Skyburn
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- Posted: Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:53:05 +0000
Yes, and yes. Strictly speaking few people ever consider protons as part of radiation, as any free proton will almost instantly bond with an electron, also known in radiation terms as a β- or for positions, β+, which are considered to be relatively inconsequential, as your skin will stop it with little to no damage - it's electricity, and if you won't get so much as a noticeable shock.
Neutrons, yes, those are far more consequential. Thermal (slow) Neutrons are relatively damaging as they are more likely to come into contact with, bind with (via Strong Nuclear Force) and possibly cause to fission (if the resultant element is unstable), or worse - ionize (as in colliding with an electron and removing it from the element) a material. Ionizing, for humans, is not good - enough ionization's will screw with your body. Fast Neutrons (considerably faster... go figure) are more likely to just bounce off of atoms. Consider it like skipping a rock. You throw it fast enough and at the right angle, it will skip of the water, slowly losing energy but all the while not making many disturbances until it slows to the point that it sinks into the water, making a bit more of a splash along the way.
Alpha's (α) are the most damaging, but short lived and will be easily stopped by clothing and dead skin layers, which are what your outermost skin is made of. It's just two protons and two neutrons together. As such, with such a charge, they usually don't get very far, but do act as a gas, as they are just ionized helium, when they do. Unless you breathe it in or eat an α-emitting substance, you're good. Most nuclear waste does not involve α's.
Gammas (ɣ)- also considerable. Each gamma does the same amount of biological damage as a β, usually (pending material), but the problem is amount of ɣs and penetration. Whereas alphas and betas are stopped by skin and clothing, ɣs just go right through you. The problem is the ones that don't. They can also ionize by energizing electrons and causing them to depart from their atoms, leaving some with a negative charge and others with a positive charge - not good for your body.
Gammas are the resultant extra energy bled off from an energized atom, usually, or from a fission.
Your body can heal from a considerable amount of radiation almost as fast as it gets it.
The second part of your question: Fusion. Don't see why you'd bother with radiation. Yes, you can compress radiation, but capturing it is the problem. By it's very nature, once captured, the only radiation that is still considerably harmful is Alpha's, but then it's just a waiting game. The best way is what we do now: Shielding. Most nuclear power plants, and almost all in the States, have more radiation on the outside (due to the sun) than the inside (due to the reactor... except for the reactor compartment itself - yeah, that'll kill ya when critical, if it's a large enough reactor for actual usable power generation vice a testbed or educational too.)
Fusion itself is far easier done with larger atoms and elements, and only just recently did humanity become good at it to get a net gain of energy from it - though it's prohibitively expensive to produce for anything but the most cutting-edge experiments.
Neutrons, yes, those are far more consequential. Thermal (slow) Neutrons are relatively damaging as they are more likely to come into contact with, bind with (via Strong Nuclear Force) and possibly cause to fission (if the resultant element is unstable), or worse - ionize (as in colliding with an electron and removing it from the element) a material. Ionizing, for humans, is not good - enough ionization's will screw with your body. Fast Neutrons (considerably faster... go figure) are more likely to just bounce off of atoms. Consider it like skipping a rock. You throw it fast enough and at the right angle, it will skip of the water, slowly losing energy but all the while not making many disturbances until it slows to the point that it sinks into the water, making a bit more of a splash along the way.
Alpha's (α) are the most damaging, but short lived and will be easily stopped by clothing and dead skin layers, which are what your outermost skin is made of. It's just two protons and two neutrons together. As such, with such a charge, they usually don't get very far, but do act as a gas, as they are just ionized helium, when they do. Unless you breathe it in or eat an α-emitting substance, you're good. Most nuclear waste does not involve α's.
Gammas (ɣ)- also considerable. Each gamma does the same amount of biological damage as a β, usually (pending material), but the problem is amount of ɣs and penetration. Whereas alphas and betas are stopped by skin and clothing, ɣs just go right through you. The problem is the ones that don't. They can also ionize by energizing electrons and causing them to depart from their atoms, leaving some with a negative charge and others with a positive charge - not good for your body.
Gammas are the resultant extra energy bled off from an energized atom, usually, or from a fission.
Your body can heal from a considerable amount of radiation almost as fast as it gets it.
The second part of your question: Fusion. Don't see why you'd bother with radiation. Yes, you can compress radiation, but capturing it is the problem. By it's very nature, once captured, the only radiation that is still considerably harmful is Alpha's, but then it's just a waiting game. The best way is what we do now: Shielding. Most nuclear power plants, and almost all in the States, have more radiation on the outside (due to the sun) than the inside (due to the reactor... except for the reactor compartment itself - yeah, that'll kill ya when critical, if it's a large enough reactor for actual usable power generation vice a testbed or educational too.)
Fusion itself is far easier done with larger atoms and elements, and only just recently did humanity become good at it to get a net gain of energy from it - though it's prohibitively expensive to produce for anything but the most cutting-edge experiments.