Word: gamma
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...rate of energy-release, said Commissioner Strauss, could not be controlled, but would decrease steadily according to the "half-life" of the radioactive material. But such a "storage battery" might have one big advantage. It would not give off, necessarily, the dangerous neutrons and penetrating gamma rays which leak from atomic piles. Some active isotopes emit only radiations that can be stopped by comparatively thin shielding. There might be no deadly byproducts, either, to endanger the neighborhood...
...because Miss Mowrey thinks it a good teacher's duty to belong to education groups, she is a director of her local teachers' association, vice president of the West Virginia N.E.A., an active member of the American Association of University Women and of Delta Kappa Gamma, an education society. She teaches Sunday-school classes and is regularly called upon to help in Clarksburg's Red Cross and Community Chest drives...
Light Shield. Airplanes cannot carry massive concrete shields like those around the piles at Oak Ridge and Hanford. A lighter shield is needed. The most deadly radiations are neutrons and gamma rays...
...Gamma rays have to be absorbed by dense materials like lead. "A material which is good for stopping gamma rays," says Dr. Kalitinsky, "may not be the best when gamma rays and neutrons are considered together, and a material which is good for the innermost part of the shield may not be the best for the outer layers. There is, therefore, considerable room for weight reduction by ingenious design...
When the primitive atomic bombs were exploded in the air over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, their radioactive residues were carried harmlessly into the stratosphere. Most of their free neutrons and high-energy gamma rays were "wasted." But the second Bikini bomb (exploded underwater) threw into the air millions of tons of radioactive seawater, which did more damage than the detonation. If an atomic bomb were exploded below the surface of the earth like a pre-atomic blockbuster, it would probably stir up a cloud of deadly radioactive dust over a wide area. Chunks of rubble, tossed like projectiles, might...