Posted by greywolf45 |
9/16/2004 2:06 AM | remove |
Wonder if these things stay radioactive long after they were shut down.
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Posted by greywolf45 |
9/16/2004 2:09 AM | remove |
Or maybe i should think about what i want to ask before i post. I was just wondering if these retained some radioactivity.
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Posted by CrazyMinerBob |
9/16/2004 4:13 AM | remove |
Yes. Components such as beampipes, shielding, magnets, and anything that was in (or in close proximity to) the particle beam generate residual radioactivity. This "accelerator waste" will be contaminated with radioactive isotopes. For example, aluminum or concrete exposed to a beam can generate Sodium-22, which has a half-life of 2.6 years. Heavier isotopes will have much longer half-lives. That being said, residual radiation is far less dangerous than (as an example) spent fuel rods. Although much accelerator waste must be disposed of, shielding components are usually reused.
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Posted by Ben |
9/17/2004 3:59 AM | remove |
Yeah, any time you accelerate particles other than leptons to relativistic velocities (or enegies, however you want to quantify it), you usually end up with some sort of bad radiation.
I have an acrylic Lichtenberg figure, and even though it was created using relativistic electrons, it still exhibits solarization from the bremsstrahlung. That radiation was electromagnetic (rather than the nucleic decay CrazyMinerBob talks about), and thus obviously not persistent. But my point is that there's always going to be some sort of radiation when you're using a particle accelerator.
What's your background, Bob?
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Posted by CrazyMinerBob |
9/17/2004 6:24 AM | remove |
Computer science (bioinformatics). Yours? I was (and still am) a physics groupie. I remember just enough to recall what bremsstrahlung is, and know that a barn doesn't always hold cows. Still more to come for this location: 19 MeV LINAC, 50 MeV proton injector, and BNCT ESQ accelerator!
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Posted by Ben |
9/17/2004 2:07 PM | remove |
I'm occasionally a computer engineering student, also a fan of the new arcane sciences. I really want to build a Farnsworth fusor, but I don't have the money for a good vacuum pump nor any good uses for a neutron source, other than making more neutrons.
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Posted by SnArF |
9/17/2004 5:36 PM | remove |
I make pizza at at a pizza place. I know, its not the same career, but these pictures are pretty fascinating.
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Posted by CrazyMinerBob |
9/18/2004 5:19 AM | remove |
Glad you like the pics. Like I said, stay tuned: more crazy big-science stuff to come.
On the subject of pizza, I used to deliver for Domino's (great job - get paid to drive and listen to music), and spent a summer tossing pies at a dump called MarJo's.
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Posted by Ben |
9/19/2004 7:03 AM | remove |
Used to deliver for Paul Revere's Pizza, a midwestern chain. Horrible job, I spent more money keeping my car running and paying for gas than I earned, and tips were nonexistant.
Looking forward to the upcoming pics.
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