Nuclear security

Your Radiation This Week No 39

Actually, the chemical problem is the lesser problem, though it will definitely kill you. The LA Nuclear Disaster is a Nuclear problem of the 1st order, though.

The “methane” is usually called Natural Gas. It normally contains “natural radioactive materials” that are made in the inside of exploding stars. They are things like Uranium 238 and have been here since the planet was formed. They are in the very dirt of the Earth and thus are in natural gas, naturally. You can’t have one without the other.

The rogue well is spewing huge amounts of Natural Gas and about 1.91 Curie an hour maximum of natural radioactive material in the natural gas. Not much, you think? That is about 45.95 Curies per day. It is a really, really Big leak of natural gas and the radiation it always carries. A Curie is a unit of measure used in the United States to describe very large radioactive releases easily and this is a very big radioactive release.