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"Radiological Emergency", man that makes you feel good
- Thread starter Backtothemac
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alex_ant
macrumors 68020
I'm sorry you didn't know this, but americium is not really a big deal on the list of possible radioactive dangers. It emits mostly alpha particles which can be stopped in a few cm of air (or by your skin without penetrating it). The only way it could hurt you is if you breathed it in. If you own a smoke detector, you've already got americium in your house. Terorrist. I'll bet you've even got more than one smoke detector in your house. Building a dirty bomb, are you?
Beryllium is toxic but get real, building a dirty bomb out of it? You might as well build a bomb out of vinegar and baking soda, because it would probably do more damage.
Beryllium is toxic but get real, building a dirty bomb out of it? You might as well build a bomb out of vinegar and baking soda, because it would probably do more damage.
yeah, i just grabbed a med book and looked at beryllium. Apparently it can cause sensitivity in 1-15% of people exposed to it in hight concentations over time (like people who work closely with it) and even then it cause lung scaring which causes problems but not usually death. Doesnt sound like a great terrorist weapon. It was listed in the rare/minor lung illness section of the book 🙄
elfin buddy
macrumors 6502a
hmmmmmm...
This might be more serious than it first appears. If I remember correctly, beryllium is commonly (or was commonly) used in nuclear weapons. I think I read that if a beryllium atom is bombarded with an alpha particle, the nucleus of the beryllium will become unstable and emit a neutron. If this is done on a large enough scale, enough neutrons could be emmitted to cause a chunk of uranium or plutonium to fission and possibly go supercritical. If this is linked to terrorism, it sounds like someone is building a nuke...
However, only beryllium-9 will emit neutrons when bombarded with alpha particles, so hopefully they stole the wrong type of beryllium 🙂
This might be more serious than it first appears. If I remember correctly, beryllium is commonly (or was commonly) used in nuclear weapons. I think I read that if a beryllium atom is bombarded with an alpha particle, the nucleus of the beryllium will become unstable and emit a neutron. If this is done on a large enough scale, enough neutrons could be emmitted to cause a chunk of uranium or plutonium to fission and possibly go supercritical. If this is linked to terrorism, it sounds like someone is building a nuke...
However, only beryllium-9 will emit neutrons when bombarded with alpha particles, so hopefully they stole the wrong type of beryllium 🙂