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Researchers Race To Recover Radioactive Rabbits
Ponca City writes "The Tri-City Herald reports that radioactive rabbit droppings were recently found near the old Hanford Nuclear Site in southeast Washington that produced nuclear materials for 40 years and is now being decontaminated. The Department of Health looks for contamination off-site to make sure there is no public hazard and a rabbit trapped at the 300 Area caught their attention because it was close enough to the site's boundaries to potentially come in contact with the public. Joe Franco, an assistant manager for the Department of Energy, said workers erected fences, removed potential food sources and even sprayed the scent of a predator around the perimeter to prevent any other rabbit contamination and the Department of Energy said only one of 18 rabbits surveyed were deemed contaminated. Researchers narrowed the area of possible contamination to the 327 Building used during the Cold War for testing highly radioactive materials, particularly fuel elements and cladding that were irradiated at Hanford reactors as part of plutonium production for the nation's nuclear weapons program. Because the number of contaminated droppings being discovered on-site has decreased, officials now believe it's possible that just one rabbit might have been contaminated and they now are finding old droppings from it."
I for one, welcome our glowing Leporidae overlords.
Run for the hills!
Rabbitman, Rabbitman! Does whatever a rabbit can!...
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
I'm hunting wabbits!
Look, wabbit twacks ...
I am officially gone from
This can mean only one thing. The rabbits are now super inteligent and hiding their droppings.
Suppose they were fucking like bunnies and their growth follows the fibonacci sequence. Then what? Radioactive bunnies bunnies taking over the world?
Slow and steady wins the race.
The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
Just look for the 3 eyed green ones.
Tired of my customary (Score:1)
Say it 5 times quickly. Go on, I dare you!
Summation 2
Despite the common belief and what bad scifi would tell you, rabbits (and other things) don't become radioactive when exposed to radiation.
In this case, the rabbit likely consumed radioactive materials, meaning that it is contaminated with radioactive materials. The rabbit itself though, is not radioactive.
The radioactivity is not contagious and the fear is not that someone will pet the radioactive rabbit and become radioactive themself. The problem would be if a hunter caught the rabbit and ate it. Then he/she would ingest both the rabbit and the radioactive materials, putting him/her at higher risk for certain diseases (most notably cancer). However, he/she would not be radioactive either.
the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch!
But I'm not jumping to any wild conclusions. Probably just a wild hare.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
The bunny from Donnie Darko...?
(Captcha: "confuse"... I mention Donnie Darko, then this happens??)
Cesium is more dangerous as a toxic heavy metal than as a radioactive source and the level of Cessium was insufficient to kill the rabbit via toxicity, because it's still only as toxic as common salt. When Cesium decays it emits Beta radiation which doesn't penetrate heavy clothing and barely penetrates the skin. The level of Radioactivity was insufficient to kill the rabbit but they still go to all that trouble to track it down. All the hallmarks of Nuclear Paranoia.
That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!
"The Plague Dogs" is the third novel by Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, about two dogs who escape an animal testing facility and are subsequently pursued by both the government and the media.
There is also an 1982 animated film based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Richard Adams. The film was written-for-screen, directed and produced by Martin Rosen, who also directed Watership Down
Rowf (a Labrador-mix) and Snitter (a smooth fox terrier) are two of many dogs used for experimental purposes at an animal research facility in the Lake District of north-western England. They manage to escape, but initially relieved and eager to experience their new freedom, the dogs are soon faced not only with the realities of life in the wild but with another more terrifying realization--they are being hunted by their former captors. As they wander about aimlessly, the army and the media are roped into the pursuit, driven by rumors of the pair carrying bubonic plague and murdering sheep and even humans.
Just to elaborate, if this rabbit mates, it's children will not be radioactive nor will they receive radioactive materials. The problem is only with this generation.
That would only be true if it were a male since I doubt a significant amount of material will be carried into the female in the seaman. If the rabbit is female, the radioactive materials will be in the mother's body while the fetus is developing. At this point the question becomes whether the materials are capable of being digested and incorporated into the mother's system, assuming this is true, the materials could very well be teratogens and thus incorporated into the next generation. This really isn't a problem though. Only a fraction of the radioactive materials would be able to pass onto each consecutive generation, it won't take long for it to reach normal levels. If the levels are high enough to be life threatening, the mother would most likely die before giving birth or any future generations from radioactive rabbits will be sterile or die before they even reach reproductive age, which is what, six hours?
Alliterations Are Amazingly, Astoundingly Aggravating.
Must be difficult to get!
Maybe they asked Arnie if he had any left...
