Martin Brown wrote:
TBerk wrote:

Here's a question along those lines:

What happens to a large body of say a Colonies Drinking Water if its
used as Radiation Shielding?

Very little provided that it is reasonably pure. You just need enough of
it to provide adequate shielding.


In this model it is an enourmous amount. Concider a small lake or so.
There are some variables that dictate how much is 'enough'. There is
likely to be some amount of bedrock or other earthen material above it
also adding to the shielding.


Sodium in sea or brackish water might be a bit of a problem (neutron
activation makes it into a nasty radioisotope). Drinking water would be
OK, deionised would be better.

snippage
You would see a faint ghostly blue glow from Cherenkov radiation -
particles passing through the water traveling faster than the speed of
light in the medium shed energy in the electromagnetic equivalent of a
sonic boom. Not much else would happen. Astronauts have even seen such
flashes in their eyes as cosmic rays pass through them.

Regards,
Ø Martin Brown

OK. Thx Martin

And Sam- I'd think in a Colony of this sort the idea would be to make
use of water already there as opposed to transporting it. I'm
envisioning a great big cavern, perhaps sealed on the inside with a
ceramic type material to avoid too much leakage into the surrounding
stone, and filled with distilled H2O.


TBerk