Hold on folks, It's a food preservative AND a death ray!

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m sure there plenty of holes to poke in this, but here goes…

This is about industrial food processing equipment utilizing gamma ray emitting radiation sources. A general description of the food safety issue is here in Scientific American. I’m not interested in food safety issues, though.

I’m interested in the emitters as a ground based weapons system that can be fired through the planet… As I understand it, gamma rays, being on the high energy side of ray rainbow;), can zip right through you, me, and the whole planet without much notice. Would this include a molten, highly magnetic core? Can the emissions be directed?

Say we have 50 of these things scattered across the country, and an enemy on the other side of the world. Knowing all the precise locations of emitters and target, could we aim them down through the floor, have them intersect (and sum) on a point, and toast our enemy from below? We could let the beams run for days or weeks if necessary. Would we have to toast a city to get one guy, if we knew where he slept every night?

2

I think you are confusing gamma rays and neutrinos. Neutrinos are the only particles that can pass thru the earth.

Think about it, if they passed thru the earth, they would pass thru the food too and thus do nada.

Most gamma rays (low energy, natural type) are stopped by the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Hardly a dense material. The higer energy ones can reach the ground and even penetrate a bit underground, which is why neutrino (!) detectors are placed in deep mines.

3

I think gamma radiation just makes you turn green and muscley when you get angry.

People just wouldn’t like you when you’re angry.