At 08:55 AM 8/15/97 -0400, you wrote:
>At 07:59 AM 8/15/97 -0400, you wrote:
>
>>Mike, if there is NO SAFE DOSE you better stop living, but quick!  Who
>>knows when you might get cancer.
>
>Hey Andy you've misunderstood. I am saying that we should NOT be misled
>into thinking there is such a notion as a safe DOSE of radiation, if
>people have the illusion there is, then they will not be as quick to
>object about those waste dumps which 'only give off safe doses', would
>you want a 'SAFE DOSE' waste dump next to your primary school ?

Remeber the US law says for persons over 18years old.  The law would not
alow the dump by the primary school.


>
>Radiation exposure is like being shot at with lots of small powerful
>bullets - even one does damage, and the effects are accumulative. So
>therefore there is no SAFE dose of radiation - ie Don't accept the
>notion that even small number of bullets hitting you is safe !
>

Which leads me back to your first error, that the radiation will not
interact with the PIC.  If it interacts with people then it will with the
semiconductor material in the PIC.  How is the question.  You said it would
pass right through.  If it passes through a PIC, then it will pass through
you too.


>
>Well I hope the College training was comprehensive because some of the
>things Norm has said are tangential to basic facts about electromagnetic
>radiation - maybe he's forgotten Maxwell and Debroglie. Back in 1986 I
>was chief engineer and radiation officer for a local company - we used
>Cesium 137 and Cobalt 60 sources for measureing iron ore flow rates in
>a processor controlled feedback system. Even though I was at University
>back in late 70's we still had to undergo a significant crash course in
>the whole field - the most notable issue being that any ionising radiation
>is accumulative - so don't ADD to that already in the background.
>

Well, I think we must have misunderstood each other.  I was pointing out
that gammas act like particles not waves like other (what most people
referto as) elctromagnetic radiation.  For example, you use wave theory for
determining the characteristics of a cell phone RF system.  You use
particle theory for gammas.  BTW my nuclear course work was at the graduate
level and I worked in the feild for over 5 years before leaving for better
carrer oportunity.

BTW, I think we may have strayed enough off topic to stop using the
PIClist.  We can continue via private e-mail if you like.

Norm