🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <pan.2007.01.01.07.09.08.180040@comcast.net>,
 Phil Hays <spampostmaster@comcast.net> wrote:

> Timberwoof wrote:
> 
> >  "Addinall" <addinall@addinall.org> wrote:
> > 
> >> Of course if you pump a load of water down a hole that is being heated
> >> by a load of radioactive rock, some of that radioactive material will
> >> be dissolved or kept in supension in the water, and it's going to come
> >> up to the surface.
> > 
> > Oh. I did not know that lava coming out of volcanoes is radioactive. I'm
> > sure that very few people know this. I think that even geologists don't
> > know this.
> 
> Almost everything is radioactive, at least to some extent. I strongly
> suspect that most geologists know this. The air is radioactive because of
> C14. Our bodies are radioactive due to K40 and others. It is mostly a
> matter of degree of how radioactive things are. Most rocks are slightly
> radioactive. Some rocks are quite radioactive. A few rocks are very very
> radioactive.

I know this. 

> I don't know how radioactive the rock where the geothermal is being
> proposed is. It would be foolish not to find out what sort of radiation
> release would be generated before significant development of the
> geothermal field. However, chemical risks are probably higher: arsenic,
> lead, etc.

Is lava typically more radioactive than, say, rocks found at some 
roadcut? 

Consider the context: someone explained to Addinall that the Earth's 
interior is heated by radioactive decay. Addinall seems to have deduced 
that volcanoes and geothermal hot spots are typically near deposits of 
radioactive materials. (Boy, that would make mining the stuff even less 
fun.)

-- 
Timberwoof <me at timberwoof dot com> http://www.timberwoof.com
It's easy to say a war is so important your neighbor should go fight it for you.