• Question: is it fun dealing with radio active substances

    Asked by 09keels1 to Robin on 15 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Robin Stafford Allen

      Robin Stafford Allen answered on 15 Mar 2012:


      Difficult, which makes if challenging and therefore satifying to solve the problems. Radio-active materials can be very useful in medicine, as they can kill tumours, but they have to be treated carefully, which means shielding people from them appropriately. Tritium is used in Fusion and this undergoes beta decay, which means a single sheet of glass is enough to prevent people from being affected by the radiation. Other materials are very much more dangerous, and you need very thick and heavy shielding…

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