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Alaskan Cyclotron - Not in My Backyard!
j-beda writes "Wired reports that "Albert Swank Jr., a 55-year-old civil engineer in Anchorage, Alaska, is a man with a mission. He wants to install a nuclear particle accelerator in his home." To be used to create medically useful isotopes, and even though some of the neighbours are supportive, opponents "compared potential damage from a cyclotron mishap to the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident" though an expert says "Probably the worst thing that could happen with small cyclotrons is that the operator might electrocute themselves." It looks like the Anchorage Assembly plans to hold an public hearing on December 20 to determine whether Swank will be permitted to install the device."
old news.... Old, but still Funny
I can understand the hold. It's all about risk. People in the area most likely don't know the possible repurcussions of this. At least, they havn't been stated before the record. If the repurcussions are low, I am sure this will go in without a problem. Have to look out a little for public safety.
Evolution or ID?
Local lawmakers rushed to introduce emergency legislation banning the use of cyclotrons in home businesses. State health officials took similar steps, and have suspended Swank's permit to operate cyclotrons on his property.
This the same lawmakers who wanted a A bridge to nowhere costing $941 Million?
the sig
Wasn't very dangerous either.
Simon's Rock College
That'll bring down your NIMBY score...
I'd put a skateboarding halfpipe next to him, maybe that will improve the area.
Peter Corcoran
This is just people being stupid. Also the reason they dropped 'Nuclear' from NMRI.
also beware of those cookies /. gives you from doubleclick.net, ru4.com and who know where else.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Anchorage has a quarter million people, not exactly what most people would consider a "remote area."
I guess you could have meant remote as in far away from you, personally, but then your comment would make less sense.
Than living in a country where everyone has a gun ;o)
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
How do I get one installed in MY home? While it doesnt have the style points of being able to say "You do realise each one of us has an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on our backs?", it certainly would be a conversation peice ;-)
Plenty of people do stupid shit in their garden sheds, thats what they are there for!
:)
I have read about a kid building a reactor from smoke detectors, and the NZ guy who built his own cruise missile.
I sense a business opportunity for lead lined garden housing
Also, didn't Young Einstein manage to split the beer atom in his? (and with a hammer and chisel if I remember rightly)
liqbase
You would think that after the Manhattan project didn't incenerate the earth as it was feared it would by some people incited by a few wrong-headed scientists, that folks would do a little research before knee-jerking their way to denying this man his chance to do basic research.
To me, the only valid complaint one might make without having ana advanced degree in physics would be wondering about the effects of the huge magnetic pulses this would put out and the effects on his neighbors' electronics for the few micro seconds a day. But then again, if their house is close enough to be affected by these fields, they're too close anyway.
Nuclear Reactors Melt YOU!
Like Chernobyl, which was dangerous.
Simon's Rock College
*sigh*
Can someone please post the article text - I go to the site, and it says I must watch an ad to read the article, so I watch the stupid ad, then click the link to go to the article, then it brings me back to the page saying I must watch an ad...
Yay for online advertising.
While obviously a cyclotron can't compare to a commercial nuclear power plant, I wouldn't want my neighbor building one. Aside from self-electrocution, they can release high energy photons which could reach other people, if improperly shielded. There is also the issue with any radioactive waste he may produce. The risk may be miniscule, but people generally shy away from non-controllable risks. While the guy is a civil-engineer, TFA doesn't say whether he has training or experience in nuclear technology or health physics either.
That said, I think it would be awesome to have a back-yard cyclotron. Imagine all the cool things you could do, activate pennies, evil radioactive monsters, become THE HULK, etc.
Step 1: Bury head in sand / soil / tarmac / other ground covering.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit.
I am starting to think "people" won't be happy until we are all clones - of course we couldn't be clones due to cloning though. Sigh.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
I guess he could go with superconducting magnets, but that requires mad crogenic skillz. And you still need lots of iron.
Even then he's going to need another big jar of cash for the RF generator, excellent high-vacuum skills and lots of electricity. Then if he's lucky, he *might* be able to generate a microamp of million volt electrons-- about what the average cat brushing by nylon curtains can generate.
I wouldnt worry too much about the nuclear-spiltting capabilities here.
I bet he wants to use dihydrogen monoxide as a coolant too. Got to watch out its dangerous stuff. http://www.dhmo.org/
...is never a good way to describe a potential risk or accident.
We will know it didn't work by the 20 foot crater where the guy's house used to be.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Albert Swank Jr., a 55-year-old civil engineer in Anchorage, Alaska, is a man with a mission. He wants to install a nuclear particle accelerator in his home. But when neighbors learned of plans to place the 20-ton device inside the house where Swank operates his engineering firm, their response was swift: Not in my backyard. Local lawmakers rushed to introduce emergency legislation banning the use of cyclotrons in home businesses. State health officials took similar steps, and have suspended Swank's permit to operate cyclotrons on his property. "Some of the neighbors who are upset about the cyclotron have started calling it SHAFT -- Swank's high-energy accelerator for tomography," attorney Alan Tesche said. "Part of what's got everyone so upset is we're not sure when it's going to arrive on the barge. We know Anchorage is gonna get the SHAFT, but we just don't know when." Tesche is also the local assemblyman who represents the area where Swank and his cyclotron would reside. Johns Hopkins University agreed to donate the used cyclotron, which is roughly six feet tall by eight feet wide, to Swank's business, Langdon Engineering and Management. The devices are relatively scarce in Alaska, and are used to produce radioactive substances that can be injected into patients undergoing PET scans. Short for positron emission tomography, a PET scan is similar to an X-ray. During the imaging procedure, radioactive material administered to the patient can help medical professionals detect cancerous tissue inside the body. The substance typically remains radioactive for only a couple of hours. For Swank, the backyard cyclotron is a personal quest: He lost his father to cancer years ago, and he says his community needs the medical resource. He also wants to use it to inspire young people to learn about science. "My father worked with me while I was building my first cyclotron at age 17 in this same home, and he encouraged all of the educational pursuits that resulted in who I am," Swank said. "Because of that and my desire to not see other cancer patients suffer -- if I can use this technology to prevent one hour of suffering, or stimulate one young person's mind to pursue science, I will devote every resource that I possess to that." Swank maintains the device is not dangerous for nearby residents. But assemblyman Tesche says noble intentions don't outweigh potential risks and nuisances. He and others fear a particle accelerator could pose hazards such as radiation leak risks to nearby residences. They also think the large amount of electricity it consumes could drain available power in the neighborhood. "We in Alaska embrace technology, and we love it -- but we would like to see this in a hospital or industrial area, where it belongs," Tesche said. "We don't need cyclotrons operating out of back alleys, or in someone's garage." In a letter to the city assembly, the South Addition Community Council compared potential damage from a cyclotron mishap to the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident. "Cyclotrons are not nuclear reactors," explains Roger Dixon of the Fermi National Accelerator laboratory or Fermilab in Illinois, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. "Probably the worst thing that could happen with small cyclotrons is that the operator might electrocute themselves." At Fermilab, Dixon oversees the world's highest-energy collider, about four miles in circumference. It smashes matter and antimatter together so scientists can study the nature of energy. Dixon told Wired News that shielding from concrete walls or lead sheets is typically used to prevent the electrical beams produced by smaller cyclotrons from escaping. "Our neighbors here at Fermilab like us," said Dixon. "But then, our particle accelerator is not installed in a living room." Some of Swank's neighbors are not worried. Veronica Martinson, a homemaker who has lived next door to Swank for 36 years, thinks a cyclotron next door might be a good thing. "Albert was a star science student when he was a child," Martinson said. "He wants schoolchil
But when neighbors learned of plans to place the 20-ton device inside the house where Swank operates his engineering firm, their response was swift: Not in my backyard.
