3 ms·

And the radiation that enters the water does nothing terrible there. If it is a alpha particle, it will scatter a few times, grab an electron and become a harml

And the radiation that enters the water does nothing terrible there. If it is a alpha particle, it will scatter a few times, grab an electron and become a harmless helium atom. An electron from beta decay will be harmless after a few collisions. A positron from beta decay will annihilate rather quickly, producing to gamma photons. And those are absorbed in water after a few meters. Neutrons scatter down to thermal energies and decay after a few minutes. The water is not dangerous afterwards and there is no remaining radiation that needs to be filtered out. (For water that is quite different to e.g. steel that itself becomes activated and radioactive after sufficient radiation exposure.)

mimixco 7y ago
The specific radioactive pollutant I'm speaking of is tritium which has been found in discharge water from 45 of 65 tested US nuclear sites.[0] Tritum's half-life is more than 12 years, not a few minutes. [ibid] Several studies have found a connection between ingestion of tritium-contamined water and health effects, including DNA damage that leads to increased infant mortality. [1][2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium [1] http://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html#BEIR http://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html#BEIR [2] http://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html#UN-H http://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html#UN-H
- petschge 7y ago
  And how is Tritium, or rather super-heavy water that contains Tritium as one of its two hydrogen atoms, not a chemical?
  - mimixco 7y ago
    Tritium isn't really a "separate chemical" but rather an isotope of hydrogen. Since water molecules are made of hydrogen and oxygen bound together, there is no simple way to remove the radioactive hydrogen by itself. The current best methods, from what I'm seeing online, involve separating the hydrogen and oxygen atoms into gasses and then processing out the tritiated hydrogen molecules. Apparently, it's expensive and only about 85% effective. https://agrdailynews.com/2015/07/01/how-to-remove-radioactive-tritium-from-water-four-methods-and-technologies-illustrated/ https://agrdailynews.com/2015/07/01/how-to-remove-radioactiv...

mimixco 7y ago

The specific radioactive pollutant I'm speaking of is tritium which has been found in discharge water from 45 of 65 tested US nuclear sites.[0] Tritum's half-life is more than 12 years, not a few minutes. [ibid] Several studies have found a connection between ingestion of tritium-contamined water and health effects, including DNA damage that leads to increased infant mortality. [1][2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium [1] http://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html#BEIR http://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html#BEIR [2] http://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html#UN-H http://www.ccnr.org/tritium_1.html#UN-H

petschge 7y ago
And how is Tritium, or rather super-heavy water that contains Tritium as one of its two hydrogen atoms, not a chemical?
- mimixco 7y ago
  Tritium isn't really a "separate chemical" but rather an isotope of hydrogen. Since water molecules are made of hydrogen and oxygen bound together, there is no simple way to remove the radioactive hydrogen by itself. The current best methods, from what I'm seeing online, involve separating the hydrogen and oxygen atoms into gasses and then processing out the tritiated hydrogen molecules. Apparently, it's expensive and only about 85% effective. https://agrdailynews.com/2015/07/01/how-to-remove-radioactive-tritium-from-water-four-methods-and-technologies-illustrated/ https://agrdailynews.com/2015/07/01/how-to-remove-radioactiv...