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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 20, 2005 - 08:47am PT
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A large banana may have as much as 70 micrograms of radioactive potassium (K-40) which delays by beta emission.
U-235 is only 704 million years.
K-40 is 1.26 billion years.
U-238 is 4.5 billion years.
Are they safe to eat? Are green bananas more radioactive than ripe ones?
Should their import be controlled to prevent terrorists from building a dirty bomb? Should we have separate waste disposal systems for monkey cages?
Please advise.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Dec 20, 2005 - 02:11pm PT
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When I eat too many over ripe bannanas, I've planted quite a few dirty bombs.
Watch out
Karl
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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 20, 2005 - 09:48pm PT
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Well Bob, the thing is everybody is tracking the "serious stuff," even in Venezuela, so it is probably harder to get away with it. The serious stuff comes in little packages with a tri-foil stamped prominently on it.
But nobody is tracking bananas. You could even buy them all up after they have gotten through customs. Who would even know? Who would even suspect. No tri-foil means safe, right? Heck, you could put tens of thousands of them in a big vat, mash them up (like you were making banana pudding or something) and separate out all the potassium. You wouldn't even need to enrich it like uranium, because after all, you're not looking for fission here, right?
I guess you are right about eating the bananas. But suppose you ate half as many, but sprinkled on about 70 micrograms of U-235, which after all is less radioactive. Guess then you would be even less likely to suffer gastric distress.
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TradIsGood
Trad climber
Gunks end of country
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 21, 2005 - 06:08am PT
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toulomne [url="http://www.drugs.com/CG/HIGH_POTASSIUM_FOODS_LIST.html"]What about these foods? Especially the ones with high potassium.[/url]
I do not think it would be wise to avoid foods with potassium. It is extremely important in keeping muscles working properly.
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Rock!...oopsie.
Trad climber
pitch above you
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Dec 21, 2005 - 09:54am PT
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Well TIG, I disagree that they are tracking the serious stuff all that well in places like Venezuela since this is the 3rd time they've had an iridium capsule go missing in just this year. Granted, it would be nigh impossible to smuggle that thing anywhere since it's hotter than Britney mounting Paris; people would notice.
As for bananas, all I can say is if you wanna panic about bananas with T*R, that's cool. While you are at it you might wanna stop going to higher elevations like the meadows since there is significantly more radiation from the sun hitting you there. Oh, and whatever you do, don't get on an airplane... one flight across the country and you're getting the equivalent of eating hundreds of pounds of bananas! Luckily, the airplanes don't cause the same gastrointestinal difficulties though.
--->bob
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