Find local technology jobs. Local lawmakers rushed to introduce emergency legislation banning the use of cyclotrons in home businesses. State health officials took similar steps, and have suspended Swank's permit to operate cyclotrons on his property.
"Some of the neighbors who are upset about the cyclotron have started calling it SHAFT -- Swank's high-energy accelerator for tomography," attorney Alan Tesche said. "Part of what's got everyone so upset is we're not sure when it's going to arrive on the barge. We know Anchorage is gonna get the SHAFT, but we just don't know when." Tesche is also the local assemblyman who represents the area where Swank and his cyclotron would reside.
Johns Hopkins University agreed to donate the used cyclotron, which is roughly six feet tall by eight feet wide, to Swank's business, Langdon Engineering and Management.
The devices are relatively scarce in Alaska, and are used to produce radioactive substances that can be injected into patients undergoing PET scans.
Short for positron emission tomography, a PET scan is similar to an X-ray. During the imaging procedure, radioactive material administered to the patient can help medical professionals detect cancerous tissue inside the body. The substance typically remains radioactive for only a couple of hours.
For Swank, the backyard cyclotron is a personal quest: He lost his father to cancer years ago, and he says his community needs the medical resource. He also wants to use it to inspire young people to learn about science.
"My father worked with me while I was building my first cyclotron at age 17 in this same home, and he encouraged all of the educational pursuits that resulted in who I am," Swank said.
"Because of that and my desire to not see other cancer patients suffer -- if I can use this technology to prevent one hour of suffering, or stimulate one young person's mind to pursue science, I will devote every resource that I possess to that."
Swank maintains the device is not dangerous for nearby residents.
But assemblyman Tesche says noble intentions don't outweigh potential risks and nuisances. He and others fear a particle accelerator could pose hazards such as radiation leak risks to nearby residences. They also think the large amount of electricity it consumes could drain available power in the neighborhood.
"We in Alaska embrace technology, and we love it -- but we would like to see this in a hospital or industrial area, where it belongs," Tesche said. "We don't need cyclotrons operating out of back alleys, or in someone's garage."
In a letter to the city assembly, the South Addition Community Council compared potential damage from a cyclotron mishap to the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident.
"Cyclotrons are not nuclear reactors," explains Roger Dixon of the Fermi National Accelerator laboratory or Fermilab in Illinois, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. "Probably the worst thing that could happen with small cyclotrons is that the operator might electrocute themselves."
At Fermilab, Dixon oversees the world's highest-energy collider, about four miles in circumference. It smashes matter and antimatter together so scientists can study the nature of energy.
Dixon told Wired News that shielding from concrete walls or lead sheets is typically used to prevent the electrical beams produced by smaller cyclotrons from escaping.
"Our neighbors here at Fermilab like us," said Dixon. "But then, our particle accelerator is not installed in a living room."
Some of Swank's neighbors are not worried. Veronica Martinson, a homemaker who has lived next door to Swank for 36 ye
call attaention to my cyclotron and they will pass laws and ordanaces banning them ,and i just replaced the electrode cooling pipes with a radiator from a 1972 ford maverick.
in the article they quote an expert from fermilab. incidentally i grew up less than 5 miles from there and all i have to show from it is this third eye and multiple superfluous nipples. one of my neighbors was affected to the extent that he can set things on fire by only using his mind... why did i have to get the shaft when it comes to deformities/mutations caused by cyclotrons? WHY GOD WHY?!?!?
Of course there are now other cutting edge fields that also are now open to low power and smaller scale/lower cost experimentation as well. These include fun with lasers, slowing light through different mediums, and of course the ever popular tabletop "cold fusion" experiments. Some of these do have low enough cost to offer the garage or shed bound would be noble prize winner an oppertunity.
So, would you trust this guy? Do you feel lucky?
This guy's running a business. If he's using industrial equipment, he should be in an industry-zoned location. Why would he be running it out of his house? Save money on a building? Avoid paying property taxes? Avoid OSHA regulation? Not so noble. It's not like he's a weekend inventor with contraptions in his basement that likely would only hurt himself. This is heavy-duty equipment (20T) that will be used by a (presumably) for-profit company.
... if he's found guilty of witchcraft?
He doesn't plan to build one, he will just get a second-hand one. Not your usual ebay stuff though...
"Johns Hopkins University agreed to donate the used cyclotron, which is roughly six feet tall by eight feet wide, to Swank's business, Langdon Engineering and Management."
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
White Hat or Black Hat? http://www.antipope.org/charlie/fiction/moderator. html
Now everyone will have one if this guy succeeds. I can hear my wife now, "The Jones just got a new cyclotron." How can a guy keep up.
1. Cyclotron
2. Build own stargate with postorder material
3. Build warp engine
4. Build working deathstar on 1:1 scale
5. Build new porch at house so car can stand in shadow in the hot Alaskan summers.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
Folks may be (perhaps legitimately) worried that property values might drop significantly in the surrounding area if this guy gets his way (I know it's Alaska, but let's pretend it's Anytown, USA). I understand that argument that it's your property and therefore your right to do whatever you want with it, neighbors be damned, etc., but if that's the way you feel, think about Joe Anchorage when he gets transferred back to the Continental US in six months and finds that his property's value just took a 33% cyclotron nose dive . . . just making the point that it might not be safety issue as much as a money issue. When in doubt, follow the $$$.
It msut be an insider joke because searching on google for "NMR" , "NMR operation" and "NMR hospital" only gave back web site about magnetic resonnance...
