Radioactive ammo

[Slight001]

So after reading Megaverse in Flames I find myself imaging new weaponry for the destruction supernatural and magical beings.

As per Triax and the NGR we have U-Rounds as an alternative to standard railgun ammo. U-Rounds are listed as problematic as they contaminate the environment. I found an interesting bit of info in World book 5...

Triax has learned that the phenomenal healing powers of most (92%) supernatural menaces and creatures of magic are seriously impaired by radioactive material. Not radiation itself, but radioactive material that penetrates the skin.

Uranium might be a well known radioactive metal but its not the only one... just a quick research spree on google found Thorium as a commercially active (meaning that's actively being used commercially) radioactive metal that could be (in theory) used for railgun ammo. Its radiation level is less then uranium and it's more common, while having a similar density. Combine this with a shift away from the machine gun spray of most railguns towards a more semi-auto style such as the NG-R50 or GB Boomgun which fire a single round and you might just have a viable way to slaughter large numbers of supernatural and magical beings without unnecessarily contaminating an area with ammo that mostly misses the target.

I'm posting this to see if my theory holds up to the scrutiny of rifts boards.

Sources; Thorium, Uranium.

[Nekira Sudacne]

if it's less severe radiation, it probablly won't be enough to stop bio-regeneration from expelling the rounds.

[Zer0 Kay]

Funny thing is that DU rounds should still work then. We had to go and Clean up A-10 tank kill sights because the bullets were radio active. They said it was because of the impact on armor.

Brings up an interesting question then... How do you get it into a vampire to be effective? It would have to be silver plated or someone could just enrich silver and make it radio active.

[Zer0 Kay]

if it's less severe radiation, it probablly won't be enough to stop bio-regeneration from expelling the rounds.

but the books don't give a rad count just that it must be radio active. I wonder why the radio active drgon in one of the pfrpg adventures can regenerate.

[Shark_Force]

the book goes out of it's way to note that it isn't the radioactive nature of the bullet. it's just something about non-depleted uranium. *could* there be some other radioactive material that has the same effect? sure. could be. but there are none that we know of. there could also be completely safe non-radioactive materials with the same effect... but again, there are none that we know of.

truthfully, we don't even know *why* U-rounds prevent bio-regeneration... we just know that they do.

[cornholioprime]

the book goes out of it's way to note that it isn't the radioactive nature of the bullet. it's just something about non-depleted uranium. *could* there be some other radioactive material that has the same effect? sure. could be. but there are none that we know of. there could also be completely safe non-radioactive materials with the same effect... but again, there are none that we know of.

truthfully, we don't even know *why* U-rounds prevent bio-regeneration... we just know that they do.

Actually, it says "radioactive material."

It doesn't specifically limit the possibilities to just Uranium.

[Slight001]

Brings up an interesting question then... How do you get it into a vampire to be effective? It would have to be silver plated or someone could just enrich silver and make it radio active.

No idea. Personally just from the write up it sounds like vampires are simply vulnerable to radioactive material as they are listed.

Does anyone else know of any references to D/U-Rounds in other Rifts books? I checked Triax 2 and couldn't find much except that Gargoyles are apparently affected by the radiation as they talk about males being at least temporarily sterile. I was looking to find out if the ammo has been imported/adopted in america.

[Hotrod]

Bananas are radioactive! Take that, foul demon!

[Nightmask]

Bananas are radioactive! Take that, foul demon!

Yes, pretty funny how the anti-nuclear sorts aren't horrified over the fact that Potassium has a surprisingly high percentage of its isotope in nature being of the radioactive sort, so bananas being rich in Potassium are also more radioactive in comparison.

[slade the sniper]

Californium-251 has a very small calculated critical mass (about 5 kg (11 lb)),[63] high lethality, and a relatively short period of toxic environmental irradiation. The low critical mass of californium led to some exaggerated claims about possible uses for the element.

Anyone know what the mass of the Glitter Boy projectile is?

