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Are you for real? Poisoning with a radioactive substance is not at all related to a "small scale nuclear weapon".

Retric 9y ago
Radiation killed him not poison. Similarly if you spread radioactive waste over a city it will kill people without a nuclear detonation. But, I was simply conceding the point. Radiation is a very nasty way to kill someone over days, but they could have also used chemical means, a bullet, or a guy with a stick. They chose to use nuclear material to make a point. Edit: Traditional bombs kill large numbers of people very easily. But, radiation poisoning is unusually nasty which is one of the reasons even kiloton scale nuclear weapons are considered so evil.
- codewritinfool 9y ago
  "poisoning" means to introduce a harmful or deadly substance into someone or something. Even the very wikipedia article you refer to calls it poisoning.
  - Retric 9y ago
    Nuclear weapons cause radiation poisoning, but it's energy that's causing issues not hydrogen ions or photons etc. We don't think of burns as poison for good reasons.
    - codewritinfool 9y ago
      So frustrating. I'm going to stop replying because your basic science is incorrect. Are you aware that gamma rays consist of high-energy photons?
      - Retric 9y ago
        Yes, as I said photons (X-Rays, Gama etc). Protons are used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy You can add helium nuclei (Alpha), electron's (Beta radiation) etc. Arguably the worst Neutron's which are not directly ionizing even though they carry a lot of energy, penetrate most things, and often cause what they hit to become radioactive. Again it's really not about the carrier. We call it radiation because it's high energy that's causing problems. It's not like 450nm photons are deadly unless you have an insane number of them. But, if you had enough you could still kill someone with blue light.

Radiation killed him not poison. Similarly if you spread radioactive waste over a city it will kill people without a nuclear detonation. But, I was simply conceding the point. Radiation is a very nasty way to kill someone over days, but they could have also used chemical means, a bullet, or a guy with a stick. They chose to use nuclear material to make a point. Edit: Traditional bombs kill large numbers of people very easily. But, radiation poisoning is unusually nasty which is one of the reasons even kiloton scale nuclear weapons are considered so evil.

codewritinfool 9y ago
"poisoning" means to introduce a harmful or deadly substance into someone or something. Even the very wikipedia article you refer to calls it poisoning.
- Retric 9y ago
  Nuclear weapons cause radiation poisoning, but it's energy that's causing issues not hydrogen ions or photons etc. We don't think of burns as poison for good reasons.
  - codewritinfool 9y ago
    So frustrating. I'm going to stop replying because your basic science is incorrect. Are you aware that gamma rays consist of high-energy photons?
    - Retric 9y ago
      Yes, as I said photons (X-Rays, Gama etc). Protons are used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy You can add helium nuclei (Alpha), electron's (Beta radiation) etc. Arguably the worst Neutron's which are not directly ionizing even though they carry a lot of energy, penetrate most things, and often cause what they hit to become radioactive. Again it's really not about the carrier. We call it radiation because it's high energy that's causing problems. It's not like 450nm photons are deadly unless you have an insane number of them. But, if you had enough you could still kill someone with blue light.