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> Food & water isn't contaminated unless fallout particles enter into it Is that right? I had always thought objects absorb radiation, so it's actually inside
by grecy 9y ago
> Food & water isn't contaminated unless fallout particles enter into it
Is that right? I had always thought objects absorb radiation, so it's actually inside the thing.
Does this really mean If I have a bunch of apples in air tight plastic bags and plastic water bottles and things like that, I can just leave them outside during a nuclear blast and then eat them later?
(Assume the plastic remains air-tight?)
That... sits badly with me.
Does that mean I can put an apple in am air-tight plastic container into an x-ray for a year then take it out and eat it... ?
- hansthehorse 9y agoIt's possible to irradiate food at such high levels so as to degrade the nutritional value but it will never become radioactive itself. Over 60 countries use low level radiation to sterilize food.
- credit_guy 9y agoThat is my understanding: yes, it would be safe to eat those apples. Also, yes, it would be perfectly safe to eat apples that were exposed to x-rays for one year. X-rays are not powerful enough to split atoms, so if the apple started out by not having unstable (i.e. radioactive) atoms, it will end up the same. Some molecules in the apple will split, but not the atoms themselves. The story would be different if you exposed the apple to neutron bombardment. During a nuclear explosion, a lot of neutrons are released, but the intensity of the neutron bombardment decreases with the square of the radius, so if you are far enough for the apples to not be physically destroyed, they'll most likely be safe to eat.
- grecy 9y agoOh wow, thanks very much for explaining that to me!