Ionising Radiation 'stuff'

[llewop]

After some tangents and off topic discussions on the thread about Fukushima I did suggest 'there' that perhaps a thread 'here' may be a better place for technical or not so technical discussions on radiation.

There do appear to be a fair sprinkling of PHers 'in the industry' and others that perhaps are interested either professionally, through curiosity or to understand things better.

Part of my reason for this thread is that my background is in radiation protection so actually trying to help others understand ionising radiation and how to work/live with it safely and legally. Having said that I am certainly not the 'expert' on everything radiation related - I know how nuclear reactors work, but couldn't build one! But I would like to think I know what I'm talking about in some aspects of the radiation world - I've been doing it for the thick end of 30 years including 4 years at Chernobyl.

Any takers for 'radiological twaddle' chatter?

[rhinochopig]

I'll start, how have Lockheed solved the cusp confinement leakage problem in their fusion reactor design?

Edited by rhinochopig on Wednesday 26th November 21:11

[llewop]

rhinochopig said:

I'll start, how have Lockheed solved the cusp confinement leakage problem in their fusion reactor design?

Edited by rhinochopig on Wednesday 26th November 21:11

I'll leave that one to someone who's got a background in fusion, not something I've spent a lot of time on. My only comment is that fusion is always touted as 'clean' vs fission - mostly true, but there are still some issues in terms of waste and doses.

[anonymous-user]

This DIY radiation monitoring network could become quite interesting in time:

http://www.uradmonitor.com/

[hidetheelephants]

rhinochopig said:

I'll start, how have Lockheed solved the cusp confinement leakage problem in their fusion reactor design?

I suspect they have done no such thing; the press release was just a speculative kite flying exercise to try and attract investors. The USN sponsored effort by EMC2 seemed to go well, but has petered out somewhat. Fusion to non-geeks and politicians means a billion dollar donut built in France, so no other research gets any funding.

On topic; I think LNT sucks ass, Muller fudged his research for an agenda of some kind and nuclear power has been paying the price of his academic fraud ever since, and by corollary mankind has suffered retarded advancement and greater environmental degradation through the mining and burning of coal.

[dudleybloke]

Can radiation kill Chuck Norris?

[llewop]

Max_Torque said:

This DIY radiation monitoring network could become quite interesting in time:

http://www.uradmonitor.com/

McAfee didn't want me to go there! But I did anyway...

Could be interesting if there were enough locations, but only really if something happened. Most of the time I'd expect any given station to straight line, other than natural variations. Having said that the RIMNET system is similar so if there was an event it could be tracked across the country.

If there were an actual event then there would be extra input of local monitoring by a variety of agencies and responders around the event that would far exceed the input of any fixed stations.

[knitware]

It’s a boom time for Nuclear, ironically it’s quiet in my office at the moment but the new build stuff will provide enough work for me for the next 25 years.
I was sat on a pile cap, top of reactor 1, earlier in the year at Heysham 1.
We had to go inside the reactor vessel to check out some bits and we found that the bits needed work hence the reactors output being reduced.

A titbit of info:
The Heysham 2 canteen does puddings whereas Heysham 1 does not.

[Nimby]

https://xkcd.com/radiation/

[Caruso]

Is it safe to keep a tritium key ring in your pocket?

[rhinochopig]

Caruso said:

Is it safe to keep a tritium key ring in your pocket?

Not through homeland security

[otolith]

Caruso said:

Is it safe to keep a tritium key ring in your pocket?

Isotope lights are tritium filled glass tubes with a phosphor coating on the inside. Tritium decays to helium by beta decay, spitting out relatively low energy electrons. They collide with the phosphor coating and make it glow. They don't pass through the glass tube, even if they could they are stopped by a few mm of air, and even if they weren't, they are stopped by the outer layers of human skin. Completely safe, if intact.

[schmunk]

otolith said:

Caruso said:

Is it safe to keep a tritium key ring in your pocket?

Isotope lights are tritium filled glass tubes with a phosphor coating on the inside. Tritium decays to helium by beta decay, spitting out relatively low energy electrons. They collide with the phosphor coating and make it glow. They don't pass through the glass tube, even if they could they are stopped by a few mm of air, and even if they weren't, they are stopped by the outer layers of human skin. Completely safe, if intact.

Just don't drink it...

[otolith]

Or in this case inhale it.

I did quite a lot of work many years ago with tritiated cortisol for radioimmunoassay, the precautions required were pretty minimal.

[rovermorris999]

This have tightened up a lot since I was last involved. I'm still in touch with a friend who still works there and things are very different now. I'm still here though, hale and healthy.

[Chimune]

I used to be an industrial radiographer on mains gas lines....
Try working in Belfast with everyone calling you a 'bomber' !

[llewop]

Chimune said:

I used to be an industrial radiographer on mains gas lines....
Try working in Belfast with everyone calling you a 'bomber' !

[aw51 121565]

rovermorris999 said:

This have tightened up a lot since I was last involved. I'm still in touch with a friend who still works there and things are very different now. I'm still here though, hale and healthy.

Hi, I'm Murray Walker, and I'm your commentator today .

Murray: verb 'murray' as in "to murray", ie to say how well things are going just before they go very BADLY wrong indeed.



PS I sincerely wish you all the best, in particular a long life without complications .

[Gary C]

Max_Torque said:

This DIY radiation monitoring network could become quite interesting in time:

http://www.uradmonitor.com/

Simple gm tube counter is ok, but nothing on their site about its calibration to give a dose rate (which each monitoring station on the map is showing)

[rovermorris999]

aw51 121565 said:

Hi, I'm Murray Walker, and I'm your commentator today .

Murray: verb 'murray' as in "to murray", ie to say how well things are going just before they go very BADLY wrong indeed.



PS I sincerely wish you all the best, in particular a long life without complications .

Something will get me in the end

I doubt it'll have anything to do with any previous employment.