Quote:
Originally Posted by Celjabba
Civilian radiation sources can and have killed by unshielded contact or proximity.
Such as the one used in medical devices, food chain irradiation or RTG.
Fuel rods, probably not, unless exposed to fluor based acids, and someone breath the fumes ? I think there was such a case at one time.
Some real life deadly accidents :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...tion_accidents
Some of those match your descriptions, such as the ones on September 13, 1987, or December 2, 2001 (RTG)
Not to mention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core
(weapon core that went supercritical by mishandling)
However, I am not sure how to calculate the Accumulated Dose for Gurps consequences.
I am on my phone, but I think there was information in either space or THS, I will check later. |
If I understand the relevant science correctly, the Demon Core could in some ways have become more dangerous after the two incidents it was involved in, since briefly going critical would have produced some relatively long-lasting gamma-ray sources, possibly including cesium-137 (I say "possibly" because I'm not sure if plutonium fission does that, or just uranium). Also not sure how hot the thing would have gotten just sitting around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
I think what you want is someone being careless with food irradiation equipment. Gear that will sterilise bulk meat will do nasty things to living humans. The source it's easiest to be careless with is Cobalt-60, which produces lots of 1.17 and 1.48 MeV gamma rays, which have plenty of penetrating power. |
Yeah—cobalt-60 is also used in medical equipment, and has been a source of nasty mishaps in the real world. Though it has a shorter half-life than many fairly dangerous isotopes—how long would it take for a hunk of cobalt-60 to become
less dangerous than an equivalent mass of nuclear waste?
(Edit: I mean nuclear waste from a reactor—old cobalt-60 is of course another variety of nuclear waste.)