kristopher states
You are once again playing fast and loose with the facts.
Actually it is kristopher that is playing fast and loose with the facts.
READ the article. The items that were stolen were SOURCES.
"Sources" here refers to radiation sources. Those are bits of radioactive material that serve as a source for radiation. These sources are used in diagnostic and theraputic medical applications in lieu of an X-ray machine for example. Does anyone know someone who has had "radiation treatments" for cancer? Those "radiation treatments" were done using radiation from the "radiation sources" that were stolen as reported in the original article.
Or the radiation sources are used for imaging welds in the petroleum industry and other industrial applications. Again, they are used in lieu of an X-ray machine since the gamma rays produced by these radiation sources are higher energy and more penetrating than would come from an X-ray machine.
These sources are used in MEDICAL and INDUSTRIAL applications. They are useful in diagnostics such as imaging; both medical and industrial.
Again because of kristopher's LACK of scientific acumen; he MISUNDERSTANDS the article.
He "thinks" that these are thefts from nuclear power plants and claims the literature is full of these incidents.
That's just his FAULTY UNDERSTANDING, it's what one gets when one doesn't have the technical qualifications to understand what one is reading.
The litany of locations where these thefts have occurred are NOT at nuclear reactors.
For example, the Ir-192 source stolen in Abu Dhabi specifically states "Radiography equipment"
I think most here understand what "radiography equipment" is; it's used to take what are commonly called "X-rays".
FBaggins is correct; this is more "shallow understanding"; if it has the word "nuclear" or "radiation" in it; then it must be from a nuclear power plant.
The medical and industrial communities use "radiation sources" for such things as radiography, all the time; and it has NOTHING to do with reactors.
The radioactive material like spent fuel that comes from nuclear power plants is NOT easily transported or stolen.
For example; a typical fuel assembly is about 12 feet long and require LOTS of shielding.
NONE, repeat NONE, NONE, NONE of the incidents above are radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants.
There are some incidents of fresh fuel from research reactors; however that is small in amount. Additionally, fresh fuel is not irradiated and is no more radioactive than when it was taken out of the ground. When I was a kid, I sent for a mail-order science kit that had a natural radioactive source for the Wilson cloud chamber experiment that is more radioactive than fresh fuel.
It's all due to MISUNDERSTANDING or DECEPTION; I can't decide which.
As the old maxim goes, "Don't ascribe to malice, that which can be explained..."
The good thing about science is that it is true, whether or not you believe in it.
--Neil deGrasse Tyson
PamW
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