Dr Ray Stantz: You know, it just occurred to me that we really haven't had a successful test of this equipment.
Dr. Egon Spengler: I blame myself.
Dr. Peter Venkman: So do I.
Dr Ray Stantz: Well, no sense in worrying about it now.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back.
These things are not toys. They make prompt and residual radiation. It's made to transmute elements into radioactive forms. Concern is not unreasonable.
.max
Again: this machine will be used to make radioisotopes. Short half lives or not, the proximal homowners have a legitamite reason to be concerned about a radioisotope factory next to their homes. What about contamination issues?
2: It is reasonable to have some concern about shielding. Anything energetic enough to make radionuclides can also make X-rays by the assload. Given that we're talking nuclear transmutation, a concern about neutron radiation (fairly long ranged and not stopped by standard rad shielding).
ASS-U-Ming the installation will be industry standard, there shouldn't be a problem. If this guy doesn't know what he's doing, he could cause problems. Given that nobody seems to know what his specific shielding and radcon/exposure control plan is... he screwed up by not getting preapproved in advance.
FWIW, i have run a re-tasked SDI helium-3 RFQ PET accelerator, and currently run the Tevatron, have manufactured antiprotons for the last 7 years send the Giant NuMI Neutrino beam from Fermilab to Minnesota, so i have a clue.
Let us rise above our usu. cynical smirking condescencion and allow as how the loi polloi have a legit concern in this instance.
If a Civil Engineer can have an "unlicensed proton pack in his back yard", then why not let a Gray Hound bus driver fly 737's. Who needs a Nuclear Engineering degree anyway? Street car conductor or brain surgeon? Is this guy related to Jethro Bodein of the Clampet clan?
Please mod me 1 or troll. It's where the truth is these days, even on Slashdot. Beware the power of moderators everywh
I presume this guy has a reasonable "back yard." The article didn't say how large his property was. Assuming that Swank has room for a reasonable building in his back yard to house this endeavor, I don't see why this is any different than a garden shed or a garage.
With all those household chemicals, pesticides, sprayers, fertilizers and the like, one could easily mix them wrong and gas the neighborhood to death. The gasoline from the lawn mower might leak and cause an explosion from the fumes. The pesticides might get in to someone's well and poison them. The mulch pile might catch fire and smoulder...
The list is long. The point is these are every day hazards that people are comfortable with. This is all about feelings and very little about the actual hazard. It's not even about ignorance. People are woefully ignorant about the products they use in their houses every day.
I say hire a PR firm through the local hospital, buy the neighbors some doughnuts, and listen to the chatter. Clearly there are a few arrogant idiots who need to be identified and pushed back in to their caves^H^H^H^H^Hhomes.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
an "expert" says "Probably the worst thing that could happen with small cyclotrons is that the operator might electrocute themselves"
X-ray tubes are much simpler to build, produce lower energy radiation and yet dentists have to protect themselves from daily use.
Cancer is the worst thing.
Theres no way in hell this is going to fly.
1: Elemdorf AFB is just outside of Anchorage, like 2 miles if that.
1.1: Yes Anchorage is a pretty big city, still doesnt matter, the AF wouldnt let it happen. To much of a risk/threat of something going wrong.
2: Unless this guy really knows what hes getting into, the local and Fed gov wont let him, to much of a risk of him self, and the area around him.
If his neighbors are going to get up in arms about negligible radiation hazards, who don't they also ban cosmic rays while they're at it?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
> The people need to have their point of view changed. The people need objective information instead of the usual bullshit. The IAEA (ONU's agency for civil nuclear energy), for example, is full of lies. They even declared in 200509 that only 4000 people (grand total) have and will die from the Chernobyl disaster. I tried to understand this figure: no published scientific work (only draft reports with no clear author for each assertion), the '4000' figure is not written in it as such and the corresponding approximation stated is only related to cancers to come in a given subgroup (not the grand total!), the model used (Hiroshima - Nagasaki) is inadequate (high external radiation during a brief period, albeit most Chernobyl's victims receive low radiation, with a fair internal (food) fraction, for a long period), the population analyzed is a subset (mainly Russians) and not qualified (therefore probably not representative and insufficient), the very report states that his results are highly inaccurate (lack of good data, inadequate model, other morbidity specific to the context...), the whole stuff is published as an OMS work albeit this organization is in fact tied to the IAEA for anything related to nuclear (OMS just cannot publish anything not approved by IAEA), during the official report presentation the OMS guy responsible for it did not even try to show that the model used is adequate and said that the published figure was coined by the "public relations" department and not by the scientists... I can carry on but you get the picture. The whole stuff, published thru the media by some "The people need to have their point of view changed." sort of technocrats, gives "4000 people died and will die, period". This is the way they think: "We cannot anymore decide without informing anyone, but the average citizen is stupid, let's feed him/her with some lies in order to continue doing our stuff". Let's refuse and resist 'till some objective and clear information becomes available!
Farnsworth: "So what are you doing to protect my constitutional right to bear doomsday devices?"
NRA Guy: "Well, first off, we're gonna get rid of that three day waiting period for mad scientists."
Farnsworth: "Damn straight! Today the mad scientist can't get a doomsday device, tomorrow it's the mad grad student! Where will it end?!"
NRA Guy: "Amen, brother. I don't go anywhere without my mutated anthrax. For duck huntin'."
This story made me think of this. Am I the only one?
Flash is the Herpes of the Internet.
your.opinion >
Gentlemen, Behold! I will now fire this particle accelerator at that marauding grizzlies' ass!
Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
what kind of christmas light shows could he make with this?
create his own aurora borealis? (although redundant, since he's in alaska)
and i don't see how anyone can oppose this guy if they accept the principle of existing contemporary christmas light displays that consume more power and emit more radiation than your average cyclotron
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I'm sorry if the word nuclear in anything scares some people but this cyclotron is for generating microscopic amounts of nucleotides for use in radiology.
He isn't some towel-head deforming the unborn in the name of some thing unspeakable or likely to blow up the neighborhood as the equipment is more likely to screw with people's TV signals than to leave a smokin' crater.
Next they'll riot and walk 'round with pitchforks in front of the dentist's because he's got an X-Ray machine. What?
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
and have a look about half-way down the page for the "glow in the dark" keyrings. Quote:
"Inside each GlowRing is a single sealed glass tube which contains a minute amount of active gas that permanently reacts with a luminescent coating."
Translation: "active gas" == tritium.
I've got a couple on order at the moment, for geek-type Xmas presents. They limit sales to UK customers only.
"Please note that due to international regulations regarding this item THIS PRODUCT IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO UK RESIDENTS AND CANNOT BE SENT TO ANY ADDRESS OUT OF THE COUNTRY."
