Red Mercury: Is it Real or Just a Scam?

On March 30th, 2017, the streets of downtown Atlanta were closed down with police officers redirecting traffic amid “Red Mercury” investigation. This was after a man claiming to possess red mercury sourced from Africa walked into the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission facility.

In other news, three men were arrested and accused during a 2006 London Trial over the claims of trying to procure red mercury, a potentially dangerous substance that was claimed to be used to build nuclear bombs.

According to the chief judge, one of the men believed that this substance was a cure for impotence. But was that the actual reason as to why they were sourcing the raw ingredients of this substance?

Is red mercury as dangerous as it’s purported to be or it’s just a scam?

Well, let’s find out.

Red Mercury is an exceptionally precious, rare, dangerous, and exorbitantly expensive substance with properties that cannot be rivaled by any existing compound.

The substance is said to be a chemical compound known as mercuric iodide, a highly poisonous, odorless, tasteless, and water-insoluble scarlet-red powder. When subjected to about 126-degrees Celsius, the substance turns to yellow.

References to red mercury first came into light after being aired by the biggest Soviet as well as western media sources back in the 80s where it was claimed to be of great significance in the making of nuclear bombs.

ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups are said to have offered as much as $1 million to whoever would offer to supply them with the substance.

A kilogram of this substance was said to go as high as $1, 800, 000.

A Real Threat or a Hoax

Samuel Cohen, a nuclear physicist who recently died, said he believed red mercury was an actual threat. This is a man who took part in the making of the atomic bomb “Los Alamos” during the World War II. He also helped design a neutron bomb in 1958.

According to Cohen, red mercury could possibly be used to create a pure fusion bomb the size of a softball- a bomb capable of wiping out each single living soul in a half-mile radius.

Even with all the hype, its existence has not yet been documented.

Another nuclear physicist and a terrorism expert, Dr.Frankly Barnaby said that there was an actual substance known as red mercury.

According to Barnaby, the substance was a mixture of mercury and antimony in an exceptionally heavy compound with a reddish tint. According to the physicist, the Soviets were manufacturing it in large quantities, although it’s not known why.

During his research, he however stated that he found no evidence of the substance being used in weapons.

Vic Hogsett, an analyst, found all the rumors purporting the high potency of red mercury to be big scams.

According to the Department of Energy and International Atomic Energy Authority, nothing has been proven on whether red mercury actually exists or not.

If such a substance fell into the hands of terrorists and was capable of triggering a nuclear explosion, the threat to their entire world would be catastrophic. And the fact that it is invisible to standard detection measures makes the situation even worse.

All in all, whether it’s real or just a mere scam, the fact that its existence has not yet been documented makes things a lot more murkier for governments and the public as well.

We can only hope that the “red mercury hoax” was in the real sense created as a means to confuse dangerous terrorists and waste their time on a wild-goose chase for a non-existent substance.

Things To Do To Survive A Nuclear Explosion

It all starts with a bright flash more than the sun. All trees, fences, people and even animals catch fire immediately. Millions of people die by just an explosion. Also, the nuclear weapons can also cause great damage by what is called nuclear fallout. It refers to a process where radioactive materials are carried by the wind and consequently, more damage is caused. However, there are some few things that you can do so that you survive. Look at the following:

What do you do if you are outside when the bomb drops? The first thing you don't want to do is look in the direction of the explosion since the flash of light from it will blind you. Also, you need to drop your face down flat on the ground and cover yourself if you can. Once you feel the wave is over, go to find shelter. Move to the deepest part of the building. It is safe if there are more than one layer between you and the radioactive material. If you can go underground, it becomes safer. Carefully remove your clothing and put it in a plastic bag and seal it up as best you can. Removing your clothing will remove 90% of the radioactive material. Remove the bag as far away from people and animals as possible. Take a shower with soapy water making sure not to scrub or scratch your skin. Shampoo your hair but do not use any conditioner. Conditioners will cause radioactive particles to stick to your hair. Gently clean your ears with a clean wet cloth, do not insert a cotton swab into your ear as you may push radioactive material into your ear canal. Gently blow your nose. If showering is not an option, you can use baby wipes to clean with.