-STS

[Nekira Sudacne]

if it's less severe radiation, it probablly won't be enough to stop bio-regeneration from expelling the rounds.

but the books don't give a rad count just that it must be radio active. I wonder why the radio active drgon in one of the pfrpg adventures can regenerate.

Actually they do. they make clear that depleted uranium rounds do not have this effect, and depeleted uranium is still quite radioactive, it's just not as much as weapons grade uranium.

Which means yes, it clearly states a very HIGHLY radioactive substance is needed.

[glitterboy2098]

on the otherhand it doesn't sem to matter what kind of radiation is involved.. uranium is an alpha emitter, pretty much harmless unless the isotope itself gets in the body or enough is lumped together to reach critical mass.

which actually brings up a thought.. given the amount of ammo in a PA's ammo bings for a railgun, why aren't the U-round slugs causing a meltdown? they'd probably need specially built ammo bins to carry them safely.

[cornholioprime]

on the otherhand it doesn't sem to matter what kind of radiation is involved.. uranium is an alpha emitter, pretty much harmless unless the isotope itself gets in the body or enough is lumped together to reach critical mass.

which actually brings up a thought.. given the amount of ammo in a PA's ammo bings for a railgun, why aren't the U-round slugs causing a meltdown? they'd probably need specially built ammo bins to carry them safely.

You need enough of a given radioactive element in the same small space to cause a meltdown.
Nuclear reactions of that sort require the free neutrons of the radioactive element to be close enough to enough other radioactive atoms to have an effect -really really really close to each other on the atomic scale -and in the case of even a canister's worth of U-rounds, the resulting, randomly-distributed neutrons have way too many other places to go.

(To give you an example of the 'vast' distances involved from a recent episode of Cosmos, if an atom's electron shell was roughly the radius of a medium-sized cathedral......the nucleus would be the size of a single floating dust mote in the very center.)

[Svartalf]

Funny thing is that DU rounds should still work then. We had to go and Clean up A-10 tank kill sights because the bullets were radio active. They said it was because of the impact on armor.

Brings up an interesting question then... How do you get it into a vampire to be effective? It would have to be silver plated or someone could just enrich silver and make it radio active.

DU means depleted in fissile material, U238 still is radioactive, if less so and less dangerous than its 235 brother.

and vamps are a special case, even a collloidal suspension in holy water would likely not hurt them.

[Slight001]

DU means depleted in fissile material, U238 still is radioactive, if less so and less dangerous than its 235 brother.

Bloody hells, you might be onto something Svartalf! We know DU's just do extra damage and U's frack up the regeneration process with the only difference being presence of fissionable material. It stands to reason then that fissile material itself is the key.

Actually they do. they make clear that depleted uranium rounds do not have this effect, and depleted uranium is still quite radioactive, it's just not as much as weapons grade uranium.

Which means yes, it clearly states a very HIGHLY radioactive substance is needed.

To finish out the paragraph I quoted earlier...

This had led to the development of a special type of rail gun projectile/bullet. A low radiation round called Uranium Rounds or more commonly known as U-Rounds.

while more radioactive then Depleted Uranium it would appear that the U-Rounds are not intended to be "highly" radioactive.

[glitterboy2098]

i think fissile material would be the key, since that seems to be the only difference between U-rounds and DU. or rather, the amount of fissile material in it.
DU is less than 0.3% fissile material.
natural uranium runs about 0.72%
enriched uranium is anywhere from 20% to 80% fissile material, depending on it's intended application. (reactors tend to get by with lower %'s, weapons with higher)

i'd say that U-rounds are probably made from enriched uranium


note that this would mean thorium is not viable for use as U-rounds.. thorium is not naturally fissile, and the handful of isotopes that are pretty rare. (thorium is fertile however, meaning it can become fissile with a neutron source to change its isotope, starting a fuel cycle that includes U-233, a heavily fissile material. makes it good for reactors but not for bombs directly..)