Which is not only an older story but totally owns your feeble bunny piece in the alliteration league: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7040256.ece
Ron Judd asked a good question: News stories about the Hanford creature said "Washington state Health Department workers with the Office of Radiation Protection have been searching for contaminated rabbit droppings." Exactly how short of a straw does one have to draw to get that assignment?
The summary sort of white washes the level of concern here. Later in the article we find out that this is happening because radioactive salts were deposited into the ground/water, and that there were radioactive wasps flying around too.
Given that there's somewhere in excess of 300 million radioactive humans milling about the countryside as well, we might not have a problem here. Just because something is radioactive, doesn't mean that it is dangerous (or rather more dangerous than normal).
I live near Oak Ridge, and they had a problem about two years ago with radioactive duck droppings. The facilities from WW2 are sometimes poorly documented. So there were some unknown of pipes running under a small pond. Radioactive stuff leaked, plants grew from that soil, ducks ate it, and then waddled around the area doing what ducks do(o). It was moderately expensive to clean up. Though I think worth the cost in (grim) chuckles. The clean-up of the whole facility up there has been going on for some time, and will likely continue. I'm not all surprised to read about radioactive rabbit poo at Hanford. Lucky it's not pigeons....
Those Fools! Boy are they going to be sorry, because it just keeps going and going and going!
This could mean a breakthrough!
This single rabbit could actually be one of the ORIGINAL rabbits used for testing, who happened to have that singular genetic mutation which allows it to live on indefinitely (with the exception of accident and predation of course). Having captured the rabbit, they'll now be able to figure out what mutation occurred and suddenly immortality for humans is just around the corner.....bwahahahahaha
Or maybe it just ate something. Whatever.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Reading this gives the me the image of Bugs Bunny in the episode Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde. Long live Bruce Banner!
Should be easy to spot. It's the rabbit with the three eyes. :)
Tim: Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
Sir Galahad: Get stuffed!
Tim: He'll do you up a treat, mate.
Sir Galahad: Oh, yeah?
Sir Robin: You manky Scots git!
Tim: I'm warning you!
Sir Robin: What's he do? Nibble your bum?
Tim: He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones!
Be Vewwy Vewwy Quiet, I'm hunting Wadioactive Wabbits! - E. Fudd, WA Office of Radiation Protection.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Thunder Bunny?
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
Wadioactive wabbits in washington are on the woose! Not to worry Mr Fudd is on the case, its wabbit season you know.
what a shitty problem!
Wonder what mutations can occur given that the amount of radiation is small? Also, why wouldn't the rabbits children be toxic? Given its a female rabbit.
http://archeleus.com/blog
Government Corruption? Do you know how hard it is to clean up contamination? If they go by anything close to navy standards, they have to get everything down to essentially background. And zero detectable alpha decays. This essentially means they have to comb through the entire plant inch by inch. Also, there is expected contamination meaning they have to take certain precautions such as wearing anti-contamination suits and such. 40 years to clean out an entire factory? I can believe it.
For these guys!
The obvious solution is to release radioactive foxes to hunt them down.
Hanford is a beautiful place between the mountains and a bend in the Columbia river. It has stunning natural beauty and many man-made attractions. For example, did you ever wonder
where those nasty old reactors from nuclear submarines end up?
Paducah, Kentucky is also brimming with natural and unnatural wonders. Of course, it's hard to beat the West Kentucky State Wildlife Management Area for glow in the dark critters. If you think those look like giant casks of radioactive waste - you're right!!
Isn't it nice that this kind of material is always stored near a scenic river that supplies water to hundreds of thousands of people. There are hundreds of other similar sites on Google Maps - many near you. See how many you can find!
Ahhh yes....the head-in-sand defense. Nice. What special interest do YOU represent, huh?
Follow, but follow only if ye be men of valor! For the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so fowl, so cruel that no man yet has fought with it and lived. Bones of four fifty men lie strewn about its lair! So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage, or your strength, come nay further, for death awaits you all . . . with nasty big pointy teeth!
The rabbit itself though, is not radioactive.
So does that mean that my plans for generating electricity with a cold radioactive rabbit fusion reactor won't work?
I'll write it up anyway, maybe it will be good enough for an Ig Nobel.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
LOL! NOW I know where the Energizer Bunny came from! As in the old Timex watch commercial - it (the Geiger counter) just keeps on tickin'... So, back when I was a student at the University of Colorado (1960's), my buddies and I would motor down the road to the Coors plant in Golden around the end of the month when we were out of beer money, take the tour, and then suck up the free suds (no such thing as a designated driver in those days), staggering back to Boulder a few hours later. On the way we would pass by the Rocky Flats plutonium plant and speculate on when those radioactive prairie dogs and their radioactive fleas mutated one of their not-infrequent cases of prairie dog bubonic plague, resulting in the demise of civilization as we know it. So, what has changed? :rolleyes:
Sometimes, real fast is almost as good as real-time.
