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It's an unpopular view, but the biggest problem with environmental radiation from nuclear incidents is you can easily detect it. Unlike crap like PCBs, mercury,
by scottlocklin 7y ago
It's an unpopular view, but the biggest problem with environmental radiation from nuclear incidents is you can easily detect it. Unlike crap like PCBs, mercury, glyphosates, pesticides and so on; all of which are much more fearsome than radiation from Fukoshima or Chernobyl.
And yes, I put my money where my mouth is, literally, by eating game meats in Ukraine.
- acidburnNSA 7y agoExactly. The incredible ability of radiation detection equipment to detect literally single nuclei decaying is a huge part of the problem. People hear clicks and assume it's dangerous. When I took my Geiger counter on a flight (carry-on), my neighbors were a bit surprised at the continuous clicking.
- scottlocklin 7y agoI didn't realize you could bring a counter on flight. I am going to have to buy me one of those. For science. My favorite muons on international flights story: LBNL guys used to have film badges. One of them took a long international flight to go to some conference. He may have stashed his badge in his luggage where it was X-rayed as well. It was reported at a "head of DoE" level as a terrible human radiation incident. Nope, just the normal thing from flying (plus maybe some extra). There were still some old timers around with film badges, so everyone got to hear about the story so they don't do it again. Anyway, while I don't want to be around too much ionizing radiation, I'd much rather avoid the numerous insane chemicals we put into the environment. Ukraine/Belarus food isn't as saturated in that sort of thing: they can't afford the costs.