[Zer0 Kay]

Funny thing is that DU rounds should still work then. We had to go and Clean up A-10 tank kill sights because the bullets were radio active. They said it was because of the impact on armor.

Brings up an interesting question then... How do you get it into a vampire to be effective? It would have to be silver plated or someone could just enrich silver and make it radio active.

DU means depleted in fissile material, U238 still is radioactive, if less so and less dangerous than its 235 brother.

and vamps are a special case, even a collloidal suspension in holy water would likely not hurt them.

So... Are you saying that Du rounds are still radioactive, just have no fizzle material?

[Zer0 Kay]

the book goes out of it's way to note that it isn't the radioactive nature of the bullet. it's just something about non-depleted uranium. *could* there be some other radioactive material that has the same effect? sure. could be. but there are none that we know of. there could also be completely safe non-radioactive materials with the same effect... but again, there are none that we know of.

truthfully, we don't even know *why* U-rounds prevent bio-regeneration... we just know that they do.

So then it may be entirely possible that like DU EU may also not hamper SCs regen? So essentially the Germans found a new silver bullet. In other words U works for the same reason silver works... Cuz.

[Svartalf]

Funny thing is that DU rounds should still work then. We had to go and Clean up A-10 tank kill sights because the bullets were radio active. They said it was because of the impact on armor.

Brings up an interesting question then... How do you get it into a vampire to be effective? It would have to be silver plated or someone could just enrich silver and make it radio active.

DU means depleted in fissile material, U238 still is radioactive, if less so and less dangerous than its 235 brother.

and vamps are a special case, even a collloidal suspension in holy water would likely not hurt them.

So... Are you saying that Du rounds are still radioactive, just have no fizzle material?

You'd have trouble finding the makings of an A bomb in a bunch of DU rounds, whereas if you got enough U rounds, you could enrich and purify the stuff till you had enough 235 to make a bomb... but I guess U rounds are natural (as opposed to enriched) U, so you still need a huge lot... Enriching is expensive in time and resources, so I guess enriched U is reserved for bombs and nuclear material.

[Shark_Force]

the book goes out of it's way to note that it isn't the radioactive nature of the bullet. it's just something about non-depleted uranium. *could* there be some other radioactive material that has the same effect? sure. could be. but there are none that we know of. there could also be completely safe non-radioactive materials with the same effect... but again, there are none that we know of.

truthfully, we don't even know *why* U-rounds prevent bio-regeneration... we just know that they do.

So then it may be entirely possible that like DU EU may also not hamper SCs regen? So essentially the Germans found a new silver bullet. In other words U works for the same reason silver works... Cuz.

pretty much. we just don't have a ton of details. all we know is that U-rounds work, and are made with uranium (which we don't know if it's enriched or regular, just that it isn't depleted). and DU-rounds don't.

other materials may work, or they may not. we don't know. but we do know that the radiation is not the reason.

[Zer0 Kay]

the book goes out of it's way to note that it isn't the radioactive nature of the bullet. it's just something about non-depleted uranium. *could* there be some other radioactive material that has the same effect? sure. could be. but there are none that we know of. there could also be completely safe non-radioactive materials with the same effect... but again, there are none that we know of.

truthfully, we don't even know *why* U-rounds prevent bio-regeneration... we just know that they do.

So then it may be entirely possible that like DU EU may also not hamper SCs regen? So essentially the Germans found a new silver bullet. In other words U works for the same reason silver works... Cuz.

pretty much. we just don't have a ton of details. all we know is that U-rounds work, and are made with uranium (which we don't know if it's enriched or regular, just that it isn't depleted). and DU-rounds don't.

other materials may work, or they may not. we don't know. but we do know that the radiation is not the reason.

Sonthis is a problem with insufficient for a definitive answer and whatever we come up with is a house rule.

[Shark_Force]

Sonthis is a problem with insufficient for a definitive answer and whatever we come up with is a house rule.

pretty much. but then, that's par for the course, really.

[Zer0 Kay]

Sonthis is a problem with insufficient for a definitive answer and whatever we come up with is a house rule.

pretty much. but then, that's par for the course, really.

yup.