Cesium is more dangerous as a toxic heavy metal than as a radioactive source and the level of Cessium was insufficient to kill the rabbit via toxicity, because it's still only as toxic as common salt. When Cesium decays it emits Beta radiation which doesn't penetrate heavy clothing and barely penetrates the skin. The level of Radioactivity was insufficient to kill the rabbit but they still go to all that trouble to track it down. All the hallmarks of Nuclear Paranoia.
Any sample of Cesium-137 also emits strong gamma rays - 662 keV - due to its decay product Ba-137m with a half life of 2.55 minutes. So yes, handling anything containing Cs-137 is irradiating your internal organs at the same time. It has been used for radiography in medicine for decades. Check out the Goiania Brazil disaster where hundreds were significantly exposed to an old Cs-137 source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident). I have no idea where you are getting this "cesium is more dangerous as a toxic heavy metal" nonsense.
The problem is that the rabbits on the reservation are distributing lumps of long-lived radiation (Cs-137 and Sr-90 are both commonly found) that considerably exceed safety standards (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/science/earth/15rabbit.html ). This means they have a legal responsibility to control this exposure. Note also that low-level exposure to radiation causes a cumulative increase in cancer risk, so the fact that no one will show symptoms from handling radioactive rabbit poop does not mean it is "safe".
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Ahhh yes....the head-in-sand defense. Nice. What special interest do YOU represent, huh?
My own. The point here is that merely referring to something as "radioactive" is vastly uninformative when everything, with few exceptions, is radioactive.
If all else fails they can call in Bunnicula. He's always been a good sport.
WABBIT SEATHON!!!1!!1
... because I've always preferred my meat hot rather than lukewarm.
You know NOTHING about the situation, correct? You know NOTHING about the huge contracts, correct?
It's not a "factory".
From Fred Small's album Everything Possible: Hot Frogs on the Loose.
OK, who wants to write the bunny version?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
That Hugh Hefner has joined the search team. No one can track down hot bunnies like Hef.
Take a radioactive rabbit and let it do its droppings somewhere...
I am sure if some terrorist had released such rabbits in some western city some poor country would be bombarded right now.
What is the half-life of radioactive rabbit dropping?
6 times to Type "R", not including "r" which doesn't need a Shift-key.
Now that's some hot shit!!
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
look it up
People say my sig is the best thing about me.
Looks like the Kester Kops (aka TSA) from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have their work to do with tasting the rabbit dodo.
Thats one hot rabbit, no, really, its hot.
And while we're on the topic of hot rabbit, do you suppose rabbit finished on plutonium taste less gamey?
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
That's not the primary issue. The primary issue is that a huge amount of taxpayer money is being spent, without efficient and meaningful oversight.
With the acres and acres of URMAs (Underground Radioactive Materials Areas... leftover from "oops" suring cold war secrecy) radioactive flora and fauna are nothing new. Radioactive rabbits are just new in some journalist's tiny little mind.
Tubmbleweed can have a 120 foot deep taproot and can bioconcentrate radionuclides.
In the seven years I worked at Hanford, many times I pooper scooped radioactive rabbit and coyote droppings that were near the work trailers of the remediation projects I was on. Don't even get me talking about the damned high radiation areas caused by mud swallow nests.
Slowly, as long as they don't pull funding again to pay for Iraq, the problem will go away as the various contaminated sites are remediated.
Remember, the DOE had no coordinated radiation protection program with force of law until 1995 and all the messes happened under the veil of secrecy and clearance before then.
MercTech
NRRPT/RCT
So, does this mean it's theoretical to create miniature nuclear devices (WND) from rabbit turds? Perhaps to deter ravaging foxes or slavering wolves? Imagine the possibilities! And if that is a possibility, will the TSA now require every traveler to submit to a fecal analysis before boarding? America, after all, could use the new jobs. Yes, I think I'd like to be an FMI (Fecal Matter Inspector). Would I need a security clearance?
So, what was found was some, "Hot Shit?"
Radioactive Rocker Rabbits....
--
Ordinary rabbits mutated by a nuclear waste into Radioactive Rocker Rabbits. Becoming one of the world's most popular rock bands, and super heroes.
Perfect for the 80's...eh?
Deforest Kelley's been dead for years!
So how does this risk and the total population risk of the now way too common total body scanners compare?
I should skip the rant on total body scans or optional groping of children or my hair will fall out.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
Should make for an interesting Easter.
Life is better in Lingerie.