If you are aware that a nuclear blast is coming try to find the safest building you can for protection. Remember the more layers between you and the radioactive material the better. When relocating to a different area, the decision of taking a vehicle is a bad idea. Try to make it to a place you can quickly walk to. Plan on sheltering in the place for at least 24 hours.

If you can afford to build a blast shelter or fallout shelter, it might be an investment to consider. A blast shelter and a fallout shelter are not the same. As the name suggests, a blast shelter is designed to protect against the initial blast whereas a fallout shelter is designed to protect against the radioactive fallout after the blast. Keep in mind that if you are in the immediate area of the blast, no blast shelter is going to protect you. A fallout shelter doesn't need to be fancy; it can be any space with enough material which is dense to keep you safe.

After the Chernobyl accident, potassium iodine tablets were widely used and found to be more effective in children than formerly thought. Potassium iodine tablets are designed to help protect the thyroid glands from radioactive iodine by blocking or reducing the chances of it entering the thyroid gland. If you don't have any, it may be a good idea to get them now because in the event of nuclear fallout they may be hard to find.

Gas masks can protect you from inhaling radioactive particles which are where most of the damaging effects of fallout will come from. You should learn how to use the gas masks even before buying them. It is good to have better radiation suits, and once you afford one, then you will be safe. For the rest of us, just like going to a shelter, the more layers, the better. Any protection is better than no protection. If you do have all the fancy gear, don't think that you are immune to the radiation. You still need to limit your exposure.

Remember to make sure to listen to any and all communication devices you have. Ths is because you don't know what will be functional. It must be done the moment you get away from the affected area. If you can survive the initial blast and take the right actions you can survive.

Nuclear Medicine And Radiation

One of the recent branches of medical science is the nuclear medicine. Besides various elements, nuclear medicine uses radiation for generating diagnostic information relating to the functioning of specific organs. Such radiation is also utilized for treatment of ailing organs. Such diagnostic processes have now become a routine affair in medical science.

Use of Radioisotopes and Radiotherapy

Radioisotopes for radiotherapy are severally used in the treatment of

• Cancer of any type.
• Tumors and other external and internal disfigurations in human anatomy.
• It targets the damaged, effected, or ailing cells and destroys them.
• Since use is painless the demands are growing rapidly.

Use of Radioisotopes in Nuclear Medicine

In nuclear medicine, the radioisotopes are used for detecting the specific functions of the organs or for treating the diseases. The reasons for its widespread use are

• Diagnosis is quick and accurate about the illness of the patient.
• Organs like thyroid, bones, heart, and liver can get damaged pretty easily, and disorders in their functioning can be detected using radiations.
• As many as five Nobel laureates were associated with development of radioisotopes based detecting methods in medical science.
• More than ten thousand hospitals across the globe use radioisotopes in medicine.
• 90% of these uses are for diagnostic purposes.

Commonly radioisotope utilized in diagnosis is the technetium-99 that is practiced in over thirty million procedures a year accounting for over 80% of all medicine procedures in the world.

After most of all the nuclear-applied medicine procedures, it is usually great to drink a good amount of fluids and urinate as numerous as you can. This helps one to flush all the remaining radioactivity out of one's body. The length of period you need to do it will depend on the radiopharmaceutical that was used. Again, it is best to inquire your doctor.

Frequencies of Radioisotopes Use

26% of the world population resides in developed countries. The frequency of use of nuclear medicines and therefore radioisotopes in these countries come to 1.9% per annum. Over 18 million frequencies are used in the United States alone for around 305 million people. Such frequencies in Europe come to about ten million for 500 million people. Use of radioisotopes comes to around 560,000 in Australia for 21 million people.

