According to Cohen, (Op.cit. p.220) 99.99% of ingested plutonium is excreted in a few days, so doesn't hang around long enough to do any damage by irradiation.
Twenty year old, billion dollar reactor runs for one hour in total before decomissioning decision.
Dec 25, 2016
43 Replies
Just remembered that Cohen's book is available on-line for all to read:
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It produces half a watt per gram so its not going to glow red hot unless you have a fair bit or its insulated in some way.
If it were red hot then aluminium wouldn't be a good casing.
So a few hundred grams will generate a few/2 hundred watts. That would be enough to make a slug of the stuff pretty damn hot.
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