Linky

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Fire-Rescue personnel said that an explosion this morning in 7500 bock of Baymeadows Way that has resulted in the release of radiation inside a building. The Unison Industries building was evacuated and police have blocked streets in the area. Members of the hazardous material team report picking up radiation with their geiger counters. There's no word ion whether anyone was exposed. Shands-Jacksonville is on level-three alert, standing by for anyone who needs to be decontaminated, but has not been advised how many they should expect. Unison's Web site, the company makes aviation parts, with power condition and control units made at the company's Jacksonville facility. Unison told Channel 4 it is unaware of any radiation release. They said about 500 employees work at its Baymeadows Way facility.

Interesting. I lived in Baymeadows for a number of years. There was a very large & growing ROP population when I left in 95'.

Tag

Quoted: Tag

Wow.  Scary shit.

Unison's Web site, the company makes aviation parts, with power condition and control units made at the company's Jacksonville facility.

why would there be a radiation leak at this place... ?

Aircraft parts?

Were they using some kind of neutron bombardment equipment to either treat metal or scan parts for microscopic flaws?

Why would a place like that have radiological agents?

Quoted: Unison's Web site, the company makes aviation parts, with power condition and control units made at the company's Jacksonville facility. why would there be a radiation leak at this place... ?

that is what the real question should be. unless they were storing something

Quoted: Quoted: Unison's Web site, the company makes aviation parts, with power condition and control units made at the company's Jacksonville facility. why would there be a radiation leak at this place... ? that is what the real question should be. unless they were storing something

If they make gauges they might have Tritium on hand for the dials... But that is a seriously wild guess...

Fox just reported that "the kind of radiation detected is commonly associated with X-Rays"....

Radiological imaging of structures?  This is common on pipeline and pressure vessel welds where standard x-rays cannot penetrate metals so higher energy gamma sources are used to image welds.

But these sources have a container that is remotely activated to expose the source.  How one can explode accidentaly is nigh impossible.

Fox just reported it's Krypton gas, and 100 people were contaminated....

its krypton gas.  

Quoted: Aircraft parts? Were they using some kind of neutron bombardment equipment to either treat metal or scan parts for microscopic flaws? Why would a place like that have radiological agents?

They may have X-ray machines to check for defects.

Still nothing on Fox OR CNN's websites.

Quoted: Still nothing on Fox OR CNN's websites.

They already said it was a Krypton gas leak.  They said it not five minutes ago.

Krypton

Atomic Number:  36


Atomic Weight:  83.798


Melting Point:  115.79 K (-157.36°C or -251.25°F)


Boiling Point:  119.93 K (-153.22°C or -243.80°F)


Density:  0.003733 grams per cubic centimeter


Phase at Room Temperature:  Gas


Element Classification:  Non-metal



Period Number:  4  Group Number:  18  Group Name:  Noble Gas


What's in a name?  From the Greek word for hidden, kryptos.


Say what?  Krypton is pronounced as KRIP-ton.


History and Uses:
Krypton was discovered on May 30, 1898 by Sir William Ramsay, a Scottish chemist, and Morris M. Travers, an English chemist, while studying liquefied air. Small amounts of liquid krypton remained behind after the more volatile components of liquid air had boiled away. The earth's atmosphere is about 0.0001% krypton.

The high cost of obtaining krypton from the air has limited its practical applications. Krypton is used in some types of photographic flashes used in high speed photography. Some fluorescent light bulbs are filled with a mixture of krypton and argon gases. Krypton gas is also combined with other gases to make luminous signs that glow with a greenish-yellow light. In 1960, the length of the meter was defined in terms of the orange-red spectral line of krypton-86, an isotope of krypton.

Once thought to be completely inert, krypton is known to form a few compounds. Krypton difluoride (KrF2) is the easiest krypton compound to make and gram amounts of it have been produced.

For those that are curious, pictures of krypton gas and krypton plasma can be found in the Questions and Answers section of this site.


Estimated Crustal Abundance:  1×10-4 milligrams per kilogram

Estimated Oceanic Abundance:  2.1×10-4 milligrams per liter

Number of Stable Isotopes:  5  (View all isotope data)

Ionization Energy:  14.000 eV

Oxidation State:  0

Electron Shell Configuration:  1s2        
2s2  2p6      
3s2  3p6  3d10    
4s2  4p6      
       
       
       

Link to Google Map:  maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=7500+baymeadows+way+jacksonville,+fl&t=h&ll=30.235341,-81.586533&spn=0.402214,0.683212&t=h

Winds right now are SW @ 12mph.  If there is fire/smoke associated with this, I'd watch where I was driving over there today.

I didnt think Krypton by itself was radioactive?

Kr 81 and Kr 85 are two radioactive isotopes.  But Kr 81 has a long half-life and is natural.   Kr 85 is formed from U and Pu fission.  WTF?

Quoted: I didnt think Krypton by itself was radioactive?

it's not. It's an inert gas

ok.. so someone translate this for me..

any danger or just an excuse for the media to use the words "radiation Leak"  the sky is falling type of thing.. ?

