Radioactive graphite bricks

The reason I raised this question is that the radioactivity itself
is the historically important part of these otherwise common
materials since it was the first controlled nuclear reaction. Enrico
Fermi and his staff sustained the reaction under the bleachers at
the University of Chicago in 1944, (we all know the story) for the
first time ever, and these are the graphite bricks he used, (along
with other materials being held at Argonne National Laboratory).  It
strikes me as a terrible ethical question. The actual
decontamination would be carried out by Argonne, but I would like to
get a discussion on such an issue.

Craig Deller
The Deller Conservation Group, Ltd
Geneva, Illinois  USA
Conservation Services for Historic Furniture and Objects

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:83
                  Distributed: Friday, April 30, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-83-002
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