Nuclear Radiation.....

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 11:18 pm

I have been living in a nuclear submarine for most of my waking life.....
And yet I have yet to be effected by the still active core......

Is this normal for a dragon or dragonfish?

Chalgrish · Post by **Chalgrish** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:28 am

At chernobyl, people affected by the radiation lived longer. No deaths occured due to anything but the fires and falling debris/equipment.

IF you actually lived on a submarine, you wouldn't be affected due to the fact that the 7 feet of concrete acts as shielding.

John · Post by **John** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:07 pm

Also, Dragons would be less immune to radiation, but more likely to shelter the radiation on their scales.

Post by **Tempest** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:15 pm

In a submarine, the reactor is located in protected bulkhead and radiation still go through but this is considered as acceptable level for the kind of job they are doing (ex: NRC limits state that an adult radiation worker is allowed to 50 mSv/year while it's only 0.25 mSv/year for the general public). Downed submarine are another story since corrosion can damage the protection around nuclear warheads and reactor.

As for Chernobyl, it is believed that Belarus received 60-70% of the radioactive fall out and over 300,000 people were resettled because of the accident. In the most optimistic studies perhaps they don't point to many deaths due to radiation but not because there is no increase of thyroid cancers, birth defects or anything. It is because they just can't prove a direct link to it (an argument cigarette makers were very fond of). At the time there was an obvious lack of scientific/medical facilities and investment to do such studies... heck most of the people who were called to contain the disaster were not even wearing dosimeter. So basically their argument can be summed up like this: these people were relocated, they suffered from stress and inverse-placebo effect as well as radiation exposure; but we can't single out radiation as the cause for the effect in this context.

However, the IAEA and World Health organization have estimated that over 3,000 people could die from cancer as a result of exposure to radiation. Several other study have clearly shown the harmful effects such as elevated cancer rates in humans and the killing of the pine trees in the Red Forest (Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol.19, No.5, pp.1231-1232, 2000).

Now, does scales can be a layer of protection? Yes and no. Alpha particles would be stopped by a sheet of paper (skin and a few inch of air also do the job), beta particles can be blocked by a sheet of aluminium or glass (or a few feet of air). But in general, these two types of radiation are regarded as less dangerous than gamma radiation.

For gamma radiation, absorption/protection is mathematically expressed as follow:
I = Io e<sup>-ut</sup>

where:
I = Gamma-ray intensity transmitted through an absorber of thickness t
Io = Gamma-ray intensity at zero absorber thickness
t = absorber thickness (cm)
u = linear attenuation coefficient (cm<sup>-1</sup>) dependant on material and gamma energy

It's an exponential absorption therefore gamma radiation can only be reduced, it cannot be completely absorbed. Considering that a scale thickness is measured millimetres, it's probably better than bare skin but not by much.

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 3:34 pm

I get what you are saying.... so a nuclear reactor from a submarine would be Gamma?

niÃ±o de los dragones · Wed Feb 15, 2006 4:05 pm

i would think so only cause it is more safe for humans.

Kojack · Post by **Kojack** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 6:44 pm

Interesting.

Gamma radiation cannot be absorbed fully.

And overall, radiation is bad (in general) and dragons would last longer than humans but not much longer.

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:58 pm

Well the lead shield was cracked apperently for a while...... but the computers were almost cutting edge at the time I found it!! I can download most movies but it is not broadband..... my connection is fuddled because I am so deep underwater.......

Firuweata · Post by **Firuweata** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:18 am

Actually, Chernobal is the only place in the world where some people can get cancer by just standing there in only a few hours...

And dragons can get cancer...

Silentiea · Post by **Silentiea** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:59 am

Actually, your connection would be somewhat faster in water, since it's a liquid, not a gas, that the waves have to travel through.

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:21 am

Well then it must be the water pressure acting on the equipment.......

Firuweata · Post by **Firuweata** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:45 am

Wait, wait, wait...

Gamma the safest???

No, of the three radiations (Alpha, Beta, Gamma), Gamma is actually the most deadly, while Alpha is the safest. Or, you could just move out of the nucleur powered submarine to an old, underwater city somewhere...

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:33 pm

Okay what underwater city has 300 dollars worth of computing equipment?

And besides this radiation might give me super powers!!

wut2say · Post by **wut2say** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:17 pm

just a quick question

jishdefish how many people do u kno that have gotten super powers from radiation that r not in a comic or show?

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 5:32 pm

And how many people do you know that are a dragonfish?

And besides the school food (when I am in my human form) made me glow in the dark so mutation is possible.....

Firuweata · Post by **Firuweata** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 5:35 pm

You could get a really long extension cord and move to the underwater city...

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:51 pm

Too much of an electricution hazard....

Silentiea · Post by **Silentiea** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:55 am

Tusj ekat lla fo rouy sretupmoc ot Sitnalta, Ev'i draeh yeht evah emos dnik fo repus-yrettab ereht.

-What? Do you actually expect these people to understand that! I don't even understand that and I'm YOU!!!

Ho llew.

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:24 am

Stop trying to get off topic Silentia....

wut2say · Post by **wut2say** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 6:56 pm

*rubs aching head* yes and please write forward. i dont care wut kind of place u came from but ur here now and so u can write like every one else here(please nobody start writing backwards cause i said that)

Silentiea · Post by **Silentiea** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:50 am

I said 'Just take all of your computers to Altantis, I've heard they havesome kind of super-battery there.'

-Then I said something.

Then I said 'Oh well.'

-Idiot.

Shut up.

Jishdefish · Post by **Jishdefish** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:20 am

I don't like dead cities.... too creepy!!!

Kojack · Post by **Kojack** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 4:28 pm

Altantis isnt dead.

Firuweata · Post by **Firuweata** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:06 pm

Yeah, but they aren't underwater...

I stayed with them for a while, and they had some kind of floating island, which I think is in the Southern Pacific right now if I'm not mistaking...

Silentiea · Post by **Silentiea** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:14 pm

There are too many stories around this. I speak of the desolate city on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, sprawling out from the Mediterranean sea.

-The city isn't desolate! There's plenty of life there, just not the one's who lived there before.

I meant desolate as in, well, creepy. I wouldn't want to live there. In fact, I'd greatly prefer to live in a nuclear sub. I'd even remove all the sheilding on the core.

-Yum, yum. Why are we Aeuea, again?

Why not? It's easiest, I think. Aeuea require a lot less maintainence to keep alive than most species.