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Cleaning Up Japan's Radioactive Mess With Blue Goo
InfiniteZero writes "A clever technology is helping hazmat crews in Japan contain and clean up the contamination caused by the ongoing nuclear disaster there: a blue liquid that hardens into a gel that peels off of surfaces, taking microscopic particles like radiation and other contaminants with it. Known as DeconGel, Japanese authorities are using it inside and outside the exclusion zone on everything from pavement to buildings."
What? How will Repulsion Gel help us clean up Japan? It hardly worked at ALL for Aperture Labs.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
Am I the only one who read the subject as "Blue Glue" and thought 3M's adhesive?
And who is going to cover EVERYTHING in a few square km with it?
Also, first post.
I never knew that radiation was a particle!
Said the vendor's president, "we're not banging rocks together down here. We know how to suck radiation out of pavement. We've been testing it out on human subjects for years. Went great. Mostly. The only question we've got for you is, do you want to save the world, or do you want to waste our time with more sissy regulatory paperwork?"
is find somewhere to dispose of all the zillions of "blue goo" sheets.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
there's a Japanese pornography joke in there somewhere...
That was my first thought too, though GITS explained the Japanese Miracle to be nanotechnology.
DeconGel is a useful material, typically used for little lab-sized spill cleanup jobs. They're going to need tank truck loads of this stuff.
This material concentrates contamination, rather than spreading it across wipes, water, and other cleaning agents. The blue gel can even be incinerated in special high-temperature hazardous-waste incinerators; the radioactives end up in the ash, not the gases. So you end up with a modest number of drums of low-level radioactive dirt.
Perhaps with the need for large quantities of this stuff, the price will come down. If it were cheap, this would be a useful material for routine tough cleaning jobs. It can clean grouted tile, for example. People who have to clean foreclosed houses might find this useful.
Is this kind of like Silly Putty but the pictures glow in the dark?
They should use grey goo instead. That would clean things up even better, and they'd only need to apply a little bit of it.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
This sounds ominously like the stuff the Happy Fun Ball is made of.
Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly, and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Happy Fun Ball.
Caution: Happy Fun Ball may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.
Happy Fun Ball contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.
Do not use Happy Fun Ball on concrete.
Discontinue use of Happy Fun Ball if any of the following occurs:
itching
vertigo
dizziness
tingling in extremities
loss of balance or coordination
slurred speech
temporary blindness
profuse sweating
heart palpitations
If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.
Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types of skin.
When not in use, Happy Fun Ball should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration. Failure to do so relieves the makers of Happy Fun Ball, Wacky Products Incorporated, and its parent company, Global Chemical Unlimited, of any and all liability.
Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.
Happy Fun Ball has been shipped to our troops in Saudi Arabia and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
Happy Fun Ball comes with a lifetime guarantee.
Come on, this is supposed to be a site for smart people....
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Does anyone know how much this stuff currently costs? Everything I can find says call for quote, which probably isn't a good sign.
I thought the protocol was for amber, not blue
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
You're not part of the control group, by the way. You get the gel. Chernobyl got blue paint. Hahaha. All joking aside, that did happen - lots of people died. Tragic. But informative. Or so I'm told.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
they should use blue pork, solving two problems at once.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I wonder if it could be painted on the surface of a room that needs to be decontaminated instead of relying on temperature or an antibacterial agent. The size of a bacteria might be too small though.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Its got electrolytes. It's what radiation craves.
The chemical was called Amber 31422. :)
Here is lots of new blue goo now.
New goo. Blue goo.
Gooey. Gooey.
Blue goo. New goo.
Gluey. Gluey.
Gooey goo for chewy chewing!
That's what that Goo-Goose is doing.
Do you choose to chew goo, too, sir?
If, sir, you, sir, choose to chew, sir,
with the Goo-Goose, chew, sir.
Do, sir.
My favorite Dr. Seuess book.
They seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time semi-clothed in blue-lit rooms spreading "Decon Gel" on each other...
My kids are all excited about the latest toy from japan. It is a gel that you can paint on things that makes them glow in the dark. They have already painted their bedroom ceilings, and each other with the stuff. And it's cheap. You can depend on the Japanese to know what kids like...