Are our tractors going to start glowing?

[Soundguy]

I remember seeing an article in a long ago magazine where medical equipment in some other country containing cobalt isotopes was making it's way to trash heaps and scavengers looking for salvage. Guess alot of people came into contact with blue powdered metal and got sick.. can't remember where I saw it.. but your post reminded me of it.

might have been a time magazine circa 22 ys ago or so..

Soundguy

 

[milkman]

I won't say "I told you so", but this was sent to me with an attached petition request, looks like it might happen, somebody still profiting from Iraq.


U.S. Dept of Energy Secretary Steven Chu plans to dump 14,000 tons of radioactive scrap metal into the marketplace for use in the manufacturing of consumer products.1 This means that your everyday purchases, such as silverware, zippers, belt buckles, eyeglass frames, jewelry, watches, toys, pet bowls, and leashes could soon be made with radioactive scrap metal.

This action is being fast-tracked, with little regard for public comment. The deadline for a decision is this Monday, February 11.

That's why I created an emergency petition on SignOn.org to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, which says:

Stop the Department of Energy plans to use 14,000 tons of radioactive scrap metals in the manufacturing of consumer products. There is no safe level of radiation. Keep nuclear waste out of my home and workplace!

 

[MossRoad]

I won't say "I told you so", but this was sent to me with an attached petition request, looks like it might happen, somebody still profiting from Iraq.


U.S. Dept of Energy Secretary Steven Chu plans to dump 14,000 tons of radioactive scrap metal into the marketplace for use in the manufacturing of consumer products.1 This means that your everyday purchases, such as silverware, zippers, belt buckles, eyeglass frames, jewelry, watches, toys, pet bowls, and leashes could soon be made with radioactive scrap metal.

This action is being fast-tracked, with little regard for public comment. The deadline for a decision is this Monday, February 11.

That's why I created an emergency petition on SignOn.org to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, which says:

Stop the Department of Energy plans to use 14,000 tons of radioactive scrap metals in the manufacturing of consumer products. There is no safe level of radiation. Keep nuclear waste out of my home and workplace!

You are incorrect.
Please, when you post this kind of stuff, research it a bit before you go "chicken little" on us.
Read the full story below.
Does The DoD Want To Kill Us All With Radioactive Nuclear Scrap Metal? No, No Not Really - Forbes

 

[MossRoad]

AAaannndddd...... that was a reply to a 6 year old post.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I do not know what the date was, probably in the 50's or 60's, but I read a report about some old x-ray equipment that was sold as scrap from the US, into Mexico. They were able to track the metal, and its distribution in Mexico by the cases of thyroid cancer and leukemia.

Xray equipment is not radioactive in itself. It produces gamma rays when supplied with electric current but when de-energized it is inert. Xray tubes are really not much more than a powerful magnet a focusing piece of tungsten and an electron source (light bulb) They produce radiation by accelerating the free electrons given off from a heated light coil to speed of light via a magnet and then the electron beam is focused into a small cone to a focal spot where it is directed thru an object and then onto a piece of film. Since radiation is basically light the film is exposed at varying rates depending on what density of material (bone or tissue or metal et)it passes thru first.
Now gamma ray radiography uses a radioactive isotope all of which decay rapidly(a few months) except Cobalt 60 which has about 1000 years half life so it stays dangerous for centuries whereas Iridium is manmade and decays fairly quickly and usually available in 100-125 curie strengths and decay at the rate of half every 28 days.

 

[k0ua]

Well MY tractor does glow in the dark. (when I turn the lights on)

James K0UA

 

[SPYDERLK]

I don't know how it is done now but back in the 50's and 60's the steel industry used a form of radioactive sensing to determine the wear on the lining of the blast furnaces. The result was that all steel contained low level radioactivity.

The result was that if you needed a well shielded "cave" for low level radiation measurements you had to find scrap armor plate from old naval vessels. Those built before the start of WWII.

If there is radioactivity in the scrap that is used in producing more steel then that radioactivity is simply diluted in the new batch but it is not gone.

Radioactivity is all around us naturally - you can not get away from it. Since I moved out of that field of work a few decades ago I have not kept up but back then there were natural gas pipeline compressor station that had general radiation levels higher than allowed at a nuclear reactor from the radioactivity naturally occuring with the natural gas. There were gas fired generating stations releasing higher levels of radioactivity than would be allowed a nuclear generator.

At the risk of starting another flame war, it has been hypothesized that the earth's naturally occuring radiation background is one of the drivers of mutations that feed the evolution of the species.
Vernon

Yeah. Earths position, size, general composition, comparatively large moon, and radioactivity make it more unique in the universe than one might think.
larry

 

[texasjohn]

X2, Milkman. There's not a conspiracy behind every government action...please research before worrying about stuff.

You are incorrect.
Please, when you post this kind of stuff, research it a bit before you go "chicken little" on us.
Read the full story below.
Does The DoD Want To Kill Us All With Radioactive Nuclear Scrap Metal? No, No Not Really - Forbes