Look folks, the amount of material produced would be very, very small - on the order of micro or pico curies of the DIAGNOSTIC isotope of fluorine - that has a 6 hour half-life!
Iodine 131 is another reagent common in treating thyroid cancers...
Molybdenum has an isotope with a half-life measured in seconds! Used in scintillation scans of soft tumors. Molybdenum has six stable isotopes and almost two dozen radioisotopes, the vast majority of which have half-lives measured in seconds. Mo-99 is used in sorpation generators to create Tc-99 for the medical nuclear isotope industry.
Finally, the cyclotron is not radioactive - it bombards the target element to create an isotope that is radioactive. I'd live next door to one - even in Anchorage (spent last August in that city) with the extrodinary earthquake & tsunamai risk - because the cyclotron could only release the very small amount of material that it was bombarding at the time of a catastrophic failure.
Also, have any of you folks noticed that AK is 5 time zones removed from the East Coast? You simply can't ship these short-lived isotopes.
Many hospitals have cyclotrons for that very reason! Others have manufacturers in the same city. Not the case in AK.
This thing is probably far less dangerous then the industrial x-ray machines they use to check for metal fatigue, and welding integrity.
The neighbors biggest worry should be problems with their wifi when its operational.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
interesting...
There is no real offsite risk with a medical cyclotron. They accelerate protons, not photons, not electrons, and make sources like F-18 for PET scans. the NIMBY people should really just shut their pie holes. unless he takes his source he would create, and start feeding it to people, they are so short lived, by the time it could migrate offsite, most of it would have decayed. I despise ignorance, and tree hugging hippies who think that their skewed sense of reality is based in fact.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
Such a silly thing to oppose. There's a cyclotron a few hundred feet from me and I'm not frightened. I'm right next door to Rutgers Physics' Cyclotron. Maybe I'm not frightened because there is NO DANGER. *Sigh*
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
are they going to port linux to it?
It's not reasonable to expect the general public to be experts in particle physics, but I'd like to think they could at least be bothered to do a little reading before getting hysterical.
What if everyone with a computer wanted a particle accelerator???
(set sarcasm OFF)
PET scans used hot glucose if I recall,and the 1/2 life on that stuff is pathetic. I got more radiation for my money when I got my cardiac scan. Complete with a warning not to visit the White House for 1 week.
Now for the energetic photons and particle folks...Neon signs do a nice job of charged plasma photon emission (makes light) and anyone who's got a CRT is also looking at 15-30kv accellerated electrons slamming into the phosphor(light and some x-rays).
The electron gun in the CRT is a particle accelerator.
One of those(a pointed wire in the tube will do), a chunk of metal, a vac pump & some major glass blowing skills all hooked up with a HV source will get you a "crude" X-ray tube.
Backyard reactor? Research reactor? Those, I'd worry about a little. http://www.epa.gov/radiation/understand/alpha.htm for the basic into for stuff that goes all atomic like.
Now, if this guy put a sign up that says synchrotron radiation research, I might not want to walk up to the front door when the lights are dimming.
BTW, I really, REALLY do not want to see this guy's electric bill. Nor do I want to find out if he find out what RF burns are.
Reading the article, I get the distinct impression that the residents don't really understand what a cyclotron is. They just see the word "nuclear" and freak out. Someone once explained why you don't see the term "Nuclear Imaging" posted in hospitals anymore-again the word "Nuclear" just doesn't go over very well (they changed it to benign names like "MRI").
Want to have fun with this? Tip off residents that someone has ordered and installed a nuclear device called a magnetron in their home. Watch what happens...
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
... the obscure "Time-Lime Home Cyclotron" completes the series coveted by collectors!!!
I've been thinking: it's no secret that the blue states subsidize the red states with tax dollars. Save for a few exceptions (PA and TX I think), the pattern of net cash flow is rather stark. And AK has to be one of the biggest recipients of Federal aid per capita, and one of the lowest contributors.
Why don't we just revoke its statehood and sell it to the Chinese?
Think about it. If you're the kind of person who thinks government should be run like a business, then this state, as a business unit, is a chronic money-loser. Even if it managed by some miracle to achieve positive cash flow, it would be well below the federal government's cost of capital. So why not do what the Russians did in 1867, and just sell it off as a way to pay down the national debt? Unlike West Virginia or Mississippi, Alaska has actual resale value.
Alternatively, we could use the Alaska Territory as collateral for all of those Treasury bonds that the Chinese are buying up. Either we pay off the national debt, or we adopt a flag with only 49 stars.
(ducks)
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
"...isotope soap, isotope soap...
with isotope soap, isotope soap
isotope soap, isotope soap..."
isotope soap, isotope soap..."
Yeah, the cyclotron poses no physical threat, but one is addressing the nuisance factor here. In my neighborhood we've had a couple attempts by people to start businesses out of their homes that were disruptive to the area (constant power tool noise, incessant traffic, etc.) They were stopped by zoning laws, and you know what? Three cheers for the zoning laws.
There's more to life than science. Maybe some of you aren't homeowners yet, and don't appreciate the simple pleasure of getting home to your little quiet nook, and not having some jackass trying to run a semi-industrial woodshop in his garage across the street because he doesn't want to have to pay rent in a proper facility.
near my house, in a principal hospital, they buy an linear accelerator for cancer treatment, they build a 2.5m concrete wall and a faraday cage made out of 30cm steel (not sure about the material) to shield the damm tning and protect the city.... if this guy is talking about one of those, i REALLY dont want one of those in my backyard... sorry bout the engrish
> "Probably the worst thing that could happen with small cyclotrons is that the operator might electrocute themselves."
Or send himself to another world!
The problem is not so much that "the general population is too dumb to be educated", but rather, the typical person you run into "on the street" is walking around with a head full of misconceptions and urban legends, rumors and half-truths.
... or "Hi mam. What are your thoughts about potential health hazards of living in a house that's placed not too far away from some high power lines?")
If you don't yet believe that a good 50% or so of the "general population" has irrational fears of such things as "radiation" and "nuclear energy", randomly ask some of them about such things. (EG. "Hello sir. Would you say that the possibility of getting brain cancer from using your cellphone too often is a real concern or not?"
To make things more complicated, a LOT of people make good money off sustaining these irrational/illogical fears. Sometimes, it's because they're part of a non-profit agency that needs this fear to ensure their continued existance. Other times, it's because some con-artists have a business selling useless devices that are only purchased by those who misunderstand the concepts. (You did buy your radiation blocking cell-phone sticker thingie off eBay, right?)
