Someone sent this to me and wondered if it was a sham or concern.
What say, all?
Most things like this turn out to be a hoax.
Daniel R. Spirer, GG
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-6000
Sham, there was a case many many years ago where a few pieces were
made, but this is a sham.
Thanks,
Etienne Perret
Designing Colored Diamond Jewels
20 Main St
Camden, Maine
USA 04843
tel.+207.236.9696
fax.+207.236.9698
A persistent urban myth. Has anyone got REAL proof of this? I’ve
heard this one for the past decade or so but never heard any
convincing proof. Rex from Oz
Lisa, Radioactive gold has made its way into the marketplace on
occasion…but not through any design of the NRC. Sometimes
radioactive gold which used to be commonly used in medical imaging
machinery has been stolen and sold on the open market. It has always
been rare…and since the NRC became aware of the potential danger I
haven’t heard of a case in years. (This is not to say that I have
complete confidence in a government bureaucracy…but they seem to
have done a good job with this issue.) -Peter-
I had also recently read an article about this in our newspaper. The
is some sort of investigation going on. We can certainly hope that it
is a hoax. I would hate to think it was true.
CDPaetz
I just read though, this thread, then searched for the Author, Jackie
Alan Giuliano, Ph.D., a NASA ,Public Relations Officer. On what’s
apparently his own sit, in a listing of 250 articles and editorials,
this editorial didn’t turn up in his search engine. Urban legender’s
love to name drop to give their anti government rap authority,
however…
Also the only Gold in a warhead would be plating on electrical
contacts (thin, one use contacts, them BOOM!) It would probably take
quit a collection of war heads to get a dwt. Then mixed and diluted
in a production refining & processing. Come to think of it, the
nature of the solid state electronics of a warhead are very
susceptible ot radiation damage and so I’d think would be heavily
shielded anyway!
Let’s let this die in peace and laugh…efw
A persistent urban myth. Has anyone got REAL proof of this? I’ve
heard this one for the past decade or so but never heard any
convincing proof. Rex from Oz
I remember reading a single, well described and documented case, in
JC-K, back about 15 years ago (the article. the occurance was a good
deal earlier) The gold was highly radioactive, but not from weapons
use. Gasket seals on some reactor vacuum chanber as I recall, stolen
and sold to a single refiner. Was discovered a couple months after
the resulting batch of gold had been sold to a class ring
manufacturer, when some student buyer found his ring would expose a
roll of film. Bid deal to track and recall all the offending
metal… Someone at the refiner I used then, now out of business,
later told me that ever since, many refiners had geiger counters with
which to screen incoming scrap metal… Don’t know if it’s true. But
I DO know this particular episode got so far as to be published in
JC-K as what they represented as verified fact.
Peter Rowe
I had also recently read an article about this in our newspaper. The is some sort of investigation going on. We can certainly hope that it is a hoax. I would hate to think it was true.
Apparently there were some charges made, but I haven’t seen the
opposing viewpoint. There was an article in the Washington Post, Aug
14, 1999, page A01, titled "Radioactive Gold: Did It Go to Market?
All I have is the title, which asks the question but doesn’t give the
answer. If anyone has ready access to this issue, maybe they could
summarize it here.
Al
mailto:@Alan_Balmer
According to the Washington Post article which Alan Balmer mentions,
which I finally got, the issue has to do with a lawsuit brought by
some of the workers at the Paducah (Tenn) plant at which gold, lead,
aluminum and nickel from nuclear weapons and production equipment is
recovered. According to the article, recovering valuable metals from
"retired" nuclear weapons has been a mission of the government’s
uranium enrichment plants for some five decades. Radioactive gold
flakes were discovered in one of the ingot molds used for recovery
inside the plant, last December. The DOE’s response so far is
apparently that there’s no way of telling how old those flakes are so
there’s no way of knowing what happened to the gold. Meanwhile, there
is at least as much concern over the other metals – especially nickel
– used for everything from braces iud’s to zippers to new hips
to… So far the recycling program goes on; there are no federal
standards to set guidelines as to what would constitute purified
metals, and so –
So yes, I guess I’d get a geiger counter too – except that there’s
probably alot less chance of getting a radioactive ring than sitting
in a radioactive subway seat or on a bleacher seat or who knows what.
Sorry 'bout this. I really thought the Washington Post article would
indicate it’s all hooey. But it IS probably statistically
remote…rhoda.