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That part didn't make sense to me. Why does it stay more radioactive for a period of time after the accident? The pieces are separated - shouldn't it return to
by optforfon 10y ago
That part didn't make sense to me. Why does it stay more radioactive for a period of time after the accident? The pieces are separated - shouldn't it return to it's previous state? .I can understand it heating up (though can't you just cool it down mechanically?) but that's not really the same
- hga 10y agoBecause lots if not most of the fission products are themselves very unstable, and will be decaying towards more stable isotopes in due course. I doubt this radioactivity was a fraction as dangerous as the criticality excursion he caused (and I'm sure he wasn't in a normal frame of mind after his screwup, which I'm sure he knew could eventually kill him), so it's a hopefully moderate at worst personal harm vs. unique opportunity to collect data trade off.