I used to live in a normal, nice suburban neighborhood. When I decided that I wanted an X-Ray Diffractomerter (Cu and Mo tubes, running at 800W to extend lifetime because the tubes are expensive), we moved to a rural area where it wouldn't disturb neighbors and built a 40'x40' shop with a 12'x12' shielded room to house the instrument. WHy doesn't the guy just go rural, or isn't there enough rural land near Anchorage?
Any particular reason? I did not RTFA, but it seems like this might be one of those solutions looking for a problem. If it's merely "just because" then I would have to vote nay on the project. Just build another one in Illinois, or Iowa, or something ... you know, states that are bland anyhow. No reason to mess around constructing something in Alaska.
It also allows them to be easily swayed by anyone that can make a technical sounding argument that is based more on an emotional appeal, "We need to take a balanced approach, because of (insert technical sounding jargon here)" or "If this is put in your backyard, your kids will sprout six arms and all your boys will develop penis cancer."
To make matters worse, the news media all too often plays right into the hands of the fear-mongers. In an effort to be "balanced" and "letting the viewers decide" the news media will give a voice to any yahoo that will provide a counterpoint to any statement made by the proponent of anything.
Most people are capable of learning to think critically, and be able to see through this kind of bullshit. But few of them are taught the skill.
Shop Smart, Shop S-mart!
I'm still getting used to living in the states, but there are times I do miss Anchorage. The folks there are... unique ;-)
West Anchorage Highschool was a place of many tales as well. Underground bunkers that students from all over the district would try to sneak into the ductwork and access ways to go see. I even remember seeing a bunch of them down through an access plate in Junior Hall a good 20 feet down. Underground newspapers and pranks. But that's another tale.
If you ever get the chance to visit Anchorage it's a fun town. Nothing like living at the biggest town at the tip of the Western United States expansion. I wouldn't trade my youth there for anything.
"Don't fear death... fear not living..." -me
Must be a Boston accent or something. Pahk the kah in hahvahd yahd. (Park the car in Harvard yard.)
Flatly false. First off, we're talking about a homebrew cyclotron built by an amateur (civil engineering is not the right specialty). It might spew beta and x-rays around the full circle if it's improperly designed, built, or operated.
Second, even a perfectly designed cyclotron will emit cyclotron radiation by definition. It's a required side effect of turning the beam.
You still would have to trust that he's not going to let the beam escape, that shielding is done properly, and that he handles any activated materials properly - this is not something that should be done in residential area. There's also the matter of safety near large magnets and high current conductors, could even have an accident with those that might be of concern to neighbors (power outages, metal fires, etc.)
Even when a young lad, I heeded it well: "An ounce of keeping your mouth shut beats a ton of explanation." That's saved my ass - in every imaginable context.
Hey,
Swank is doing this because he understands what he is doing and because he wants to help folks who suffer with cancer, like his father who died from cancer. He wants to help. The greatest risk of this project is that Swank could electrocute himself. If you live in Anchorage and feel that it is rediculous to have this project shut down by people who do not take the time to gain understanding, say something about it. To have this in Alaska could reduce the suffering of many people with cancer.
To express a comment to the Mayor of Anchorage, Mark Begich: www.ci.anchorage.ak.us/Feedback/mayorfeed.html
To express a comment to the Anchorage City Assembly, send a message to the assembly clerk: gruensteinbe at muni.org
"Hello sir. Would you say that the possibility of getting brain cancer from using your cellphone too often is a real concern or not?"
Exactly. 90% of the idiotic population of this world hears the word "radiation" and IMMEDIATELY thinks "nuclear radiation" - Even though there are other types of radiation in the world. Only a VERY limited subset of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum (gamma rays) are nuclear in origin, and also not all nuclear radiation is electromagnetic - most of it is particle radiation.
There are many forms of electromagnetic radiation that are utterly and completely harmless, such as the light from a light bulb.
Cell phones can't cause cancer - it's not the right type of radiation. Microwave electromagnetic radiation can cause damage in one way (heating), and that requires far higher power levels than any cell phone to have any effect whatsoever on a human body.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Any kind of nuclear equipment must be installed in a full-fledged containment. No economic or otherwise excuses. You know what a containment is? Eight feet of reinforced concrete shielding encased in a half-yard thick precision-welded stainless steel sphere or dome. Critical equipment inside must be protected with extra missile shields (usually 12" concrete slabs). Atom is no kidding. Don't be like the russkies, who installed energetic fission reactors in light-structure halls and when it exploded all the junk went through the roof - literally.
90% of the idiotic population of this world hears the word "radiation" and IMMEDIATELY thinks "nuclear radiation"
Yeah, and the rest of the idiots make up stats...
"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
... or maybe slept through it in elementary school. Hell, my *high* *school* had a cyclotron, and this was the early-to-mid sixties. (If you're wondering, Central High, in Philly.)
But that's like the idiot article that a friend passed along to me, who's worried about the plutonium-powered RTG on the Pluto mission "polluting space with radioactivity" (I'm not making this up!)
mark
But Alaska pork only looks excessive if you compare it on a dollars per population metric. If you used dollars per square mile it would look like we're pork paupers.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
While I generally agree with your point, a lot of the details are really, really wrong:
The fluorine isotope you mentioned (F-18) can be made on a cyclotron, but has a half-life of 108 minutes, not 6 hours.
Iodine 131 is used to treat thyroid cancer, but is generally a waste product of nuclear reactors, not made with a cyclotron and it has an 8 day halflife. It can be volatilized and cause thyroid damage and cancer induction (think people hundreds of miles downwind of Chernobyl).
Molybdenum (again, reactor byproduct, not cyclotron made), decays into Technecium-99m, which is used in nuclear medicine scintillation studies, but has a half-life of 6 horus.
Finally, the cyclotron is not radioactive, you are correct, but after a while, the shielding, etc, is bombarded with so many particles that it itself can become radioactive (the inner surfaces). It's still perfectly safe to be outside the shielding, but removing the shielding down the road can be a pain.
Overall, if he were doing it correctly, I'd say it's probably perfectly safe for his neighbors. However, if he plans to run it as a production cyclotron for diagnostic imaging, he should be doing it the right way and putting it someplace zoned for commercial use and with adequate electrical infrastructure.
I'll take a cyclron. I would probably even take a breeder reactor.why not? I'm fairly sure given that a cyclitrons are used practically everyday, they help produce a little known element who's symbol is H, I don't think you've heard of it. A breader reactor would be just dand as well, given that LANL has (at least acording to community tech, the local LANL rag)a better history than coal plants (see december 96 of RedHearing why coal is so terrible and gas is not much better- 40tons per a day of radiation that pruduces enough Rads to mutate fish scary!)
It's a no-brainer.
