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Pond water glowing green is almost certainly bioluminescence. Radioactive waste does not give off a green glow, popular myth notwithstanding. (Phosphors will gi
by jandrewrogers 7y ago
Pond water glowing green is almost certainly bioluminescence. Radioactive waste does not give off a green glow, popular myth notwithstanding. (Phosphors will give off a green glow when in very close proximity to an alpha emitter, which is the genesis of this myth, but that is not what we are talking about here).
From a cancer risk standpoint, I'd be far more worried about organic (and metallo-organic) chemical dumping, which is endemic in less developed parts of the world.
- AWildC182 7y agoAnd if it actually glowed through Cherenkov radiation (blue instead of green) they'd be dead if they saw it... That's not to say they didn't likely still end up in a radioactive hellhole though.
- Xixi 7y agoWhy do you think they would be dead if they saw Cherenkov radiation? It's a matter of depth: if the radioactive material was deep in the pond, they should be fine. I could see the Cherenkov radiation (indeed blue and not green) when I visited the Cattenom nuclear power plant [1] two decades ago: it was used nuclear fuel (uranium rods) stored at the bottom of a 50 meters deep pool. There was nothing between us (visitors) and the pool. 50 meters of water is pretty good insulation from radioactivity. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattenom_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattenom_Nuclear_Power_Plant
- AWildC182 7y agoIf a pond is glowing blue it's safe to assume there is far more radioactive contamination laying around than there is near the Chernobyl elephant foot. In a reactor it's contained but sitting near some random army base is bit different...