Lancashire - Radioactive Material Stolen From Van.
- Thread starter Shambling Shaman
- Start date
Bet you some doughnut has nicked it, thought.."This is heavy" and taken it down the scrap yard and tried to weigh it in..
There was a film recently where Ray whinston does exactly that. Good watch.
Radioactive sources generally aren't nearly as dangerous as people make out.
They sometimes get sent in the post and the advice when they have decayed past their useful state is often just to flush them down the toilet.
That said, if the person that knicked it takes it out of the case and keeps it with them then it could potentially cause some long term damage.
And yes to whoever said it earlier, all radioactive elements decay down in an effort to become stable by emitting "radiation" (alpha= helium nuclei, beta=electron/positron, gamma= electromagnetic waves) and become various other isotopes and possibly elements until they become lead.
They sometimes get sent in the post and the advice when they have decayed past their useful state is often just to flush them down the toilet.
That said, if the person that knicked it takes it out of the case and keeps it with them then it could potentially cause some long term damage.
And yes to whoever said it earlier, all radioactive elements decay down in an effort to become stable by emitting "radiation" (alpha= helium nuclei, beta=electron/positron, gamma= electromagnetic waves) and become various other isotopes and possibly elements until they become lead.
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When I was a kid my physics teacher, Mr. W. told a story of going to collect some kind of isotope sample, I think it was when he was doing some research at a university before becoming a teacher, and being stopped by the police on the way (I don't know if it was a spot check, or if he hd done something like go a tad over the limit).
PC sees a big box in the back of the Land Rover, with big "radioactive" sign on it and asks what it is. Mr. W explains that it contains some isoptope sample that he goes to collect each month to bring back to the lab.
Apparently, on each trip after that he was met at each county border and given a police escort through the county.
PC sees a big box in the back of the Land Rover, with big "radioactive" sign on it and asks what it is. Mr. W explains that it contains some isoptope sample that he goes to collect each month to bring back to the lab.
Apparently, on each trip after that he was met at each county border and given a police escort through the county.
I know what you are saying by Lead and Depleted Uranium are a long way from being the same thing. Different elements by quite a long way. Both are very dense. Depleted Uranium is what is left of natural uranium after the good stuff has been taken out for power stations and weapons. Its very weakly radioactive (half life 4.4 billion years). For a hand portable container lead it probably used.
Georann if depleted uranium and lead are pretty much the same thing why does the military use depleted uranium rounds to punch through armour,as lead would just squash against armour,not trying to be funny just interested in how that works.
Depleted uranium is not lead. It is natural uranium but with the small amount of radioactive uranium (U235) removed from it. So depleted uranium is not appreciably radioactive. Probably less radioactive than your lunch, for example.
Uranium is about twice as dense as lead, and has other interesting properties when propelled through armour at kilometres per second.
Because it's much more dense than lead, depleted uranium has a higher mass than a lead shot of the same size and traveling at the same velocity will allow it to penetrate armour*. Also I did some looking into it and lead is a form of decayed uranium but it's a long change process lead is very far removed from it (10 or 15 stages of decay) so while it is a form of decayed uranium it has as much in common with it as a findus microwave beef dinner has with food.
* = A lot of early purposely designed anti-armour rounds from WW1 where lead coated with a steel core, much the same as a modern DU round is a DU casing wrapped around a steel dart (this isn't all modern AP rounds just the cheep and effective ones), the basic design just hasn't changed much really but the materials and applications have.
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Apologies guys I didnt read what I had written before posting it. Yes you're entirely right, depleted uranium isnt the same as lead! DOH!
What I meant to say is, eventually all radioactive elements decay to lead. As far as what the containers are made of, I don't know if they use depleted uranium but I thought Lead was the standard.
Sorry for the mixup and making myself sound like a wally!
Dan
What I meant to say is, eventually all radioactive elements decay to lead. As far as what the containers are made of, I don't know if they use depleted uranium but I thought Lead was the standard.
Sorry for the mixup and making myself sound like a wally!
Dan
Er, no.
Relatively light radioactive elements, such as the well-known caesium-137, strontium-90 and tritium don't decay to heavy elements like lead. Heavy elements tend to be alpha emitters. My example lighter elements are beta emitters. Elements which emit beta radiation (for example a lot of the fission products in radioactive waste from nuclear fuel reprocessing) do move up by one in atomic number when they decay (and so become a different element, the next one up in the periodic table) but my three examples have atomic numbers of 55, 38 and 1 respectively so they can't move anything like as far as lead, which has atomic number 82, before the decay products become stable (no longer radioactive).
Uranium does in fact decay to lead eventually, but it is VERY eventually -- several billion years for half of it to decay to the next of several stages. My three examples have half lives of tens of years, which is why I said uranium-238 is about as radioactive as your dinner.
More or less all the lead on the planet started out as lead when the planet was made and will remain as lead until it's swallowed by the sun.
It's a different matter for the uranium...
Ok now I feel thoroughly educated Its been a while since I studied it so apologies for the gaps in my knowledge.
I knew that the decay of Uranium to lead was a very very long process but I hadn't remembered that lighter elements wouldn't decay to lead.
Dan
Its been a while since I studied it so apologies for the gaps in my knowledge. I knew that the decay of Uranium to lead was a very very long process but I hadn't remembered that lighter elements wouldn't decay to lead.
Dan
Er, no.
Relatively light radioactive elements, such as the well-known caesium-137, strontium-90 and tritium don't decay to heavy elements like lead. Heavy elements tend to be alpha emitters. My example lighter elements are beta emitters. Elements which emit beta radiation (for example a lot of the fission products in radioactive waste from nuclear fuel reprocessing) do move up by one in atomic number when they decay (and so become a different element, the next one up in the periodic table) but my three examples have atomic numbers of 55, 38 and 1 respectively so they can't move anything like as far as lead, which has atomic number 82, before the decay products become stable (no longer radioactive).
Uranium does in fact decay to lead eventually, but it is VERY eventually -- several billion years for half of it to decay to the next of several stages. My three examples have half lives of tens of years, which is why I said uranium-238 is about as radioactive as your dinner.
More or less all the lead on the planet started out as lead when the planet was made and will remain as lead until it's swallowed by the sun.
It's a different matter for the uranium...
fascinating stuff indeed. Wish I paid more attention in physics at school but unfortunately I was young enough to already know everything there was to know.
Must get a grasp of the basics again.