[glitterboy2098]

Funny thing is that DU rounds should still work then. We had to go and Clean up A-10 tank kill sights because the bullets were radio active. They said it was because of the impact on armor.

Brings up an interesting question then... How do you get it into a vampire to be effective? It would have to be silver plated or someone could just enrich silver and make it radio active.

DU means depleted in fissile material, U238 still is radioactive, if less so and less dangerous than its 235 brother.

and vamps are a special case, even a collloidal suspension in holy water would likely not hurt them.

So... Are you saying that Du rounds are still radioactive, just have no fizzle material?

You'd have trouble finding the makings of an A bomb in a bunch of DU rounds, whereas if you got enough U rounds, you could enrich and purify the stuff till you had enough 235 to make a bomb... but I guess U rounds are natural (as opposed to enriched) U, so you still need a huge lot... Enriching is expensive in time and resources, so I guess enriched U is reserved for bombs and nuclear material.

given the book says that any faction with the ability to make nuclear powerplants could make U-rounds, instead of stating anyone with access to uranium, i'd say it is probable that U-rounds are made from Enriched Uranium. enriched uranium is something that you only really have in quantities if you have the systems in place to make reactor fuel. if it was just natural uranium, anyone with access to pitchblend could make U-rounds, even if they didn't have the ability to fuel a reactor.

plus natural uranium doesn't have that much more fissile material than DU does (enough more to make a difference for terminology, but still not much.)

[vakusdrake]

if it's less severe radiation, it probablly won't be enough to stop bio-regeneration from expelling the rounds.

but the books don't give a rad count just that it must be radio active. I wonder why the radio active drgon in one of the pfrpg adventures can regenerate.

Actually they do. they make clear that depleted uranium rounds do not have this effect, and depeleted uranium is still quite radioactive, it's just not as much as weapons grade uranium.

Which means yes, it clearly states a very HIGHLY radioactive substance is needed.

Actually depleted uranium has very little radioactivity, its main health concern is that it's naturally toxic like many other heavy metals, such as tungsten (though both are much less toxic than lead)

[vakusdrake]

Funny thing is that DU rounds should still work then. We had to go and Clean up A-10 tank kill sights because the bullets were radio active. They said it was because of the impact on armor.

Brings up an interesting question then... How do you get it into a vampire to be effective? It would have to be silver plated or someone could just enrich silver and make it radio active.

DU means depleted in fissile material, U238 still is radioactive, if less so and less dangerous than its 235 brother.

and vamps are a special case, even a collloidal suspension in holy water would likely not hurt them.

So... Are you saying that Du rounds are still radioactive, just have no fizzle material?

You'd have trouble finding the makings of an A bomb in a bunch of DU rounds, whereas if you got enough U rounds, you could enrich and purify the stuff till you had enough 235 to make a bomb... but I guess U rounds are natural (as opposed to enriched) U, so you still need a huge lot... Enriching is expensive in time and resources, so I guess enriched U is reserved for bombs and nuclear material.

natural uranium has very little uranium 235 (about .7%) and is not very radioactive as a result, thus I think it should be assumed that U-rounds are enriched uranium, if the U-rounds were natural uranium then the uranium would be affecting supernatural creatures much more strongly than it would affect a human (assuming of course that the rounds were shot out of a non MD firearm so they wouldn't just blow them to bits)

[Nekira Sudacne]

if it's less severe radiation, it probablly won't be enough to stop bio-regeneration from expelling the rounds.

but the books don't give a rad count just that it must be radio active. I wonder why the radio active drgon in one of the pfrpg adventures can regenerate.

Actually they do. they make clear that depleted uranium rounds do not have this effect, and depeleted uranium is still quite radioactive, it's just not as much as weapons grade uranium.

Which means yes, it clearly states a very HIGHLY radioactive substance is needed.

