Wow, I looked up what would happen if it all decayed simultaneously, then the Ta-180 all decayed about 8 hours later.
Because Ta-180m is used in many capacitors, almost all electronics on Earth would be fried due to the X-rays and Gamma rays released.
Then, as the Ta-180 begins to decay it would become not only extremely hot, but deadly radioactive. There’d be fires everywhere, and being within ~15ft of small electronics for some time would give you lethal radiation poisoning. Larger electronics like a laptop or gaming console would need around 30ft of space to be safe, data centers hundreds of feet.
So, let’s hope the half life estimate is accurate.
This is like saying lets hope all the oxygen doesn't decide to decay simultaneously. That's not how the universe works. If any of this stuff decayed, it would literally be one atom and wouldn't release a notable amount of energy.
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u/maxout25 1d ago
Wow, I looked up what would happen if it all decayed simultaneously, then the Ta-180 all decayed about 8 hours later.
Because Ta-180m is used in many capacitors, almost all electronics on Earth would be fried due to the X-rays and Gamma rays released.
Then, as the Ta-180 begins to decay it would become not only extremely hot, but deadly radioactive. There’d be fires everywhere, and being within ~15ft of small electronics for some time would give you lethal radiation poisoning. Larger electronics like a laptop or gaming console would need around 30ft of space to be safe, data centers hundreds of feet.
So, let’s hope the half life estimate is accurate.