Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Zeev Hed]

Radon is actually a product of natural decay of Uranium, not the fission process itself (granite rocks always contain small amounts of Uranium, and that is the natural source of Radon in houses built on granite ledges). Of course, a rod o pure Uranium will have a greater amount of radon elution than granite, but it is aired out (and sometimes absorbed from the air around the rods on an absorption bed). At an given tim, there is not much of that stuff around.

The neutron flux from an active reactor renders most of the container vessels somewhat radioactive, but a foot or two of lead are enough to shield you from it. If an abandoned nuclear reactor (not having its core elements in place) is bombed and pulverized, the radioactivity from these contaminated vessels and containment structures should ne be expected to spread much beyond the rubbles of that structure. It is a completely different story if rods are involved, though, or if a "live" reactor is blown up.

Zeev