Question: what is the most dangers thing you have tested

Julie Speakman answered on 16 Nov 2013:

Hey diana2001
There are different types of dangers or risk where I work. I work with big heavy equipment that has a lot of lead in in ( this is very good at shielding radiation but makes the equipment very heavy!) so you have to be careful at times, that things don’t fall on you, that could be very dangerous…

I also work with a lot of radioactive material. Whenever you deal with radiation it is really important to know what you are dealing with as they all behave differently. Some radiation can be stopped very easily ( some just with a sheet of paper!) some need lots and lots of lead. The radiation can also have different amounts of energy, normally the more energy it has he more damage it can cause to your body. The other thing is how long it stays radioactive, this is called it’s half life. Some radioactive materials only last for seconds or minutes, others for hundreds or thousands of years. So if you work with a material with a long half life, you need to not spill it as it could create contamination for a long long time!
So sometimes, when you work with new materials that is the most dangerous because you’re not sure exactly what it does and how to keep yourself safe.