[ RadSafe ] funniest DU scare story ever !

[John Andrews]

denison8 at wowway.com wrote:

> Anybody got a ref for the exposure rate from a kilo of DU (I'm at home 
> without my books).  Off the top of my head I'd guess no more than a 
> couple of mrem.
>
> At 20:55 -0400 5/24/06, Jaro wrote:
>
>> http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html
>> May 24
>> Florida Couple Finds Depleted Uranium in Old NASA Tool Box
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> The state Bureau of Radiation Control retrieved the cylinder. They 
>> said the
>> piece is toxic, but does not pose a health hazard to the community. 
>> They did
>> say that if the couple had walked around the house with the uranium 
>> in their
>> pocket, they would get radiation sickness.
>>     [[ ....really ?? ....so i guess my colleague who's been wearing a 
>> radium
>> luminous-dial watch for the past 40 years must be fried to a crisp !
>> ....oddly enough, he doesn't look it ! ]]
>>
I believe that the dose rate from the betas from depleted uranium is 
about 218 mrad/hr.  It does not make any difference how much there is as 
long as the source is thicker than the range of the betas in U.

John Andrews, Knoxville, Tennessee