More nonsense nuclides in the media.

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=16108

An Armenian citizen was arrested while attempting to smuggle 2.04 grams of a radioactive substance, Lawrencium-103, from Georgia into Turkey, the Georgian Border Police said on October 26.

It said three companions – also Armenian citizens – were also arrested.

I would think that merely creating and accumulating 2 g of any isotope of Lawrencium would be quite an accomplishment! Visible quantities of the metal have never been created, and the chemical properties of the element have only been studied on the scale of a few atoms!

The keen reader will note that Lawrencium has atomic number 103 – this is probably where the “Lawrencium-103″ nonsense comes from.

Its most stable isotope is ²⁶²Lr, with a half-life of approximately 4 hours. It has no practical applications.

December 5, 2007 - Posted by Luke Weston | Uncategorized | | 3 Comments

3 Comments »

Even so, anything -103 is either stable Rh-103 or short lived, at most a few weeks for Ru-103 and Pd-103.

http://atom.kaeri.re.kr/ton/nuc6.html

Comment by Fifi | December 6, 2007 | Reply
How much radiation education did you get in high school? Likely little or none. Even in college, unless you go into physics it is unlikely that you got any radiation education. Most journalists get absolutely zero education about radiation. They are may or may not be stupid, but they are just palin ignorant. It is important to contact the journalist and try to educate them in the basics of radiation. Properly done they will change. It may take awhile for them to change, but it can happen (not all, but the better percentage will change).

Comment by Larry Grimm | December 6, 2007 | Reply
Um.. couldn’t they look in an encyclopedia? Even wikipedia? Or even do a Google search?

Or maybe *gasp* contact somebody who knows something. I mean for one thing there’s the Health Physics Society which has a damn good outreach program. I wonder if they would respond to an email that said “Hi I’m a reporter and I am writing a story about this stuff called Lawrencium-103. What can you tell me about it and any potential dangers?”

I tend to think they would respond promptly, especially if the email was better written than above.

Comment by Drbuzz0 | December 20, 2007 | Reply

« Previous | Next »

About

I’ve started this blog as my contribution to the online pro-nuclear-energy grass roots blog-based community i’ve seen developing, which I’ve followed with great interest.

Like many, i’ve decided that as a scientist, I simply can no longer in good conscience just sit idly by and watch things that are not scientifically true be spread on an astonishing scale, when it comes to this debate over the world’s fission energy renaissance.

Well, that is one of my areas of interest, but I certainly have nothing against blogging about other areas of politics, technology, science and society.

I’m a student at the University of Melbourne, Australia, majoring in Physics and Computer Engineering. Don’t worry, I’ve *almost* graduated. Perhaps I should stop blogging and get back to the books?

As far as nuclear energy is concerned. I have no commercial or professional ties or conflicts of interest with regards to the nuclear energy, nuclear fuel or Uranium mining industries what so ever. Still, that doesn’t change anything. Some people will call me a shill, but some people can convince themselves of anything they dream up.

I’m a Liberal, (and an atheist) and usually a voter for the Australian Labor Party. That said, however, I can not at all disagree with John Howard’s policies of rationally investigating the feasibility of nuclear energy for Australia – although I didn’t vote for him in 2007, for other reasons.

That said, however, I generally seem to disagree with “far Left” politics, such as the Australian Greens and other “Green” Parties, and I certainly seem to find myself at odds with the far-leftist socialist political organisations that seem to breed like rabbits around universities in particular the world over.

Recent Comments

Luke Weston on Thinking about “nuclear…
Demian on Thinking about “nuclear…
ShowsOn on Blog Action Day
Photomaniacal … on Blog Action Day
Coriedord on Case-control study of lung can…
Blog Stats
- 78,088 hits
Blogroll

Physical Insights

An independent scientist’s observations on society, technology, energy, science and the environment. “Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home.” – Carl Sagan