Actually depleted uranium has very little radioactivity, its main health concern is that it's naturally toxic like many other heavy metals, such as tungsten (though both are much less toxic than lead)

quite radioactive compared to your standard lead bullet. I suppose I was being a bit vauge there

[Hotrod]

I'm still pondering the potential awesomeness of a banana slingshot of demon slaying.

By the way, I feel compelled to clarify something. All naturally occurring uranium is radioactive, but the two naturally occurring isotopes of Uranium are not "highly radioactive". Their half lives are ~700 million years for U-235 and 4.6 billion years for U-238. You can drink out of cups and eat off plates glazed with uranium. In fact, many people did this for many years until WW2 (Look up Fiestaware if you're curious). Uranium is all around us in low concentrations, but even when it's mined and milled into yellow cake, it's not "very radioactive".

Shoot, I'll go even further than that. Even a 100% enriched sample of "weapons grade" uranium (pure U235) isn't very radioactive. To make it a radioactive hazard, it has to be used as a nuclear fuel. After a significant number of its atoms get split into fission products, THEN it starts getting "very radioactive", but the parts that are very radioactive aren't the uranium atoms. The radioactive atoms are the fission products, the remnants of atoms that split apart. These products undergo decays until they eventually become stable.

This sometimes leads to the misconception that depleted uranium is uranium that has been used in a reactor. This generally isn't the case (although it can be, and with some chemistry and processing, it's no more radioactive than the pre-reactor stuff). Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the enrichment product. When you want to get higher concentrations of U235 (naturally occurring at 0.7%), you need to do a lot of separating. You pump the natural-concentration uranium in, and you get a little bit of enriched uranium, and a euphemism - ton of uranium with a below-natural concentration of U-235, which isn't of much interest for nuclear applications. That by-product is the depleted uranium. I wouldn't characterize it as more or less of a radioactive hazard than natural uranium, because neither is a significant radioactive hazard, any more than potassium is.

So yeah, banana guns for the Heroes of Humanity!

[vakusdrake]

I'm still pondering the potential awesomeness of a banana slingshot of demon slaying.

By the way, I feel compelled to clarify something. All naturally occurring uranium is radioactive, but the two naturally occurring isotopes of Uranium are not "highly radioactive". Their half lives are ~700 million years for U-235 and 4.6 billion years for U-238. You can drink out of cups and eat off plates glazed with uranium. In fact, many people did this for many years until WW2 (Look up Fiestaware if you're curious). Uranium is all around us in low concentrations, but even when it's mined and milled into yellow cake, it's not "very radioactive".

Shoot, I'll go even further than that. Even a 100% enriched sample of "weapons grade" uranium (pure U235) isn't very radioactive. To make it a radioactive hazard, it has to be used as a nuclear fuel. After a significant number of its atoms get split into fission products, THEN it starts getting "very radioactive", but the parts that are very radioactive aren't the uranium atoms. The radioactive atoms are the fission products, the remnants of atoms that split apart. These products undergo decays until they eventually become stable.

This sometimes leads to the misconception that depleted uranium is uranium that has been used in a reactor. This generally isn't the case (although it can be, and with some chemistry and processing, it's no more radioactive than the pre-reactor stuff). Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the enrichment product. When you want to get higher concentrations of U235 (naturally occurring at 0.7%), you need to do a lot of separating. You pump the natural-concentration uranium in, and you get a little bit of enriched uranium, and a euphemism - ton of uranium with a below-natural concentration of U-235, which isn't of much interest for nuclear applications. That by-product is the depleted uranium. I wouldn't characterize it as more or less of a radioactive hazard than natural uranium, because neither is a significant radioactive hazard, any more than potassium is.

So yeah, banana guns for the Heroes of Humanity!

