OT: Nuclear War???

[Slick]

Baron Munchausen said:
The 'worst case' for fusion power would be more like coal power. You might get a big 'whomp' if things failed, but tons of highly radioactive and posisonous elements would not be dumped into the environment.

I don't know how you can come to that conclusion since a working fusion power plant is something not yet achieved by science. Who knows what the final Version will be like and what its risks will be? I do know that an accident in which we effectively lose control of a fusioning piece of the sun is not going to be a small thing. The intense radiation in a fusion reactor will generate undesirable radioactive materials (waste) in a similar manner that fission reactors generate rad waste. How much? Who knows... that will be determined after one has been operating for a while; but I would think if one of those things blows, it could spew lots of nastiness, not just residual hydrogen and helium.

----------------
As far as earth's heat source goes, most reputable studies have postulated that there is a contribution from some long-lived radioisotopes in earth's core as well as some frictional heating due to a difference in rotational velocities of the earth's surface relative to the core. As to the exact nuclide(s) heating the earth, different studies have postulated different nuclides.

[atari_eric]

[quote]
Slick said:

Baron Munchausen said:
As far as earth's heat source goes, most reputable studies have postulated that there is a contribution from some long-lived radioisotopes in earth's core as well as some frictional heating due to a difference in rotational velocities of the earth's surface relative to the core. As to the exact nuclide(s) heating the earth, different studies have postulated different nuclides.

Funny, I always assumed it was via tidal forces due to the moon effectively "stirring" the core...very...slowly...

[Renegade 13]

Heh, Uranium ain't that bad! Some wells around here are undrinkable, due to the high uranium count. And it hasn't affected me yet....

*falls on the ground, twitching, and muttering incomprehensible gibberish...*

On a more serious note, I read that the decay of Thorium in the ground is the root cause of most of the geothermal heating on the earth. Does anyone know if that's true or not??

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

No, it was a computer error. Something to do with the software.

[Renegade 13]

Slick said:
However, there is absolutely no correllation between reactors and bombs.

Absolutely. Take for example the reactors Canada builds, the CANDU reacter. If I remember correctly (and if I'm wrong, please correct me) it uses deuterium, and somehow or other, uses nuclear reactions to produce power. These reactors are sold to other countries which *may* be a nuclear threat, but these reactors CAN NOT produce materials through their reactions that could be used to make a nuclear or dirty bomb. Therefore reactor does not = bomb making materials.

[Slick]

At the risk of becoming a pain...

There are some reactors that produce fissionable materials. They are known as "breeder reactors". These are the kind that the nuclear capable countries try to prevent other countries from building. They are generally used for making weapons grade material. [For further reading search for Israeli bombing of 2 reactors in Iraq in 1981.] I am not sure what kind of reactors are used in Canada, but I would be surprised if they were breeders. I'd expect them to be a typical pressurized water or heavy water power reactor used for electrical power generation. I'd guess that information is readily available for anyone somewhere on the net.

Also, all reactors generate radioactive waste. Therefore all reactors produce materials that could be used in making a dirty bomb. Radioactively, the highest of this waste is spent fuel. Any rad waste can be used in making a dirty bomb. Unless the most highly radioactive material was used (unlikely), a dirty bomb is more a public panic/disruption weapon than an actual health threat. If low level radioactive material (say rad medical waste used for treating heart attack victims, which is much easier to obtain than spent reactor fuel) is used in a dirty bomb, it will cause minor contamination in a small area but no real health threat. But nobody will want to go into that area until it is cleaned up.

What people are normally oblivious to is that we live in constant fields of radiation. Naturally occurring isotopes exist in the very ground we walk on. Radon is a radioactive gas that comes out of the ground. Concrete contains trace natural uranium and other radioactive nuclides. We are bombarded by cosmic rays from space, and all kinds of radiation from the sun - what do you think gives you that great suntan??? Heck, even your smoke detector in your house has probably somewhere around 1 microCurie of Americium-241. Americium-241 is a decay product of PLUTONIUM-241. Did you know that you have a radioactive decay product of PLUTONIUM-241 in your house; maybe in your kitchen???

[Atrocities]

Take the door off of your microwave oven, stick something in the tripper switch and set the timer for 3 minutes. Turn on. Been nice knowning you.

[Baron Munchausen]

Slick said:
At the risk of becoming a pain...

What people are normally oblivious to is that we live in constant fields of radiation. Naturally occurring isotopes exist in the very ground we walk on. Radon is a radioactive gas that comes out of the ground. Concrete contains trace natural uranium and other radioactive nuclides. We are bombarded by cosmic rays from space, and all kinds of radiation from the sun - what do you think gives you that great suntan??? Heck, even your smoke detector in your house has probably somewhere around 1 microCurie of Americium-241. Americium-241 is a decay product of PLUTONIUM-241. Did you know that you have a radioactive decay product of PLUTONIUM-241 in your house; maybe in your kitchen???

And if you have a box of spare 'mantles' for your camp lantern you have some thorium in your house, too. Yes, the glow from those gas-fired camp lanterns is partly radioactive!

Not to mention the radium in 'glow in the dark' clock dials or any other 'glow in the dark' goodies you might have.

And if you are still using a CRT for your computer monitor, you've got x-rays being created right in front of you. Modern CRTs are designed to very high standards, with lead shielding, and carefully tested to not emit more than trace amounts of radiation beyond their internal workings, but the x-rays are still there in any CRT.

[Renegade 13]

No Slick, you're not becoming a pain. Your information is quite interesting, and more reliable than most since you actually work in the nuclear industry. So please, if you have more knowledge to share, please do!

[Will]

Ah, I didn't think that the free neutrons would have a long-term effect. I thought that of the free neutrons, many decay into a proton + electron + neutrino rather quickly (I seem to remember from high school physics that it's hard to get a free neutron to stick around for more than a fraction of a second), adding to the "one-shot" radiation burst. Then I made the assumption that any neutrons reacting with surface elements would probably make a very short-lived isotope. I'm guessing I was wrong on this.

If I remember right, Uranium fission results in something like Barium and Krypton isotopes, each of which has a rather long decay chain (both in numbers of steps and number of years). It was this that I was saying that fusion bombs would probably be "better" than. Of course, there still will be some radioactive residues, but I thought that it wouldn't linger as long. What would it be that sticks around for so long with fusion? Is it mostly things like C13 -> C14? Are those isotopes then in existence at a substantially higher-than-natural ratio?