Specific Use of Radioisotopes in Medical Procedures

36% of the total radiation exposure is used for the computed X-ray tomography or CT scan as they are popularly known. According to the US National Council on the Radiation Protection and Measurements Report of the year 2009, the exposure to radiation in has increased from 3.6 millisieverts to that of 6.2 millisieverts during 1980-2010.

Nuclear Cardiology has gained great popularity world wide. Nuclear Medicine for the therapeutic objectives is currently being used for medication of cancers, various medical conditions affecting the thyroid gland, and scar - tissue removal.

Effects of nuclear explosions on human health

Nuclear weapons are the fastest growing threat ever since the end of Second World War and its first ever use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Like all the conventional weapons, nuclear bombs have their own set of side effects and drawbacks. The problem here is that that their effects are long term and more devastating than the impact of all the conventional weapons combined USSR and USA realized this threat and started the process of disarmament amidst the Cold War. Although the states use nuclear materials mostly for deterrence purposes but the recent use of chemical weapons in Syria have sparked the debate of their effects on human health yet again.

A traditional gun is fired, the bullet hits the target and the target is injured or dead. The story ends there but that is not the case in nuclear explosions. When a nuclear bomb is dropped the radiation has heavy long term consequences for the people affected by it. These bombs have radiations that are particularly damaging for human health.

The most damaging effect is on the human brain. The brain cells do not reproduce so because of the high radiation these brain cells are damaged including nerve cells resulting in seizure and immediate death.

The high amount of radiation from nuclear explosions causes damage to small blood vessels that result in a heart attack or death. These radiations are damaging for the blood system as well. However this does not cause immediate death but it may end up effecting a person’s health for life.

A nuclear explosion also releases heat and blast waves which directly kill every human that comes in their way. They make the air heavier to breath and cause numerous deaths by choking. These are the various short term effects of a nuclear explosion. There are some long term effects as well. In case of the Hiroshima Nagasaki explosion there are a number of long term effects that can be seen. Numerous Children born even years after the explosion suffered with some sort of mental or physical disability. This caused them a life long struggle just because their ancestors were involved in a meaningless war the psychological effects of these explosions often go unnoticed. People suffer the loss of their loved ones and their properties which can have a devastating effect on their mental health for as long as they live.

States need to realize the grave consequences of the use of nuclear weapons so that they can make rational choices before using a tactic with such massive impacts.

How Nuclear Power Work and Nuclear Hazards to The Environment

Nuclear power technology is widely used for generation of electricity. Developed countries like France, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Sweden, Spain and Switzerland generate more than 30% of their total electric power by using a variety of atomic reactors.

How does it work?

Scientists have long operated the procedure of fission where an atom ruptures into two smaller parts. This occurs by human manipulation as well as naturally. The natural incidence takes a long period of time, but scientists now can make the process faster through induce fission.

The most common element used for nuclear fission is Uranium. For Uranium to undergo fission naturally, millions of years must pass. Uranium has a half-life or the amount of time it takes Uranium to lose half of its mass, of 4.5 billion years.

Uranium occurs naturally in three forms. These three forms are Uranium-238, -235, and -234. All three undergo natural fission when radioactive decay sets in, but scientists have found that they can induce fission when using Uranium-235.

When decaying, Uranium emits alpha particles, which contain two protons and neutrons. These alpha particles break off from the nucleus. When fission is induced, scientists shoot a neutron into the element's nucleus, and the atoms split immediately.

The split results in a high amount of heat and gamma radiation, or electromagnetic radiation caused by the release of photon particles, the most basic particles of light. The two resulting atoms of the fission later create additional gamma radiation and beta radiation on their own.

