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United Nuclear
goombah99 writes "Hey Mr. Science, need a rocket pack for your bicycle? Look no further than United Nuclear scientific supply where under their dangerous products category you can purchase your own radioactive uranium ore, as well as a two million volt generator if you need one. Or what mad scientist can do without his own particle accelerator (which they advertise can mutate DNA in seed, explore the atom, or simply transmute elements)"
You can almost certainly get anything United Nuclear carries cheaper at Archie McPhee.
I got like five images into a mirror and you brought it down! Anyway this is what I have...not much at all!
Actually, handwashing helps get rid of any particles that may be on your skin.
Try http://www.villainsupply.com/
The depleted uranium used in weapons can be easily and verifiably shown to produce no hazardous levels of radiation. As far as I know, the amount of radiation produced by depleted uranium is indistinguishable from background.
People that claim that depleted uranium caused their illnesses are mistaken. The cancer rate among people exposed to depleted uranium is the same as that of the population. Any appearence of depleted uranium-caused illnesses is an illusion, just like the Gulf War syndrome. (Studies show that the symptoms of Gulf War syndrome are just as common among people who were not in the Gulf War.)
-Splat
Likewise, you' be surprised just how small an amount of uranium actually goes into making a full fledged nuclear weapon. Those "few flakes in a jiffy bag", would be fatal to a very, very large number of people if refined, and then mixed in a town's water supply.
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
I actually got this info from an interview I saw with an Army General (I think he was a general) who was incharge of the DU risk factor investigation team, and once he turned in his report it was tossed aside because we were already into destert storm. From what I hear he retired and is leading a movement to look into it in a more open manner.
Just saying I beleived what he said and the other reports they showed on the program.
"Doctor, it's not the voices I hear in MY head, but the voices I hear in YOUR head that really frighten me."
Health risks:
In the former German Democratic Republic, thousands of miners were working with Uranium ore. Twenty years earlier they died than the rest of the people, by average.
See health hazards.
Who would you trust? How about The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists?
Original c.1950's Orange Fiesta Ware. Mantles from a Coleman lantern. The detection element from a smoke alarm. Old (c. 1900-1920) ceramic dental work. Rose tinted sunglasses from the 1950's.
All of those items are radioactive. In fact, the Orange Fiesta Wear is about 25,000-50,000 cpm of beta radiation.
Beta radiation cannot penetrate through your clothes. Alpha radiation cannot penetrate through the dead skin cells covering most of your body (but avoid getting it near your eyes). Gamma's will go through you no matter what, but unless they are in high doses they do little damage. As for neutrons, you should never have a reason to encounter a neutron source...but if you do, you are likely screwed.
NNPS - Class 9204!!
I think the original company is gone, and someone else has adopted their name.
The original company used to also own property in Uncasville, Connecticut. That property was later bought for the construction of the Mohegan Sun Indian Casino. I have been told the main gaming floor sits directly above where radioactive materials used to be stored in an underground bunker. Don't know it that's accurate.
Insightful?
Depleted uranium has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. You're more radioactive than an equivalent mass of DU, because of the carbon-14 and other trace radioisotopes in your body.
World Heath Org has a little fact sheet about DU (close enough to uranium ore for a /. posting I think. After DU is refined to contain almost nothing but uranium and these rocks are mostly rocks with a little uranium.)
Some highlights
Of the uranium that is absorbed into the blood, approximately 70% will be filtered by the kidney and excreted in the urine within 24 hours; this amount increases to 90% within a few days.
In a number of studies on uranium miners, an increased risk of lung cancer was demonstrated, but this has been attributed to exposure from radon decay products. Lung tissue damage is possible leading to a risk of lung cancer that increases with increasing radiation dose. However, because DU is only weakly radioactive, very large amounts of dust (on the order of grams) would have to be inhaled for the additional risk of lung cancer to be detectable in an exposed group. Risks for other radiation-induced cancers, including leukaemia, are considered to be very much lower than for lung cancer.
Due to its high density, about twice that of lead, the main civilian uses of DU include counterweights in aircraft, radiation shields in medical radiation therapy machines and containers for the transport of radioactive materials. The military uses DU for defensive armour plate.
Erythema (superficial inflammation of the skin) or other effects on the skin are unlikely to occur even if DU is held against the skin for long periods (weeks).
Gah.
Saying a kilogram of plutonium in a water supply could kill thousands of people is like saying the water in the oceans could kill every person on earth. Technically, it's true, if you divided it up into nice doses and deposited it specifically in the body where it could do the most harm, you'd kill a bunch of people, but that's not going to happen just by drinking the stuff.
Chemically, plutonium follows pathways similar to calcium. If you ingest it in a readily absorbable form, it can wind up in the bone marrow, and there it can do bad things. But most forms aren't readily absorbable; divide it finely enough to dissolve in water, and you're going to end up with plutonium oxide, which isn't readily absorbable and won't stay around in the body too long. There were accidents during the Manhattan Project of workers inhaling significant quantities of plutonium, and their death rates by lung cancer weren't any different from the norm. It's a very bad idea to ingest plutonium, but that's probably due more to its heavy metal toxicity than to its radiological hazards.
The water in the oceans could kill far more people than a bomb would, also, if you split it into handy 2-liter doses and crammed it into everyone's lungs.
It's not only an alpha emitter, however. Plutonium undergoes significant spontaneous fission, and depending on the fission mode can spit out betas, gammas, or neutrons depending on its whims.
United Nuclear Google Cache
Nope. That's U-238. Depleted Uranium is 99.8% U-238, 0.2% U-235, and 0.001% U-234. It is about 60% as radioactive as natural Uranium (99.27% U-238, 0.72% U-235, and 0.0054 U-234. source.
I thought that the real issue using DU ammo was heavy metal toxicity which is a serious issue.
More info on DU and heavy metal toxicity.
Major Doug Rokke's opinion....
Doug Rokke has a PhD in health physics and was originally trained as a forensic scientist. When the Gulf War started, he was assigned to prepare soldiers to respond to nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare, and sent to the Gulf. What he experienced has made him a passionate voice for peace, traveling the country to speak out. The following interview was conducted by the director of the Traprock Peace Center, Sunny Miller, supplemented with questions from YES! editors....
The War Against Ourselves
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Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.