.... I, for one, welcome our new garden shed-based nuclear overlords ...
He should immediately withdraw any intention of building a 'nuclear doom-machine'. And say that he will change his hobby to 'high-voltage electrostatic laboratory equipment'.
In the meantime
I work in medicine. A cyclotron is just simply a big circular magnet. Electrocution from the power driving the magnets is the most dangerous thing possible, IMHO. Sheilding in the area where the drugs are bombarded by the machine to create the isotopes is quite adequate. Handeling procedures in place for these drugs and machines used in their production by the FDA, NRC, & other medical oversite organizations is very extensive. Here are just a few drugs off the top of my head that are used commonly that have short useful working span: Technetium-99m has a half-life of 6 hours. Fludeoxyglucose has a half-life of 109.8 minutes. C-11 methionine has a half-life of 20 minutes. ...and the list goes on.
Many drugs used in diagnosis & treatment of cancers & other ailments require an on-site cyclotron because of the short half-life. It is not possibly to make these drugs in the lower states & fly them to Alaska in a timely mannor for them to be effective for dianosis and/or treatment.
What this gentelman wants to do is needed & I commend him for trying to help others.The people who are against him building this thing are not very well informed.
"This is America... where the will of the few outweigh the outrage of the many..." - Unknown
While the cyclotron may not be radioactive, you do need an adequate set of shielding walls (say, about three meters of concrete) for any decently powered cyclotron. We have a few here on the university grounds, and a new one was installed a few years ago. The old one is currently inoperative, and still sits inside the building. The building itself has now been filled with offices, since they cannot tear the shielding down yet. They'll have to wait about 20 years for the radiation in the concrete chamber to get sufficiently small to have it demolished by standard means.
The chamber itself does get flooded with radiation though. Some diffracted by air, some leaking, so in general, it's not safe to stand around one of those in operation. As said before, the new one has three meter thick concrete walls around it.
Still, not half as dangerous as a nuclear fission reactor though. different radiation energies too.
B.
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
Cause that's about all there was.
Don't get me wrong, it was nearly catastrophic. But it wasn't catastrophic.
There was a small amount of radioactivity released, and it blew out to sea.
The thing there was the most of in the accident was terror. Honestly, it's pretty typical. People just don't understand radioactivity, and it is invisible, so they go way off the handle when having to deal with it. Like people freaking out over irradiating food.
I wish TMI hadn't happened. Honestly if we designed a standardized reactor now with modern equipment and controls, we would no longer be running much risk of accidents. And if we used a pebble bed reactor, even less so. But TMI (caused by the disorganized designs of those reactors and a dumbo) pretty much scotched the building of new commercial reactors.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
> ...compared potential damage from a cyclotron mishap to the Three
> Mile Island nuclear reactor accident
That's about right. The machine might be damaged beyond repair but there would be no injuries and no damage to the property of others.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
oh and another thing, the company formerly known as Amersham Health, where I used to work (now owned by GE I believe), did ship its radioactively labelled pharmaceuticals around the globe (half life 6 hours). The trick is to irradiate it to four times (or more) the desired activity, then you'll have a longer time in which it can be shipped.
and your time zone argument really doesn't cut wood. If it's 5 hours later somewhere else, it doesn't mean that it takes 5 hours to fly there.
B.
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
I work on an experiment located at one of the world's highest intensity cyclotrons, at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. It has a proton beam current of almost 2 milliamps. The radiation protection issues there are quite serious, and are carefully managed. This kind of activity needs to take place within a regulatory framework, not in some guy's backyard.
Exactly. 90% of the idiotic population of this world hears the word "radiation" and IMMEDIATELY thinks "nuclear radiation" - Even though there are other types of radiation in the world. Only a VERY limited subset of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum (gamma rays) are nuclear in origin, and also not all nuclear radiation is electromagnetic - most of it is particle radiation.
Reminds me of a family we met on a skiing holiday. The mother was into all kinds of 'alternative' science. She had managed to convince her teenage son that she had given him a wristwatch containing a crystal that would absorb all known forms of electromagnetic energy. He couldn't understand our hilarity one evening (we may have been a little drunk), when a channel on a televison set in the chalet started misbehaving and we were all yelling at him to switch off his watch. You had to be there really.
I have a nuclear particle accelerator in my house, and my land lady doesn't even know.
Like the dihydrogen oxide fun, I think it would be funny if a town actually banned crt televisions under the auspices of banning "particle accelerators".
Welcome to life by permission only.
Your first point is incorrect. This is surplus hardware that has been donated by Johhn Hopkins in perfectly working order.
nos laetus epulor qui would domito nos
That's it. These people are idiots.
It's time to sell Alaska back...
And so they should, to the good bleeding-heart liberal who favors progressive taxation and government handouts for the less fortunate. Compare the average yearly incomes in the different states and you will see what I mean.
According to liberal dogma, the wealthy limousine liberal in Connecticut ought to be proud and happy that the government will take money from him and give it to the poor white trash living in a Mississippi trailer park.
Funny how fast that left wing sympathy for the downtrodden vanishes, when the benefits go to stubborn rednecks that don't reward their patrons with votes!
-ccm
Too much Law; not enough Order.
RTFA. It's not a homebrew. Click on the pictures for more info - it's a 'Scandiatronix MC16'. It came out of Johns Hopkins where it was used to manufacture medical radioisotopes. That's what Swank wants to use it for, too
Second, even a perfectly designed cyclotron will emit cyclotron radiation by definition. It's a required side effect of turning the beam.
From the next wiki article along:
Cyclotrons produce spectrally-pure, very-bright far-ultraviolet(=less than 400nm), and soft, low-frequency x-rays, that are difficult to produce by other methods.
Neither of these are the 'hard' ionising radiation beloved of sensationalist news reports; they have many medical uses.
> ... the operator might electrocute themselves....
...
Well if the operator really is schizophrenic, electrocution could be a cause of worry, I suppose
If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
Beauty is the Eye of the Beholder, especially if it is attempting to charm you...
First off, we're talking about a homebrew cyclotron built by an amateur (civil engineering is not the right specialty).
No we aren't. He has built his own, but apparently no one knew or cared. Now he wants a commercial one, and has found someone that will give him one.
"Albert Swank Jr - who runs an engineering firm from his house - built his first domestic cyclotron when he was 17. He now wants to upgrade to a meatier Scandiatronix MC16, donated by Johns Hopkins University."
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. -- Harry Truman
I don't know about cancer, but I've seen evidence that cellphones fry your brain, based on the extreme stupidity of the users.
Admittedly, I never saw them before they got their phones.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I always knew those no good dirty hippies would want to build a giant concrete structure where they could practice riding their bicycles in circles at dangerously fast speeds. They would then use that newly found speed to get in my way while I'm speeding to work, driving on the so called bicycle lane.
