A new haul

From: Tom Jennings <tomj_at_wps.com>
Date: Sat Feb 5 11:49:02 2005

On Fri, 4 Feb 2005, Ashley Carder wrote:

>>> I thought Ed Kelleher had hit the jackpot here with a PDP-8
>>> with all the trimmings (TU56, etc.), but it turned out to
>>> be radioactive, I think.
>>>
>>
>> cool!, Nightlight!
>>
>> How radioactive was it? Dangerous?
>
> I don't want to say too much on things where I don't know
> all the details, but yes, I believe it was too radioactive
> for them to allow it to be taken away.

Really?! How is this possible? It generally only happens during
spectacular disasters, eg. Chernobyl/TMI, and only where the
equipment was directly exposed to isotope soup.
Sitting-right-next-to- a-cube-of-Cesium won't make things
radioactive; it doesn't work that way at less than reactor-core
neutron densities.

If there was some lab/etc even that sprayed or distributed some
radioactuve substance such that equipment in proximity to people
was THAT contaminated, it's a MAJOR disaster, even if physically
relatively small.

And even then, scrubbing with soapy water will wash off
contaminents (to go down the drain into the water & food supply).

So what's the story?
Received on Sat Feb 05 2005 - 11:49:02 GMT

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