Machining Tungsten

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by Martin Dowing on 12/09/2017 21:50:05:

That depends, what they were machining.

Even with Plutonium 239 I am not aware of anyone dead due to radiation poisoning nor exposure traceable cancer.

Plutonium-239 is 200 000 times more radioactive than uranium btw.

Energy of alpha radiation is in range few MeV, very much like in case of Uranium and half life is 200 000 times shorter than uranium. Both do not posess gamma radiation associated hazards.

You really have to work with something short living to expose yourself to severe radiation hazards. Examples are Polonium-210 (half life less than half a year), radium (1600 years), Plutonium 238 (half life 89 years, this isotope is useful in spaceship batteries but useless for weapons) or fission products (hazardous waste requiring long term storage has half life between few and a hundred years or so).

Very short living materials like I-131 even if extremely dangerous, decay fast and doesn't pose risk for long.

I believe, the most dangerous radioactive material processed in large quantities is said Pu 238 used for spacecraft batteries. Such batteries could contain few hundreds of grams of Pu-238 each. Anyone absorbing 10ug (10^-5 gram) would be dead like a dodo within months to a year, very much like Radium Girls of the past. Radium girls could absorb 0.1 – 1 miligrams radium each…

hope this helps,

Martin

Martin

Edited By Martin Dowing on 12/09/2017 21:51:46

You should tell these guys. Then they wouldn't need to waste their time poncing about with those silly gloves and chambers. What would they know?

Murray

[Martin DowingParticipant @martindowing58466]

The photo of glowing cylinder is one of Pu-238, which *is* very dangerous and warrants many precautions for those working with it.

However common Pu-239 used as fissile material is far *less* dangerous, comparing to former one.

Glove boxes used on film are standard feature in radiochemical laboratories – nothing to fret about. Btw, if these peoples have attempted to work in such glove boxes with something what *really* is radioactive, they would be dead in days or weeks.

Scientists involved are separating Pu-239 from spent fuel, which is much more dangerous than Pu-239 itself are acting wisely. Pure Pu-239 would not need such precautions, but nevertheless would also be handled that way, for political reasons and also to show that "we care". On the other hand it is not wise to have it spilled around the lab here and there, perhaps together with other radioactive materials

Many dangers of Plutonium are just a mythology (if we discuss Pu-239, Pu-240 or Pu-244), with one notable exception that sufficient quantity of Pu-239 can make a reasonable bang or in milder cases so called "excursion", invariably lethal to peoples around (they tend to live few days, up to 3 weeks after such incident).

From scientific perspective materials presented in film *do* contain some errors, for example traces of Pu-239 and also Pu-244 can be found in Nature, here on Earth, so material is not entirely man made but exceedingly rare.

Again, no one died of radiological or chemical poisoning while handling Plutonium and no single case of cancer could be traced back to such activity.

Peoples who had accidents and absorbed Plutonium-239 are still alive 50 and more years after incidents. They are already doing better than general population.

So Plutonium is *the most toxic* element, which actually poisoned no one.

But lets mythology live for ever.

Martin

Edited By Martin Dowing on 30/09/2017 20:54:25

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

While staying with one of Dads uncles in 1984, he was telling me that it had been discovered that workers in ordinary coal fired power stations were being exposed radiation to far higher levels than was allowed in nuclear plants. Also a visiting woman sent the instrument off the clock when being checked out of the building, the found it was her Lapis Lazul jewelery. I think I got the right jem stone, it had been her grandmothers, and probably earlier.

He was at the time CEO of British Nuclear Fuels.

Ian S C

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Martin Evans 6 on 28/09/2017 16:15:01:

3m?

In the boot?

Some car.

Some boot.

Martin.

Sawn into 3 bits.

I used to be able to fit a full 3m bar in the mondeo, one end in the passenger footwell

[Martin DowingParticipant @martindowing58466]

@Ian S C,

In some areas Radon (mainly Rn-222) becomes to be a nuisance. It seeps from underground rocks to houses built there. Radon is a noble gas – hence it is volatile and penetrates structures easily.

It is very radioactive and several of its daughter isotopes are also very radioactive. In some areas there is an epidemiological evidence that exposure of unlucky homeowners to these niceties does increase overall cancer risk slightly or in particularly badly affected houses considerably..

Exposure to Radon in ug quantity, say 10^-6g would in all probabilities prove lethal. By comparison, weight to weight Plutonium-239 would prove entiraly harmless, benign substance.

Statements regarding radioactive emissions of coal plants are correct, they are higher than emissions of nuke plants, until the latter go pop!. It seems that any given nuke reactor runs approximately 1% chance to go pop! in its lifetime.

One of professions most in danger of radiation are aircraft crews. At high altitudes cosmic radiation and solar ionizing radiation is a considerable threat.

Fluffing around van Allen belts doesnt do you any good either. 24 hours there would kill.

Martin

[BWParticipant @bw]

Given the brittle nature of tungsten noted in this thread, are tungsten taps a good idea ? I have seen them advertised on ebay, quite expensive on some sites, and I assumed they were a good thing.

Would they tend to snap more easily than hss ?

Bill

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Biil,

That's just advertising shorthand. They mean Tungsten Steel (steel with an addition of tungsten that makes it harder and with better hot strength). Similar imprecision is used to describe drills as Cobalt.

HTH,

Rod

Edited By Roderick Jenkins on 02/10/2017 10:57:03

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Posted by Ian S C on 01/10/2017 14:13:24:

While staying with one of Dads uncles in 1984, he was telling me that it had been discovered that workers in ordinary coal fired power stations were being exposed radiation to far higher levels than was allowed in nuclear plants. Also a visiting woman sent the instrument off the clock when being checked out of the building, the found it was her Lapis Lazul jewelery. I think I got the right jem stone, it had been her grandmothers, and probably earlier.

He was at the time CEO of British Nuclear Fuels.

Ian S C

The only time I ever set off the alarm in a hand monitor trying to get out of a radioactive facility it turned out to be my wrist watch, which had a luminous dial, probably 1980's vintage swatch.

[Author]

Posts