If they want to get in shape they should ride a safer vehicle. Like a stationary bike. Where you pedal forever but never actually go anywhere. Seems to work great for those fat chicks.
It's not the origin of the radiation that matters, its whether or not it has the energy to knock electrons from their orbits - ionize matter, in other words.
And the "idiots" think along the lines of "I get no benefit from this looney running a cyclotron next door, I might get harm (in the form of potentially hazardous radiation and lowered land value since potential buyers are also considering this cyclotron), so why should I not try and stop him ?" This isn't a matter of stupidity or ignorance, it is a matter of not wanting to get the risks while others get the benefits.
I could be wrong here, but doesn't that contain some ultraviolet radiation ?
Radiation doesn't neccessarily need to ionize to cause harm. Simply irritating the cells might trigger cancer. Also, you are ignoring the potential carsinogenic effects of the materials used to construct the phones, as well as any potential harm caused by the magnetic fields generated by them. Or maybe the blinking display at incoming call triggers an epileptic seizure. Or maybe the ringtone happens to sound like the mating call of killer bees.
Not saying that any of these are actual concerns; but saying that something can't cause you harm is almost certainly incorrect, since almost everything can, and in more ways than are obvious at first glance.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
In 1948, four high schools students in California built a cyclotron. Here (scroll down a ways) is the article from Physics Today about it. There was a really nice writeup about it in Scientific American's Amateur Scientist column. There was also a Nov 2004 slashdot thread on homebrew cyclotroning.
Nah.. You are wrong. The crackpots believe that we can create a blackhole that will destroy the entire earth.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Look, the university that donated this thing obviously knows what is needed to safely operate it. Can't they just provide those specs with the machine, and let that be the basis for this guy's contruction?
...he might have an accident involving his accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a couple of rubber bands.
And so they should, to the good bleeding-heart liberal who favors progressive taxation and government handouts for the less fortunate. Compare the average yearly incomes in the different states and you will see what I mean.
It's true they should. The irony I've always taken from the factoid is that the red-state voters are voting for a party who is against the idea of spreading wealth from the rich to the poor. Personally I have no problem with them continuing to benefit from this irony.
Funny how fast that left wing sympathy for the downtrodden vanishes, when the benefits go to stubborn rednecks that don't reward their patrons with votes!
You're talking about Democrats, not the "left wing", and yes they view it as a competition, like some kind of team sport, where the redneck red-staters are some kind of enemy. Which is why I refuse to participate in partisan politics.
The enemies of Democracy are
Light bulbs generally put out no significant amount of UV, but they do put out quite a bit of IR. That's one reason video cameras tend to have an IR filter; lights wash out CCDs badly enough already, with the IR added to it it's pretty horrible. (I have cameras both with and without.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Michio Kaku details in his book Hyperspace his construction of a cyclotron during his high school years...This dude was topped by a teenage kid, who just happens to now be considered one of the greatest scientific minds in the world at the moment....
"It's not the origin of the radiation that matters, its whether or not it has the energy to knock electrons from their orbits - ionize matter, in other words."
Fact: This ability is a function of the energy contained within a single photon, which is an increasing function of the frequency (and inversely proportional to wavelength). Only UV radiation and higher frequencies (gamma rays, x-rays) have enough energy to cause ionization. Any form of RF cannot cause ionization except at extremely high power levels where the electromagnetic field intensity exceeds the breakdown voltage of whatever medium it is passing through. This requires power densities far greater than that of even the highest power microwave ovens.
"Simply irritating the cells might trigger cancer."
This is why sticking your head in a microwave oven is a Bad Idea. They have high enough power to cause non-negligible heating in anything that absorbs the RF. (Hell, that's how a microwave oven works.) Standing near a high power transmitter on the order of multiple watts could also cause problems. Not the 200 mW max transmit power of handheld CDMA cell phones. (I think GSM is in a similar power category.) AMPS (analog cellular) was typically 600 mW transmit for handhelds, and 3W for the really old analog-only car-based and "bag mobile" phones. 3W is high enough that continued exposure in close proximity to the antenna might actually cause non-negligible heating effects.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I emit infrared radiation on a regular basis. And that's not even counting any X-men mutant powers I may or may not have.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I don't know what the big deal is. I watched a couple of documentaries back in the 80's about guys who ran around with unlicensed nuclear accelerators on their backs, and it was fine. They mentioned something about 'total protonic reversal', but even when they did that intentionally, it didn't seem like a big deal. And that was New York, not the middle of nowhere, Alaska.
In Soviet Russia, us are belong to all your base.
How many commercial aircraft can cross one timezone in under an hour, at reasonable latitudes ?
How expensive is can land prices be on a frozen lump of ice?
If this guy fired it up in an igloo a few hundred miles from town, no one would even know it's there... but nooooo... he has to go to the *ONE* town in all of Alaska, and then get griped at by the zoning department!
Moron!
Clearly Cyclotrons are built that small. In fact, I recall seeing one of the first cyclotrons ever built in the Smithsonian Institution. It was all of about 6" in diameter.
Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
Anchorage has *NO* safe place for this device. The entire city is built on Glacial Till and underlying structures have fault lines.
Moreover, if you look at a map of Anchorage you will find that more than half of the usable land area between the sound and the Chugach range is occupied by Elmendorf Air Base and Fort Richardson.
The area just isn't like anywhere else. Permafrost exists only 6 ft down...
For this post, the part of "Captain Pedantic" will be played by Ed Pinkley.
<echem> Killer bees use a pheromone, not a mating call.
Thank you! Thank you very much!
"Long time listener, first time caller."
Albert Swank ... Al Swank ... Als ...
Well he sounds like a Slashdotter - how come we haven't heard from him?
"Cats like plain crisps"
In most states, I don't know about Alaska in particular, you need to have a license on file with a state regulatory agency to operate any equipment that produces radiation above a certain intensity. Lasers, radar, radios, and particularly X-ray machines. I work in a laboratory and even for the trivial microcurie amounts of P32, S35 and other "week-month" half-life isotopes we recieve regular inspections by our safety office to show that we are in compliance with the regs, that they are stored in locked containers and noone from the public can be exposed above a low yearly limit (I think its about a fifth of what I'm alowed to recieve working with it), on pain of losing our license and not being able to purchase any isotopes.
...usually kept in concrete bunkers with lots of shielding. If he is not licensed and inspected, he shouldn't be allowed to legally turn it on. Everyone around him does have a case.
This is a machine that produces x-rays in copious quantities, especially if its operated incorrectly.
