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Fun With Radiation! Mystery Cache

Hidden : 9/1/2014
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

As I am about to complete a master's degree in nuclear engineering, I thought it might be fun to put out an easy puzzle based on one of the most misunderstood (and feared) natural things on Earth.  Like many people, I grew up with an inherent fear of radiation with stories about how the nuclear industry was killing the environment and the merits of solar and wind energy as the alternative of the future


Perhaps the biggest reason (other than the media) that we fear radiation is that we cannot see it, smell it, taste it, or feel it.  Yes, too much radiation is detrimental to health, but the universe works on radioactive processes, and as it turns out, a little bit of the stuff is actually good for us.  Radiation hormesis is a hypothesized and experimentally displayed theory that says that small amounts of ionizing radiation is good for life, as it stimulates our natural repair mechanisms

This puzzle should not be too difficult, but will require a little bit of research about basic radioactive processes.  Answer the following questions, and the location of the final should become clear:

  1. The two digit year of the first nuclear reactor, built under the original Stagg Field and supervised by Enrico Fermi minus 10.
  2. I β- decay into 115Sn
  3. The number of nucleons in the most abundant nuclide of the most used reactor fuel source minus 30
  4. I β- decay into 203Tl
  5. I form when a deuterium atom captures a neutron in a heavy water reactor
  6. I have the largest of all neutron absorption cross sections of around 2 million barns.  Take my number of nucleons and multiply by two, then subtract two.

The final container is a preform. Stealth is also required at times

Congratulations to MotocycleCacher for his first ever FTF!!!

You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ng gur onfr bs n cbyr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)