Nuclear Hazards or Harmful Effects of Nuclear Energy

Though nuclear power has significant benefits, some serious incidents have changed the attitude of people towards the atomic power plants. Atomic energy has following dark sides:

• Nuclear weapons: The nuclear weapons like atomic bombs and missiles have devastating implications. The atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki can never be forgotten. These bombs killed numerous people and destroyed everything.
• Disasters: Use of nuclear energy technology can result in major disasters. One of these is Chernobyl Disaster of 1986 in the east while USSR. The nuclear reactor caught fire and resulted in world's worst nuclear accident that took 10 days to control the runaway reaction. Thousands of people died immediately, 24,000 people received high doses of radiations. After ten years of the incident (1996), it was found that increased rate of thyroid cancer in children was one of the long term effects. Fused fingers (monodactyl) to form a paddle and more than 5 digits (polydactyly) in hands and feet were the other genetic defects observed in Chernobyl.
• Other effects: There are much more kinds of damages from atomic accidents and use of atomic energy. The most common and long-term effect of radiations is the mutation, leading to abnormalities in the offsprings. Leukemia and breast cancer are the two common types of cancers linked to exposure to radiations. The disposal of the atomic waste is another major problem.

In conclusion, if all the nuclear weapons in the world were used, then all the humanity would most likely be destroyed. Later, the world would go into what is called "Nuclear Winter". Global temperature would drop significantly, as well as the amount of sunlight received by the earth. The combination of radioactivity, lack of food, and lowering temperatures cause an atomic Holocaust, with the chances of humans surviving very low.

Nuclear Submarine : Technology, Capabilities and Naval Diplomacy

Nuclear submarines changed modern naval operations and led to a series of scientific discoveries that left an impact on industry and society. These submarines have numerous advantages over conventional submarines, which required diesel fuel and traveled on the surface, only occasionally submerging to avoid detection by the enemy.

The first nuclear submarine was the Nautilus. A few years after being commissioned, it became the first submarine to sail beneath the North Pole in 1958. Afterward, the Nautilus received an overhaul and a new nuclear reactor. By 1960, more advanced technologies were available and the Nautilus became a trainer sub for those who would serve on more modern nuclear ships.

Nuclear reactors are basically really powerful heat engines. Uranium fission breaks apart atoms and releases energy in the form of heat. This heat creates energy, which can be harnessed to do work. In a nuclear-powered submarine, the heat from the nuclear reactor creates steam that drives the turbines that power the submarines.

Having ships with nearly unlimited power and that could travel the globe undetected gave the U.S. vast superiority over enemy military and commercial ships, which could be attacked at any time from anywhere on the oceans. Eventually, nuclear submarines carried ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. An alarmed Soviet Union started its nuclear submarine program shortly afterward.

Although modern radar can detect a periscope raised for more than a few minutes, nuclear submarines still are the stealthiest way to approach highly sensitive or compromised regions. Enemy defense systems detect nuclear submarines using a number of methods. Sonar signals spread out and bound off a craft revealing its presence. Radar can pick up tiny disturbances in the ocean and ferret out a submerged submarine. Satellite and aerial technologies can capture shadows of submarines on the surface of the water. Sensitive instruments can even pick up the signature of the nuclear fuel expanded to power submarines. Given the risk of detection, life aboard a nuclear sub can be very restrictive.

Operating in stealth mode, these craft cannot use sonar to detect underwater undersea mountains, drilling rigs or other submarines. Surfacing to make navigational corrections is really difficult due to submarine detection systems using radar or satellite technologies. Antenna masts and periscopes can be raised to obtain navigational signals for only a few seconds.

Despite these challenges, nuclear submarines still serve a valuable service in modern naval military applications. A submarine powered by nuclear reactors has a nearly limitless range coupled with first-in-class maneuverability. These subs can be stationed across the globe and only need to surface once every three months to take on provisions. Post-Cold War, nuclear missiles might seem irrelevant, but the nuclear reactor is still powering the naval submarines of the U.S., Russia, India, Great Britain, China and France.