HOWTO Build a Nuclear Device
Eric Cordian
emc at artifact.psychedelic.net
Sat Nov 17 09:50:13 PST 2001
Dr. Joe Baptista wrote:
> hold on mr. expert.
> you hold a sub critical mass in your hand and in a few days you end up
> shitting out your guts, lose your hair and die.
> so i assume the person who had the opportunity to hold such a critical
> mass is now dead. where are you getting your info on what it feels
> like? curious george here.
The common fissionable isotopes are alpha emitters with half-lives
measured in thousands of years. Their rate of decay is miniscule. Alpha
radiation, which consists of helium nuclei, can be stopped by a sheet of
paper.
Plutonium-239, which has a half-life of about 24,000 years, is slightly
warm to the touch. Fissionable isotopes with much longer half-lives do
not noticibly differ from room temperature.
Alpha emitters are life threatening only if ingested.
No ones hair is falling out. Really.
--
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"
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