Radiation

I once worked for a man who believed that microwave ovens and gamma piles are the same thing. Yeah, not that sharp, and preferred to remain in ignorance.

One of those terrible comic book untruths are that you can shield gamma rays. Realistically? Not so much. Gamma rays are so short, they miss atoms. They zip right through what you'd make shielding out of. Even Lead. Yes, a few nucleuses will accidentally get hit by gamma rays and some of that energy will cause that nucleus to get really hot, but mostly the gamma ray misses. Alpha and Beta radiation that hits a nucleus with neutrons will turn an atom into an isotope, itself radioactive, but most will miss.

So you can shield a radioactive source, like a nuclear reactor pile, and stop SOME of the gamma rays, but only some of it. The best you can hope for is something like half. The more important bit is being AWAY from the source. Distance gives you Cube Law advantage. Since a radioactive source goes in all directions, the cube of the distance is your exposure. That means the further away, the safer you are. Shielding is largely irrelevant, distance is everything.

So when I read something really bad, really stupid by someone who can find the facts on wikipedia and they base a major plot point in their story on radiation shielding? I kinda want to kick them. In the reproductive organs. So their stupidity won't breed into another generation. You ever feel like that?