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A comment on The Surprising Afterlife of Unwanted Atom Bombs. Parent comment

Re:The Surprising Afterlife of Unwanted Atom Bombs by simondotau on Friday November 18, 2022 @04:21PM (#33662410)
> highly radioactive for millennia

Something can be highly radioactive for a short time, moderately radioactive for a long time, or slightly radioactive for a very long time.

If something is “radioactive for millenia” then it’s probably so mild that you could store in your underpants without I’ll effects.

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Re:The Surprising Afterlife of Unwanted Atom Bombs by Schroedingersat on Friday November 18, 2022 @04:39PM (#33662672)
https://www.world-nuclear.org/getmedia/cdcb8173-3843-4e4a-9d...

Have a little snack consisting of 1 gram of americium and 7 grams of neptunium 237, or store an equivalently active gamma emitter in your underpants.

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Re:The Surprising Afterlife of Unwanted Atom Bombs by a1369209993 on Friday November 18, 2022 @08:17PM (#33665573)
To be fair, something can be highly radioactive for a short time, moderately radioactive for a long time, AND slightly radioactive for a very long time, assuming there are at least three different radioisotopes involved.

Also, it's a exponential decay curve, so something that's slightly radioactive a very long time from now is probably still fairly dangerous right now.

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