RE: Amusing "nuclear toys"

["Jim F. Herrold" <Herrold@UWyo.Edu>]

Cool-e-wow. But some of the collectors out there might recall that
Lionel was once in the radiation detector business, manufacturing Civil
Defense instruments and sources. I don't have one of the former, but I
do have a deader-than-a-doornail Co-60 button source (1/10 uC) from
LIONEL ELEC. LABORATORIES. Maybe the "reactor fluid" is really leftover
waste?

Jim

Jim Herrold, Radiation Safety Officer
University of Wyoming

herrold@uwyo.edu


>----------
>From: 	Gary Schroeder[SMTP:schroede@mail.sep.bnl.gov]
>Sent: 	Monday, November 17, 1997 12:56 PM
>To: 	Multiple recipients of list
>Subject: 	Amusing "nuclear toys"
>
>Don't know how many of you out there turn into Holiday Model Railroaders
>once a year, but I spied this amusing bit of text in a Lionel train catalog:
>
>-------------------------
>New and cool! The Atomic Energy Commission returns to the Lionel Lines,
>this time with a fleet of three sequentially numbered clear-body tank cars
>designed to haul what the AEC ominously refers to as "reactor fluid!" Our
>secret - special, completely safe and nontoxic rheoscopic fluid in sealed
>tubes. Shake these cool cars up (or pull them around your empire) and watch
>the fluid swirl and change colors. It's mesmerizing - and very fun! Three
>terrific colors: hauls biohazard blue, delivers plutonium purple, and
>carries Geiger green. Period AEC decoration. Totally safe and nontoxic.
>Each car sold separately. 
>-------------------------
>
>So what exactly is "reactor fluid", anyway?  See the following web site if
>you want to see what "plutonium purple" actually looks like:
>
>http://www.lionelllc.com/catalogs/c-pg1819.shtml
>
>No product endorsement expressed or implied!
>=======================
>Gary L. Schroeder
>Brookhaven National Laboratory
>Environmental Protection Office
>gs1@bnl.gov
>