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Radiation Absorbing Mineral Found In the Arctic

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the the-power-of-suck dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A mineral has recently been found that exhibits the astounding property of being able to remove radiation from water-based solutions. 'After coming into contact with the mineral, radioactive water becomes completely safe. Had this mineral been available to physicists after the Chernobyl or Three Mile Island disasters, the consequences might have been very different, as both accidents resulted in contamination from radioactive water.' Also, the article notes that although only grams of the material have been found, tons of it are needed; they are confident they could artificially reproduce it."

3 of 351 comments (clear)

  1. correct me if I'm wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Had this mineral been available to physicists after the Chernobyl or Three Mile Island disasters, the consequences might have been very different,


    I thought radiation levels around 3 Mile Island never got more than twice background? Aernt there are plenty of normal places around the word (i.e. not uranium mines/dumps) where the levels are naturally higher?
  2. Three Mile Island disaster? by Matt+Edd · · Score: 5, Informative
    Not to say that it wasn't a bad thing but calling it a disaster seems like FUD to me. From wikipedia...

    The scientific community is largely agreed on the effects of the Three Mile Island accident. The consensus is that no member of the public was injured by the accident. "The average radiation dose to people living within ten miles of the plant was eight millirem, and no more than 100 millirem to any single individual. Eight millirem is about equal to a chest X-ray, and 100 millirem is about a third of the average background level of radiation received by US residents in a year.
  3. Learn every day; life is too complicated for games by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 5, Informative

    "They've found a new mineral which absorbs radiation... It can absorb radioactivity from liquid nuclear waste."

    The article linked in the Slashdot story does not say that radioactive minerals are being absorbed, a chemical impossibility. It says radiation is absorbed, which is impossible in physics, in the way that that the article states.

    I know that this will probably be moderated down by those who use games to avoid dealing with reality. However, it seems useful to say that life is too complicated to play games; it is necessary to learn everything you can every day.

    Slashdot editors have, according to them, spent a lot of time playing games, and they are often fooled by junk pretending to be science. I'm guessing that there is a connection between their game playing and their ignorance of the real world.