Notice the continuous mention of bones.

  • skillissuer
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    i don’t get what you fail to understand, water doesn’t became radioactive or harmful in any other way after irradiation, and irradiation of food is routinely used for extending its shelf life

    • just_another_person@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      The basis for what you’re saying is that water is some kind of magic shield that reflects radiation, which is not a thing.

      At best, if you’re talking about lining the hull of a spacecraft and expecting that to work, that’s not a thing either because if the water is taking on any extra mass of any kind, it would obviously expand. Water in its purest form would have to take on mass to “absorb” radiation, expanding a hull and destroying it over time. If you left room in there for expansion, you’d die on exit or reentry of atmosphere without freezing it.

      The only way you can reflect radiation without absorbing something is by denying it entry. Water doesn’t do that.

      • skillissuer
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        water does not expand upon irradiation, what the fuck are you talking about. you can’t reflect high energy protons (what would be important in radiation in interplanetary travel) you can only either absorb them or let them pass, there’s no third option, same for anything above uv and electrons

        to a first approximation (rather good one at that) (for gammas) absorption is proportional to how much mass per area unit is used as a barrier. 1 g/cm^2 of water is just as good barrier as 1 g/cm^2 of lead or steel. this means that you can absolutely use completely normal, regular potable water as a radiation shield

        Water in its purest form would have to take on mass to “absorb” radiation, expanding a hull and destroying it over time.

        i’m not even sure what it’s supposed to mean, unless your understanding of ionizing radiation is uncut nonsense

        chemically speaking, it’s completely fine to irradiate water because whatever is formed as a result of radiolysis would just most of the time form water back, with the rest becoming very weak solution of hydrogen peroxide. this is big part of the reason why water is used as a coolant in nuclear reactors

        there are also specific nuances to stopping anything that is not gammas, like secondary x-rays, gammas from neutron absorption etc and this actually favours light element shields, like water or liquid hydrogen, for this kind of radiation shielding

        • just_another_person@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 month ago

          Okay, so where do the neutrons go in your head? Gotta go somewhere.

          Re: your point about water in its purest form. It means zero contamination. We aren’t even capable of doing that, and the purest we can make would kill humans pretty quickly for the similar amount we ingest.

          • skillissuer
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            what neutrons? we’re talking about shielding of spacecraft moving out of earth’s magnetosphere, not a spacecraft travelling through core of active nuclear reactor

            the kind of radiation that is relevant are high energy protons (and alphas and electrons, with a sprinkle of heavier nuclei) from sun, mostly. there’s no relevant source of neutrons

            (and incidentally water is pretty good at absorbing neutrons too)

            • just_another_person@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              1 month ago

              I think you are confused about how radiants work on Earth vs Space.

              Again, the OP is about water “absorbing” radiation, and then being drinking water. It’s not possible once past a certain amount. This is not possible.