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[wolfchild]

Start working on a radiation inhibiter, probably using harmles microbes, it wot be harmless for them, and bug engineering to double chech the re-breathers, and strongly advise we dont land anywhere NEAR that uranium, directly to the captain

[Tarran]

*Facepalm*

"Someone give this guy a lesson on the history of Marie Curie. She died of radiation, from uranium ore. If you land us too close to that mass of uranium, I'm going to knock you out cold. Do you understand?"

[wolfchild]

*Facepalm*

"Someone give this guy a lesson on the history of Marie Curie. She died of radiation, from uranium ore. If you land us too close to that mass of uranium, I'm going to knock you out cold. Do you understand?"

"oh look taricus, i happen to own a book about madam curie, here have a read: Pass one of my books to taricus so he does not get us killed

[Taricus]

Return book at high velosity.

[Tyberix]

The radiation suits you got would probably shield you from radiation from the amount of pure uranium showed by the scanners for about 4 hours without any consequences , of course if it's natural ore it's not that dangerous but prolonged exposure could be dangerous for your health anyway. Of course you must realize the scanners could be completely wrong here

Spoiler:  Speculation warning :P (click to show/hide)

I case of natural ore http://webmineral.com/data/Uraninite.shtml
I'm not in any way expert in this , but if a sphere of 5.58 cm radius gives you 1/25 of maxium permitted dosage if hold without shielding for an hour couldn't be very healthy. Well, probably absorption trough the ground contact would be smaller and i'm not sure if deeper layers would increase the radiation but that's probably good enough for "Not stand here for too long" label.

[Taricus]

The most risk we'll have dealing with it is if we get it inside our bodies.

Though it's obviously a weapons cache.

[Tarran]

Of course you must realize the scanners could be completely wrong here

Yeah, I realize that.

That means either:
1: The scanners need fixing, bad.
2: The scanners are correct.
3: The scanners didn't notice that the entire planet is made out of solid uranium.

Correct?

Though it's obviously a weapons cache.

Yeah, it could be.

But our characters likely wouldn't know that. Well, maybe our top scientists, but definitely not you or me, military grunts.

[Taricus]

Or 4. No minerals there at all.

[Tarran]

Or 4. No minerals there at all.

If there were no minerals on the planet, how could it exist?

Anyway, that's basically 1.

[Tyberix]

Of course you must realize the scanners could be completely wrong here

Yeah, I realize that.

That means either:
1: The scanners need fixing, bad.
2: The scanners are correct.
3: The scanners didn't notice that the entire planet is made out of solid uranium.

Correct?

Yep, only information i would say is certain is that there's something different in that particular area.

Though it's obviously a weapons cache.

Yeah, it could be.

But our characters likely wouldn't know that. Well, maybe our top scientists, but definitely not you or me, military grunts.

Not sure how the earth weapons could get to the planet that's only reachable by FTL travel, unless you suspect some Ancient Conspiracies

[Tarran]

I'm pretty sure we're thinking of Ancient Conspiracies (or at the very least, I am). You never know, with those craters and alien races' abilities to kill themselves right before the human race Can Into Space.

[Frelock]

Actually, fun fact: if there's that much uranium, it's unlikely to be extremely radioactive.  Why?  Because large concentrations of natural uranium lead to a natural nuclear fission reactor, which depletes the amount of U²³⁵ present in the system.  Over a long enough period of time, you start to see very small concentrations of radioactive U²³⁵ in comparison to the non-decaying partner, U²³⁸.  Same thing would happen to concentrated artificially enriched Uranium, unless you also had a high concentration of some neutron-absorbing material like graphite.  This, unfortunately, also makes your ore completely useless for any sort of fission applications of Uranium.  However, you can make loads of depleted uranium shells!  Yay ammunition!  You also get nuclear by-products as well, but who cares about those...

The extremely high concentration of Uranium also leads to loads of wonderful science questions.  Can we scan an asteroid in this system to take a look at its composition?  That would tell us if the entire system is abnormally rich in Uranium, or just this planet.  If it's the system, the question of why it's there challenges the basic homogenous assumption most cosmologists make.  Alternatively, if it's just the planet, that leads to the question of what strange geologic processes formed this structure.  Aliens would actually be a very reasonable assumption here.  Why are we still talking?  There's SCIENCE to do!

Check the scanners again.  If we land, carefully monitor life support for radiation contamination.  Also, check Cesium and Iodine levels.  Both Cs and I would indicate a sustained nuclear reaction that's going on as we speak.  The Iodine isn't bad, so long as you take your rad-pills beforehand(if not, it'll ruin your thyroid), and it only has a half-life of about 8 days.  Cs, on the other hand, is nasty stuff if it gets into you.  Keeps in your bones for a long time.

...Can you tell I just had a class on alternative energy sources, taught by a uranium geologist?  And that a good third of the class went to discussing Fukushima?

[Tarran]

Wow, Frelock, you are da bomb on this stuff. You should've been one of our scientists instead of one of our engineers.

Still, even with that, I really don't want to take any chances. I mean, seriously, I doubt the cure for cancer has been developed within the 90 year difference.

[Strife26]

Put on great coat to warm up. Practice sword play in room for awhile. Continue to patrol ship if time allows.

[Talarion]

Dayum Frelock. Good job. I have officially learned something today. ^^