Woulod Uranium 238 produce a background count by itself? Like just sitting there without being made to explode or anything.

Depends on what the GM wants it to do.

I believe there's a line in MitS about pollution, including radiation, creating an aspected background count that helps toxics but I don't have the book handy right now.

I don't think so, but it would fulfill the domain requirement for a spirit of the flames.

(And like Moonstone said, if it's to toxic pollutant levels then yes.)

I would have a background count for U238 that was in large enough quantity to be toxic to a person if they carried it for a year. But not for smaller amounts.

The larger the amount, the bigger the area with the background count and the higher the background count rating.

Uranium 238 is unlikely to causae any background count, its very stable with a half like of around 4.5 billion years. You are likely to find traces of it in granite, basalt, and several other froms of rock.

U-238 sn't fissionable either, to make a bomb you either need U-235 or to turn U-238 into plutotonium 239.

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Uranium, being a heavy metal, is toxic (like lead, ofr example). Since its so radioavtively stable though, there is little radiation risk from it. If you are going to make u-238 cause a background count then large amount of lead should also cause one (its poisonous too)...
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I would probably say if you have enough radioactive material for a month’s continuos exposure to kill 10% of humans within 10 years it would create a toxic background count of 1.

Where did I get these numbers? I made them up. Based on the fact that that is about a low lethality as you can scientifically prove to be dangerous and if I set it much lower then I would need to consider the danger of high tension power lines.

Edward

The radioactivity of the substance in question aside, radiation does indeed cause background count in and of itself, and separate from any other toxicity or damage to beings that may cause additional count. The rules are in Target: Wastelands.

~J