Quoted: Quoted: I didnt think Krypton by itself was radioactive? it's not. It's an inert gas

if its not radioactive... then why did the giger counts go off?  

what else is in there?

Making krypton landing lights?

Quoted: Quoted: I didnt think Krypton by itself was radioactive? it's not. It's an inert gas

It can kill Superman though, right?  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I didnt think Krypton by itself was radioactive? it's not. It's an inert gas if its not radioactive... then why did the giger counts go off?

see : Keith_J: Kr 81 and Kr 85 are two radioactive isotopes. But Kr 81 has a long half-life and is natural. Kr 85 is formed from U and Pu fission.

Quoted: Quoted: I didnt think Krypton by itself was radioactive? it's not. It's an inert gas

No, there are two radioactive isotopes, Kr 81 and 85.  81 is natural, 85 isn't.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I didnt think Krypton by itself was radioactive? it's not. It's an inert gas It can kill Superman though, right?

that's Kryptonite

and yes, that can kill me

Ok, so are the radioactive isotopes of Krypton used as gamma ray sources in radiological imaging of metals?  And how is it stored? Regular pressure vessels?

Gas under pressure is dangerous enough to play with even without radiation added.

Latest from news4jax.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Fire-Rescue personnel said that an explosion this morning in 7500 bock of Baymeadows Way that has resulted in the release of radiation inside a building. The Unison Industries building was evacuated and police have blocked streets in the area. Members of the hazardous material team report picking up radiation with their Geiger counters. There's no word on whether anyone was exposed. Unison's director of communications said a gas cylinder exploded in the facility about 10:45 a.m., but said no radioactive material was released. Channel 4 learned that the explosion hurt one person and transported to St. Luke's Hospital, but there was no information about the extent of that person's injuries. About 500 employees work at Unison's Baymeadows Way facility were evacuated. About 40 people from the company and the first firefighters and rescue personnel who responded were going through decontamination procedures. "We have what we call a Beta-source. This is about the equivalent, if you will, of X-rays," Jacksonville Fire-Rescue spokesman Tom Francis said. "We are not faced with a life-or-death situation here." Twelve ambulances were called to the scene and Shands-Jacksonville was put on level-three alert.

Quoted: Quoted: Unison's Web site, the company makes aviation parts, with power condition and control units made at the company's Jacksonville facility. why would there be a radiation leak at this place... ? Tritium dials. This doesn't mean shit, yet.

Tritium is a beta emitter.  Nothing close to Kr 85.

Unison does not make gauges, only ignition components, generators, starters, tubes, ducts, bellows and wiring harnesses.

The bellows, tubes and ducts would have RT (radiological testing) done on the welds...my guess.
ETA:
I am RIGHT!!!!  Well, it isn't exactly RT but it is used in NDT (non-destructive testing).  And welded metal bellows are a natural application for Kr85 isotope NDT.

www.isovac.com/home/krypton_85.htm

The radioactive gas, (Kr85) is used in the testing of customer’s products at the IsoVac testing facility, and in the Radiflo® Leak testing equipment that IsoVac manufactures. The Radiflo® equipment has been in commercial use since 1960, and has been used  throughout the United States as well as over 30 foreign countries. It has been used to test tens of billions of hermetic devices, and has involved the operation of the Radiflo® equipment by tens of thousands of employees on hundreds of machines throughout the world. There has never been a radiation exposure to any of those employees that even approaches the levels considered to be normal to such workers. The total annual radiation exposure for a Radiflo® worker is usually less than that of a single dental x-ray. The quantities of radioactive Krypton-85 used in a Radiflo® system are extremely low.  Typically the Kr85 gas is less than 0.01% of the total Nitrogen or Air in the Radiflo® machine. Krypton is an inert gas and is so detectable that only fractions of a micro-curie of Kr85 are introduced into a leaking part in the test process. Forty years of records show that an airliner pilot receives substantially more radiation exposure per year than a Radiflo® operator. Krypton-85 gas is totally rejected by the human body, is never absorbed by the body tissue, and is such a weak emitting radioactive material, that Krypton-85 is generally classified as a "non-biological health hazard". The Radiflo® equipment contains numerous safety detectors, sensors, interlocks, and indicators, all of which prevent an operator from being subjected to any unsafe conditions. The Radiflo® equipment design and manufacture are in complete compliance with Federal and State regulations that assure the protection of both the user, and the general public.

"We have what we call a Beta-source. This is about the equivalent, if you will, of X-rays," Jacksonville Fire-Rescue spokesman Tom Francis said. "We are not faced with a life-or-death situation here."

Well, if it's not a big deal, it's at least good practice.

Quoted: Beta Source is stopped by clothing.  Biggest concern is inhalation.  Breath some in, you are going to have some problems.  Decon is probably strip down and wash off.  That should get you 99% clean.  Not a big sweat. Gamma, OTH...

Kr85 does not readily absorb into water meaning its residence in the lungs is very short unlike a beta emitting dust or or tritium which isotopically exchanges with the hydrogen in the lung tissues, becoing quite resident.