The state has a compelling interest to make sure that he's operating it safely. I suspect that if he's not installing it in a hospital, he is selfishly indulging his own pathologic nuclear curiosity. Fireworks are safe used properly too, and yet when my neighbor starts landing them on my roof the police are going to be called, like it or not. Maybe the neighbors should start wearing and logging film badges so they can prosecute him if he does anything wrong.
Thanks to you and the parent for bringing me back to earth. I also dream, and do things that my acquired degree (ASEE) plus LOTS of extra college, still do not "qualify" me to do.... Having said that (and the very best of luck to the BSCE),..."How much is it going to cost him to acquire the energy to perform these task"? This type of equipment does not run off of a +-12VDC lab power supply.
Please mod me 1 or troll. It's where the truth is these days, even on Slashdot. Beware the power of moderators everywh
According to liberal dogma, the wealthy limousine liberal in Connecticut ought to be proud and happy that the government will take money from him and give it to the poor white trash living in a Mississippi trailer park.
Except the money doesn't go to the 'poor white trash'. It goes to businesses that waste it away.
"They recreated the conditions of TMI and let the reactor go to see just how bad it could have gotten."
No wonder the Snake River aquifer is radioactive and heading 100's of miles to Boise.
Do children really lick walls? Or cyclotrons?
They lick walls for sure. From age 1ish to about age 4 you get to spend all the time you'd care to trying to keep track of what goes into their mouths.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Do children really lick walls? Or cyclotrons?
The cyclotron tastes like schnozberries!
Dude, your link is dead. Or appears to me to be dead.
I cried real tears when Li Mu Bai died.
"Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back."
So... as long as he never crosses the streams, Anchorage should be OK? (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Cyclotron? Nah,...nobody will mind if I have a Titan II ICBM ( http://home.teleport.com/~boelling/titan.html ) installed in my backyard. You know, to ward off anyone who thinks they can just put a cyclotron wherever they feel like it. NoMorePoints.com
Yeah, but if you ship it west, the decay is quite small because the time when you arrive is usually only a little later than when you left. Just don't ship it east.
To be modded as Informative, shouldn't the information actually be CORRECT?
1. Diagnostic imaging using PET and FDG typically uses 5-15 mCi per patient. In a given day, it is not uncommon to make 1 Ci of F18. I know we often make 600 mCi or more and we don't even do a lot a PET.
2. F18 has a halflife of 109 minutes. Tc-99m has a 6 hour halflife.
3. Molybdenum does not have a halflife of seconds. It is several days and decays to Tc-99m which is 6 hours. We do not image with Mo.
4. It is possible to ship F18 compounds longish distances, although of course, not from the East coast to Alaska. Seattle and Vancouver both produce F18 and could conceivably ship to Anchorage. However, I am pretty sure a cyclotron and PET scanner (if not several) already exist there.
5. Most hospitals do NOT have cyclotrons. In the US PETNET can ship to most locations frojm their network of cooperators. I think they have something like 30 cyclotrons nationwide and supply most of the US.
Sure, but the fact that they are still poor white trash living in a Mississippi trailer park shows that the money is obviously going to the filthy rich SUV neo-cons in Mississippi.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
It doesn't matter how many times you patiently explain that, in actuality, the risks of an accident are pretty low. The point is that everyone's paranoia goes into overdrive upon mention of the word "radioactive." I know that he had good intentions, but it isn't fair on the other residents.
And it's in a remote area basically so I approve anyways ;)
this ain't remote...its practically my back yard... (i'm from anchorage alaska.)
though that being said...
i'm for letting him do it...just to see if he can build a decent one...
None of the people I've ever known who care for someone besides themselves, and who are willing to pay their share in supporting the commons, were riding in limousines. Such ordinary people as I've known certainly constitute the bulk of progressives, who'd rather not see the return of a Roman approach to governance.
This biased, uninformed, cartoonish rant is hardly "insightful". That it reached a "5" ranking is an empirical demonstration of rotten-in-Denmark.
"You must try to forget all you have learned. You must begin to dream." -- Sherwood Anderson
Actually, Alaska is 4 hours different from the East Coast. So is that three time zones removed? Whatever, it takes a long time to get there from Orlando, but it's a short hop from Seatle.
... and a 4 1/2 hour delivery to the Helipad at Providence from Seatle, maybe.
His drive is probably 30 minutes from the Hosital
Perhpas he should find a spot for his business in the Hospital district (zoned for business) as opposed to the downtown residential neighborhood (zoned for small children playing hopscotch with their legislator/lawyers in harmony).
My shining intellectual prowess dazzles even the dopey young slackers on Slashdot! Neener neener neener!
Give it up, hippie, the future belongs to us right-wing puppy-kickers.
-ccm
Too much Law; not enough Order.
Eating iradiated foods, drinking heavily filtered water and using anti-bacterial soap will all reduce the amount of bacteria (and in the case of irradiation, viruses) you are consuming. That will weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to viral infections and bacterial diseases. Our bodies are capable of dealing with almost any bacteria or virus if our immune systems are in top shape.
It's more common for people to overload their immune systems than it is for people to weaken them by eating process food and water. Now, taking immuno-suppressants are a different story...
You will get PLENTY of germs from everyday existance that will keep your immune system working fine. The food irradiation, water purification and anti-bacterial soaps do more to stop really-nasties (e.g. Staph & Salmonella).
Your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
What America lacks is not more gun freedom, but more gun sense. Every yahoo can get a gun, fine, but the real trouble starts when you lose the gun to someone due to poor storage sense. I guess that if the US would try to improve on the huge loss of firearms to criminals every year, the NRA would freak out and go to Capitol Hill chaning the second amendment. I don't see anywhere that the second amendment calls for moronic storage of their firearms? I'm a bit scared when I read bout civilians storing 10+ firearmsin their home, just locking them in a closet. Here, that is punisable because you don't want to give the thieves an edge. Over there, it's "part of my freedom, dangnabbit!".
*wry grin* As I mentioned in a post below, the NRA is actually one of the better proponents of gun safety in the US. They're the people who'll tell you to make sure that you're trained in gun safety and, importantly, that the rest of your family is trained in gun safety. If your child is old enough to get into things around the house, they're old enough to be taught how to handle a gun, and handle it safely. The problem that the NRA has is that its public perception is based on the lunatic fringe that yells loudly enough to drown out the sensible majority. Personally, I don't do guns, but I grew up in a small town in Kentucky where a large number of the townsfolk had guns and were members of the NRA and I was impressed at the respect they had for their weapons and the measures they took for safety.
You seem to be missing the entire the point of having a gun.
Yeah, the entire point of a gun is to compensate for a small - *BLAM*