I don't know that uranium 235 is that safe, they did use it for the first nuclear bombs you need a mass of 33 pounds to reach critical mass (though this can be much lower if using neutron reflectors) whereas 238 effectively has no critical mass, so assuming U-rounds are enriched uranium probably 80% 235 then you wouldn't need that much ammunition close together to get a small nuclear explosion

[glitterboy2098]

actually if you reach critical mass they'd just have a meltdown unless controlled like in a reactor

to get a bomb you'd need specifically designed systems.. nuclear material does not explode naturally, it has to be forced into the right set ups.

but yeah.. 33lbs of U-rounds would be only a couple of bursts of railgun ammo, so the ammo bins would have to be very carefully designed to keep the rounds from interacting radiologically.

[Hotrod]

"Safe" and "radioactive" are two different things. Radioactive means that it is a material that isn't inherently stable, and will decay over time into a more stable configuration. U235 can be dangerous in critical mass of high concentration, but the danger doesn't come from its radioactivity.

U-235 is fissile, meaning that it can support a sustained chain reaction. A chain reaction happens when a neutron comes in, causes a fission, which releases more neutrons, some of which go on to cause more fissions. To do this, the fissile material must be in a mass and a geometry that allow a chain reaction to happen. A small sample of U-235 that is too small to sustain a chain reaction in any geometry is as safe to handle as U-238; not enough neutrons from a fission will move on to cause another fission, and any neutron flux introduced will simply die away.

The idea of storing a whole lot of bullets made from weapons-grade U235 in a tight ammunition drum would actually create a major safety risk, because this would create a high mass of high-concentration U235, which could create a system that could support a chain reaction. Some stray neutron would kick off a runaway chain reaction that would create major problems for people nearby.

Bottom line, enriched uranium bullets would be a bad and unsafe idea, but not because of their radioactivity.

[Hotrod]

Oh, and glitterboy2098 is right. Simply piling a lot of enriched uranium together will not create a nuclear explosion. Worst-case, you get a blue flash and a large radiation dose to the immediate area. This is called a criticality accident. There have been dozens of criticality accidents, and none has resulted in a nuclear explosion.

[Nightmask]

Oh, and glitterboy2098 is right. Simply piling a lot of enriched uranium together will not create a nuclear explosion. Worst-case, you get a blue flash and a large radiation dose to the immediate area. This is called a criticality accident. There have been dozens of criticality accidents, and none has resulted in a nuclear explosion.

Well not quite, the first A-bomb using U-235 was considered such a given to work due to the simplicity of it they never even bothered testing the design (plus U-235 was so scarce they couldn't really afford to test it) which required little more than properly shaped U-235 that they 'shot' a sphere of more U-235 into it to cross the critical mass point. When it did it went nuclear. Plutonium on the other hand requires far more complexity in order to make it work.

They wouldn't be using U-235 for U-Rounds in any case, takes far more to process and stock that than U-238 and the U-238 far less radioactive. Whichever you used though you would have problems with storage since even without risk of going critical all those rounds in close proximity would likely be generating a lot of excess heat.

[Svartalf]

But U238 is what makes up DU rounds, so U rounds by definition are Uranium with an amount of 235... the question is whether it's enriched U, and if so, how enriched.

[vakusdrake]

hmm yeah it's difficult to come up with any ammunition which would be radioactive enough to stop supernatural regeneration, while also being stable enough to not be prone to critical mass explosions or meltdowns either of which would certainly be catastrophic. If anyone could come up with a more logically sound alternative to Rift's U-rounds then we could just use those and ignore KS's less than spectacular knowledge of nuclear physics.

[eliakon]

hmm yeah it's difficult to come up with any ammunition which would be radioactive enough to stop supernatural regeneration, while also being stable enough to not be prone to critical mass explosions or meltdowns either of which would certainly be catastrophic. If anyone could come up with a more logically sound alternative to Rift's U-rounds then we could just use those and ignore KS's less than spectacular knowledge of nuclear physics.

Easy. Uranium is, like silver for some strange reason elementally toxic to most supernatural life (and unlife) processeses. However just like silver it requires certain purity levels to work. In the case of Uranium these purity levels seem to involve its radioactivity levels as well. The exact reasons for this are highly technical and only the most learned of alchemists can explain it. Most others upon hearing the explanations simply smile, nod and roll vs Mental Stun.
Presto, a potential way to justify the effects.

