• zout@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      4 days ago

      Why not use the shims designed for this instead of the tip of a screwdriver?

    • spicy pancake@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      a lead suit would have done fuckall in that situation

      the amount of lead you can feasibly wear on your body can protect you from, say, dental X-rays, but not from research FAFO-grade gamma radiation

      you need several inches of lead and/or tungsten for that kind of shielding. you might also need several feet of concrete if neutron radiation is involved

      • da_cow (she/her)@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        3 days ago

        Lead is good for blocking alpha and beta radiation, but does not do that much against gamma, which was the main radiation he received, so yeah. Probably would not have saved him.

        • spicy pancake@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          the thickness of lead that would have been required would have prevented him from fucking around with the screwdriver in the first place because he wouldn’t have been able to reach the thing lol

      • deltapi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        3 days ago

        A human body blocks more than several inches of lead? I need to rethink the design of my bunker.

        • xthexder@l.sw0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          3 days ago

          Doing some quick math and numbers pulled from wikipedia, Lead is about 14-15x as effective by volume compared to water at blocking gamma radiation.

          I think far more significant in saving the other scientists was the inverse square law. The radiation energy falls off with the square of distance, so Slotin would have received a significantly higher dose just from being right next to it.