Lead from Roman ships used in nuclear Physics

[caiusbeerquitius]

Weird.
[url:of732iln]http://www.physorg.com/news190646406.html[/url]

[jvrjenivs]

Indeed very weird they just gave it away for use as a shielding cover for modern experiments.

[Matthew Amt]

Huh, kind of interesting, really! That lead had a particular isotope makeup, due to being refined 2000 years ago but sitting underwater since then, that made it ideal for this application. All the historically significant stamps and such were removed first, so all that got melted down was lead. And it looks like 30 bricks are still untouched, which is still a heck of a pile of Roman lead! For museums or other institutes that are already short on storage space, I really don't see any big problem here. It's not like statues are going to be ground up for making cement, or anything. Though I will say that it would be neat to be able to buy things like that on the open market! A neat otherwise-useless artifact to show off, and money for the museum.

Matthew

[Paullus Scipio]

I agree with Matt.....it's not so weird. As one of the comments pointed out, radiation-free iron was recovered from the scuttled German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow ( surrendered after WW1) for similar reasons.....it pre-dated the first Atomic bomb ( which contaminated the whole Earth) and all those subsequently, not to mention Chernobyl. 'New' iron ore, like the Lead, is contaminated with radiation from the Earth........

[Doc]

Technically, the idea is good. Instead of polluting the envirornment further by having to mine and process the lead to use in the experiment, which by the way could lead to the obscuring of data, it is good to use this old lead that is just taking up space. For the experiments they are proposing, you really do not want any other emissions to take place other than the emission of any subatomic particle.

[Caratacus]

As one of the comments pointed out, radiation-free iron was recovered from the scuttled German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow ( surrendered after WW1) for similar reasons.....it pre-dated the first Atomic bomb ( which contaminated the whole Earth) and all those subsequently, not to mention Chernobyl. 'New' iron ore, like the Lead, is contaminated with radiation from the Earth........

There was a similar thing with the armour plate removed from the WW I battleships of the British Fleet when these were scrapped at the end of WW II. I think they also used the armour from the King George V class and also possibly HMS Vanguard - because the iron in the steel had been extracted prior to the detonation of the wartime (and post war) nuclear weapons. The steel was used as shielding for detection equipment used in hospital radiography.

MIke Thomas
(Caratacus)

[Emeraldweapon7d]

I was aware pre-WWII iron scrap was being used for reasons similar to this, but I never imagined lead. Thanks for the interesting article!:-D