"I really hope you just forgot a < /sarcasm> tag..."
I was taught that radioactivity has no physical form but rather attaches itself to stuff. Dust, for example. By boiling the water you remove the dust and any other particulate matter that is capable of "holding" the radioactivity.
If I am wrong, please correct me. I do not want to excrete incorrect info on FR.
PS: I got this from a 1950s government pamphlet.
The danger is from radioactive materials which produce these types of radiation. For example iodine-131 will decay into xenon-131 which is chemically inert and a beta particle. If you suck down a big glass of water with a lot of I-131, it will concentrate in your thyroid, emit a lot of beta radiation and potentially kill or give cancer to your thyroid. If you boiled that glass of water all the I-131 would stay there just as salt would when you boil salt water, so you would get even more I-131 when you drink enough water to quench your thirst. If you had a full distillation equipment you could get the iodine-free steam off the boiling water and then cool it down to make your glass of safe water.
I was taught that radioactivity has no physical form but rather attaches itself to stuff. Dust, for example. By boiling the water you remove the dust and any other particulate matter that is capable of "holding" the radioactivity.
Have you ever boiled a pan dry? Or even just let drops of hard water evaporate? The foreign matter (unless it is in a form more volatile than water, like alcohol) will just concentrate in the pan as you boil the water. Where I live that means a nice crunchy layer of lime (yum, yum).
Be sure to get under your school desk...now that’ll save ya right?
man...remember those days?
Pajamas Media and Levin had a good long article on exactly what is going on nuke plant wise in Japan yesterday