Roman Shipwreck Lead Shields Experiments

Lead recovered from ancient Roman shipwrecks now shields highly sensitive physics equipment because it emits exceptionally little radiation. Freshly refined lead contains radioactive lead-210, which has a half-life of 22 years, but the isotope disappeared from the ancient metal as it decayed over many centuries. Experiments including CUORE and XENON100 have used this low-background lead to shield particle detectors from radiation that could interfere with their measurements.

Previous Fact Next Fact