Word: radium
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Discovered in 1900, radon is produced by the radioactive decay of radium, which in turn is a product of the radioactive breakdown of uranium. The gas has long been recognized as a health threat to uranium miners, who suffer abnormally high rates of lung cancer. But as a gas, radon can flow for miles underground, often rising to the surface through faults and porous rock far from any source of uranium. In fact, the Watras house is located in a region called the Reading Prong, from which larger-than-normal quantities of radon rise. The region stretches from Reading...
...school to build a nuclear reactor in his mom's potting shed, and damn if he didn't come close. In The Radioactive Boy Scout (Random House; 209 pages), Ken Silverstein describes how Hahn extracted radioactive elements from household objects--americium from smoke detectors, thorium from Coleman lanterns, deadly radium from the glow-in-the-dark paint used on the hands of vintage clocks. For sheer improvisational ingenuity, Hahn makes MacGyver look like Jessica Simpson. When public-health officials finally caught on to what Hahn was up to, the potting shed was so hot it had to be classified...