[Alrik Vas]

your answer is only NPCs can make sense of the why? not hating, but just looking for clarification.

[eliakon]

your answer is only NPCs can make sense of the why? not hating, but just looking for clarification.

The exact details on the alchemical-mystical-chemical properties of why uranium is toxic in proportion to radiation is .... hyper obscure. It fact its so obscure as to be on the same scale as explaining the quantization of P.P.E, or the exact mechanical operation of aura or how predictions can be both always true and false.....
Which is to say "Okay the books say this, so there is an in game explanation. And I am sure that super skilled sages in the fields can understand it. But I haven't a clue, and no one who is not a specialist in the field is going to understand it either. But you can understand that U-rounds work and DU-rounds work."
Its a step above 'because they do' that removes the (likely futile) problem of trying to make some sort of logical, self consistent 'real world' explanation of how it works.

[glitterboy2098]

in regards to storage.. keep in mind this is a setting where EBA (with what looks to be less than an inch thick of material) can stop even gamma rays (which normally need at least an inch's worth of lead.. and a lot more if using anything else) completely.

rifts seems to have discovered some means to block even high energy radiation using very little physical material. how is not described**, but whatever material or process is used for EBA, PA, Robots, and other environmentally sealed MDC constructs can very likely be leveraged to create a storage bin for U-rounds to prevent a melt down.


**at least, in official materials. in rifter zero geology article there is a description of the material used, but i do not believe that article is official.

[Alrik Vas]

I make radiation shielding suspect in my games. also, things have much more mass. a SAM would be closer to a ton and would fly slower in my game, but I make a lot of high impact changes that are mostly flavor.

rail guns don't burst either, for instance. I just have them use heavy armor penatrators and less ammunition.

and all radioactive ammunition has to be carried in specially shielded containers that are larger, heavier, and carry less material. but as the effects are pretty awesome, its worth it vs monsters that run away and come back at full health an hour later while your still missing half your armor.

[kronos]

in regards to storage.. keep in mind this is a setting where EBA (with what looks to be less than an inch thick of material) can stop even gamma rays (which normally need at least an inch's worth of lead.. and a lot more if using anything else) completely.

rifts seems to have discovered some means to block even high energy radiation using very little physical material. how is not described**, but whatever material or process is used for EBA, PA, Robots, and other environmentally sealed MDC constructs can very likely be leveraged to create a storage bin for U-rounds to prevent a melt down.


**at least, in official materials. in rifter zero geology article there is a description of the material used, but i do not believe that article is official.

One theory for the materials... some of them are built and layered on a molecular level (glitterboy armour for example), so in the process of doing so, they create a stronger matrix of the molecules that make up the material.. even put a layer of lead between each layer of whatever they are making so that it creates a sandwich effect which helps block radiation and gamma rays better.
Theory two.. handwavium.

[vakusdrake]

in regards to storage.. keep in mind this is a setting where EBA (with what looks to be less than an inch thick of material) can stop even gamma rays (which normally need at least an inch's worth of lead.. and a lot more if using anything else) completely.

rifts seems to have discovered some means to block even high energy radiation using very little physical material. how is not described**, but whatever material or process is used for EBA, PA, Robots, and other environmentally sealed MDC constructs can very likely be leveraged to create a storage bin for U-rounds to prevent a melt down.


**at least, in official materials. in rifter zero geology article there is a description of the material used, but i do not believe that article is official.

One theory for the materials... some of them are built and layered on a molecular level (glitterboy armour for example), so in the process of doing so, they create a stronger matrix of the molecules that make up the material.. even put a layer of lead between each layer of whatever they are making so that it creates a sandwich effect which helps block radiation and gamma rays better.
Theory two.. handwavium.

Given that body armor isn't incredibly heavy, it's silly to say that the body armor has anywhere near enough dense material to have any substantial protection against neutron and gamma ray radiation so clearly the answer is handwavium