The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

atlasobscura.com ^ | Dan Nosowitz

[dp0622]

how bad would the explosion have been. How farsrpread etc Thanks in advance if you can answer it!!

[thackney]

The first incident went critical, meaning a sustained fission reaction.

The second incident went supercritical, meaning an increasing rate of fission reaction.

[alexander_busek]

This produced a spike of radiation so intense there was a brilliant flash of blue Čerenkov radiation.

I wouldn't have thought that the difference in the phase velocity of light in air at s.t.p. as compared with in a vacuum would suffice for the charged particles released by such an accidental event to create a noticeable amount of Čerenkov radiation.

Can you elucidate?

Regards,

[dp0622]

Thanks. I have NO knowledge of this stuff and was thinking it would be a reaction the equivalent of Hiroshima or something.

[Hot Tabasco]

I saw the Chernobyl Diaries.........real creepy

[null and void]

Need to get to work, will address this later. (If I get distracted and forget -not unlikely! Feel free to remind me).

[thackney]

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/cherenkov.html

[winner3000]

I bet liberals absolutely hate her. These people live to come up with something new to be scared of just about every day. Apart from the nutty “global warming” scam, they want to ban dodge ball, soccer, football, and just about anything that’s fun.

[RJS1950]

Yep, it started with fluoride in water before I was born, saccharine, aspirin, eggs, bacon, charcoal broiled meat, salt, coffee, tea, red wine, etc. All went from good to bad, back to good and some back to bad. I was trained as a scientist, biology, chemistry, and still follow the various studies. Almost all are pure crap and have little to no effect other than for people who are genetically inclined to bad effects or through over exposure.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Nor did they tell her about the scientist at the Manhattan project who touched plutonium for some reason to save others in the room and he died a horrific death.

Louis Alexander Slotin (1 December 1910 – 30 May 1946)

[Boogieman]

Ok, let me take a swing at clearing a couple things up. A subcritical mass means there isn’t enough radioactive material in one “lump” to initiate a nuclear reaction. It is still radioactive, because the isotopes are always decaying and giving off radiation, but there is no chance that it will start a reaction giving off massive amounts of radiation.

A critical mass happens when enough of the material is in one “lump” for a nuclear reaction to begin. Once that happens, you get nuclear fission, meaning the isotopes are not just decaying, steadily giving off “rays” of radiation over time, they are actually splitting apart at the molecular level, releasing huge quantities of energy and radiation every time that happens, and it will continue to happen in a chain reaction until all the fissile material is broken down into less reactive substances.

The raw amount of material is not the only factor, it also has to be in the right state and a proper shape for a chain reaction to start, but since they were building a nuclear bomb, the material they were working with was already in that configuration. All that was needed for a fission reaction to start was for the two masses to come into contact.

[taildragger]

"I would love to know what this means. It is hard to grasp."

Go to the link below, from the Movie "Fat Man Little Boy". I don't know how accurate the movie was, but you will get the idea of the pieces coming in contact with one another....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ0P7R9CfCY

[alexander_busek]

Yes, thackney, I was aware of what Cherenkov radiation is / how it is formed / how to google.

But since chiefly neutrons (which are uncharged particles) were released by the reaction, I was wondering what would have caused the Cherenkov radiation.

Regards,

[thackney]

Being released at an energy level high enough to to exceed the speed of light in air.

Maybe I don’t understand your question. I suspect you know this already but here is a brief description of the cause in water.

http://reactor.mst.edu/cerenkov/

I would expect the direct contact in the second incident produced a similar result in air.

[Red Badger]

So did I!.................

[ifinnegan]

Thanks!

[thackney]

It would not be solely neutrons being released. There would be Beta radiation released as well.

[dp0622]

That was very understandable even for me lol Thanks. But what is the material? Plutonium? why does a certain amount more cause critical mass? thanks in advance. What an interesting subject

[aquila48]

She’s right - I’m sure the dangers have been totally overblown
Crossing a street is probably more dangerous than what she’s doing.

[Boogieman]

It don’t think air that was the medium which caused the Cerenkov radiation. Remember, gamma rays are photons, and they are being emitted from inside the fissile material, before they reach the air outside. It was probably within the medium of the fissile material itself that the Cerenkov radiation was generated.