HOWTO Build a Nuclear Device

[Eric Cordian]

Dr. Joe Baptista wrote:

> hold on mr. expert.

> you hold a sub critical mass in your hand and in a few days you end up
> shitting out your guts, lose your hair and die.

> so i assume the person who had the opportunity to hold such a critical
> mass is now dead.  where are you getting your info on what it feels
> like?  curious george here.

The common fissionable isotopes are alpha emitters with half-lives
measured in thousands of years.  Their rate of decay is miniscule.  Alpha
radiation, which consists of helium nuclei, can be stopped by a sheet of
paper.

Plutonium-239, which has a half-life of about 24,000 years, is slightly
warm to the touch.  Fissionable isotopes with much longer half-lives do
not noticibly differ from room temperature.

Alpha emitters are life threatening only if ingested.

No ones hair is falling out.  Really.

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"