) :dancingbanana:
 
There is very little-no chance of getting a "contaminated" SKS from Russia because of above mentioned reasons. But just to make sure, and in the name of science, I tested mine.

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No abnormal radiation detected :)
 
Again please don't waste your money on those stupid rad meter apps. They do not work, they can't work, they don't have the required hardware. A coworker of mine who should have known better bought a couple out of curiousity and they did not read a thing in either the gamma or beta source checkers.
 
12 pages, and nobody has mentioned the obvious solution yet?!?

You could try to decontaminate your SKS by putting it in the dishwasher!
 
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