".....Nor any Drop to Drink"

It is fairly safe to say that everyone has at least heard of radioactivity.

But what exactly IS it?

Well, it is a bit like the commercial for Red Rock Strong Lager - "It is not red, and there are no rocks in it"

"radioactivity" is similar - "It has nothing to do with radios, and it is not about activity, but the lack of it"

Scientists discovered it because it kept making them very ill.

When we studied it, we found there were three basic types. We called them after the first three letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha, Beta and Gamma (our word "alphabet" came from the joining of the first two)

They were classed according to how dangerous they were.

Alpha - stopped by paper
.
Beta - stopped not by paper but tin foil.

Gamma - stopped only by several centimeters of lead (about 10)

But what were they?

By doing various esoteric experiments it turned out they were:

Alpha - Helium nuclei (to protons, two neutrons)

Beta - electrons (or their antiparticles, positrons)

Gamma - very high energy light rays (electromagnetic radiation)

The danger?

Alpha - forget it

Beta - Don't go swimming in a pool that glows blue (yes, GLOWS) If you do, it will be an atomic reactor and the glow is because the electrons are traveling faster than the speed of light in water.

Gamma - Be at least 12 miles from an atomic bomb

The danger is the damage gamma rays do. It is at the cellular level, which means that gamma rays are so powerful they pass right through you, except if they hit the nucleus of a cell (nothing to do with an atomic nucleus).

The danger of that is that if a cell is damaged, there is a very high probability of contracting cancer.

The fact that many people do not realise is that the effects of radiation poisoning are cumulative, rather like the way an hourglass works. Over time, the sand builds up in the bottom half.

Radiation is the same. There will come a point when the poisoning has "built up" so much that exposure to more will be really dangerous.

We wear badges that tell us how much "sand" has passed though us. In that sense, our work is very dangerous.

In the opposite sense, our work is very safe, simply because it is controlled.

Having said that, the door to the experimental area is a 2-meter by 1-meter by 1-meter tank of water.