Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mrweaseluv, post: 1813467, member: 40340&quot;]a friend &quot;Mike M&quot; (to give credit where it&#039;s due) from another forum posted this:</p><p>Oak Ridge National Laboratory was a &quot;secret city&quot; in World War II. When the town was opened up on March 19, 1949, the American Museum of Science and Energy began hosting visitors. One million of them received &quot;irradiated dimes.&quot; A beryllium case was placed over small lump of antimony. The antimony gave off gamma rays that excited the beryllium which emitted neutrons that struck the dimes. The half-life was 24.6 seconds. Some of the Ag-109 atoms became Ag-110. Giving off an electron, the Ag-110 became Cadmium (Cd-110), which is stable. An other 51.82% of the silver atoms became Ag-107, the remaining 41.18 of the silver remained Ag-109. Of the remaining 5% was comprised of other isotopes, the most stable of which is Ag-108 which remains radioactive for five years, though the amount in a dime is statistically unimportant at the human level. Dimes are also made of copper. Cu-63 and Cu-65 represent almost 69.17% and almost 30.83% of the mass and are stable. When they absorb a neutron, they become zinc. The remaining fraction of a percent is Cu-67 which is radioactive for two-and-half days. </p><p><br /></p><p>Only silver dimes could be used. When the government switched to cupro-nickel, it was only a matter of time before silver dimes became scarce. The program was discontinued in 1967. Ni-63 remains radioactive for 92 years, decaying much quicker than Ni-59 which has a half-life of 80,000 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>See also</p><p><a href="http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/medalsmementoes/dimes.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/medalsmementoes/dimes.htm" rel="nofollow"><u>http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/m...toes/dimes.htm</u></a></p><p>from these sources</p><p>American Museum of Atomic Energy Press Release? Radioactive Dimes. 1954.</p><p>William Kolb and Paul Frame. Living With Radiation: the First Hundred Years. Third Ed. Syntec Inc. 2002.</p><p>Michael Marotta. Dimes Tell Oak Ridge Story. Coin World, October 4, 1999.</p><p>Roger Cloutier, personal communication.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in