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From: timlee@bnrmtv.UUCP (Timothy Lee)
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.physics
Subject: Re: Nuclear Accidents and boiling water
Message-ID: <462@bnrmtv.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Jul-86 16:18:05 EDT
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Posted: Thu Jul 10 16:18:05 1986
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Xref: watmath net.followup:6834 net.physics:4607

> >> >Re: boiling removes radioactivity from water??
> >> >I think the idea of boiling water to remove radioactive contaminants
> >> >is preposterous (I'm curious as to the authenticity of the original
> >> >suggestion.)
> 
> >> I was the original poster of this article.  I posted it to net.jokes as
> >> well so that everybody could have a good laugh at how stupid the British
> >> Embassy in Moscow was.  It was their suggestion.  Their reasoning was 
> >> that radioactivity was like something like cholera germs, and could be 
> >> killed off by boiling.  (Yes it's true).
> 
> >Actually, it's not totally preposterous.  If a radioactive gas was
> >dissolved in the water, boiling the water would cause it to bubble
> >off.
> 
> And then the water could be distilled leaving behind all the solid
> radioactive waste.

Meanwhile, one is breathing all of that bubbled off radioactive gas...