# 25 Most Radioactive Places



## Starbeast (Jun 10, 2018)

*25 Most Radioactive Places on Earth*


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## Alexa (Jun 11, 2018)

I knew about Tchernobyl, which I suppose everyone knew as well, but I had no idea about the others. 
Hmm, so I have to ban Ontario from my possible home towns ? And Paris, too ?


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## ZlodeyVolk (Jun 11, 2018)

Has anybody suggested Twitter?


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## Starbeast (Jun 11, 2018)

@Alexa - These are just the "radioactive" contaminated areas, there are other areas equally contaminated in the world, caused by Oil Drilling and Gold Mining (just to name a couple).


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## Harpo (Jun 11, 2018)

Anywhere near Kanye West & Kim Kardashian (to name another couple)


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## Alexa (Jun 11, 2018)

Starbeast said:


> @Alexa - These are just the "radioactive" contaminated areas, there are other areas equally contaminated in the world, caused by Oil Drilling and Gold Mining (just to name a couple).



Yeah, but those "radioactive" contaminated areas are more scary. You know they usually require special costumes, the kind you need to explore other planets, additional iodine treatements, etc.


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## Argon Borax (Jun 12, 2018)

A few of the books I've been reading lately (along with these Isaac Arthur videos that have taken over my evening playlist) have me surprised at how much the rest of the universe is so inhospitable to humans because of radiation. Basically as soon as we leave Earth we're dead. (Unless we cross our genes with the water bears, of course.) 

Also, some of us may be eating off of the most radioactive things in our house - Fiestaware!


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## BAYLOR (Sep 30, 2018)

Argon Borax said:


> A few of the books I've been reading lately (along with these Isaac Arthur videos that have taken over my evening playlist) have me surprised at how much the rest of the universe is so inhospitable to humans because of radiation. Basically as soon as we leave Earth we're dead. (Unless we cross our genes with the water bears, of course.)
> 
> Also, some of us may be eating off of the most radioactive things in our house - Fiestaware!



Even if we successfully ran the radiation gauntlet of outer Space and got to another system with an earth like planet capable of supporting life, we couldn't go there. The microbes and viruses  on that world would likely prove lethal to us and the microbes and viruses  we carry would likely prove lethal to the the biosphere  of that  planet.


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## Matteo (Oct 1, 2018)

West Cornwall is pretty radioactive (natural radon).  If you go down some of the tin mines water comes out of the rocks piping hot.


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## Vertigo (Oct 1, 2018)

BAYLOR said:


> Even if we successfully ran the radiation gauntlet of outer Space and got to another system with an earth like planet capable of supporting life, we couldn't go there. The microbes and viruses  on that world would likely prove lethal to us and the microbes and viruses  we carry would likely prove lethal to the the biosphere  of that  planet.


Although that is possible it is actually likely to not be the case. Most microbes and viruses have evolved to target very specific niches in within their environment and simply ignore everything else. As such they would be very unlikely to find humans to be a viable target in the same way that the majority of viruses and microbes on Earth do not attack humans. There are of course occasional occasions when a virus 'jumps' from one species to another, like 'bird' flue, but most of the time this does not happen. Extrapolating from that it is highly unlikely that our biology would prove vulnerable to microbes that have evolved to attack alien organisms.

On the other had if one did manage to make the 'jump' we would have no natural protection and would indeed be very vulnerable until we managed to generate one. But this would be just the same as when it occurs here on Earth. In fact a jump between species on Earth is far more likely than a jump from an alien species as we do share a great deal of biology with all other life on this planet but would be unlikely to share any biology with alien life.


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## Montero (Oct 1, 2018)

Alexa said:


> Yeah, but those "radioactive" contaminated areas are more scary. You know they usually require special costumes, the kind you need to explore other planets, additional iodine treatements, etc.



I find them less scary - because it is an awful lot easier to detect radioactivity than it is chemical contamination. You get a geiger counter, you point and it goes click. Or click, click, click, click, click if there is a lot of radioactivity. Chemical contamination needs more complicated tests.
Also, in terms of chemical contamination - well some of the time protective suits would be a good idea. Breathing in chemically contaminated dust is never good for you.


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## Dave (Oct 1, 2018)

Vertigo said:


> Most microbes and viruses have evolved to target very specific niches in within their environment and simply ignore everything else... There are of course occasional occasions when a virus 'jumps' from one species to another, like 'bird' flue, but most of the time this does not happen.


This is a little more than an "occasional occasion" and as such I think it is a valid concern. Practically all of the infectious diseases that we suffer, 'jumped species' and resulted from when man began farming animals and brought them indoors with him at night for warmth and safety. In addition, some of the panspermia ideas suggest viruses come originally from space.

I agree that it is high unlikely to happen, and don't dispute anything you just said, but if it did happen it could be a 'black swan event.' The risk is extremely low, but the hazard is very great. There was concern enough to make early spacemen spend days in quarantine when they returned to Earth. However, this is also going highly off topic as it was about radioactive places on Earth.


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## BAYLOR (Oct 1, 2018)

Matteo said:


> West Cornwall is pretty radioactive (natural radon).  If you go down some of the tin mines water comes out of the rocks piping hot.




That's pretty scary.


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## Vertigo (Oct 1, 2018)

Montero said:


> I find them less scary - because it is an awful lot easier to detect radioactivity than it is chemical contamination. You get a geiger counter, you point and it goes click. Or click, click, click, click, click if there is a lot of radioactivity. Chemical contamination needs more complicated tests.
> Also, in terms of chemical contamination - well some of the time protective suits would be a good idea. Breathing in chemically contaminated dust is never good for you.


Yeah I used to rock climb there quite often and it was noticeable that our hands, after a weekend climbing on the granite, would typically look almost sunburnt for a few days after.  But actually it was nothing like enough to do any harm on a short visit. Probably less than the ISS astronauts get in a couple of months!


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## Alexa (Oct 6, 2018)

Montero said:


> I find them less scary - because it is an awful lot easier to detect radioactivity than it is chemical contamination. You get a geiger counter, you point and it goes click. Or click, click, click, click, click if there is a lot of radioactivity. Chemical contamination needs more complicated tests.
> Also, in terms of chemical contamination - well some of the time protective suits would be a good idea. Breathing in chemically contaminated dust is never good for you.



I cannot say they are less scary, even if you can detect the radioactivity easier. The company I work for right now uses isotopes to make drugs/medical devices to detect/treat all kind of cancers. Every time when someone goes in production area, they have to come back upstairs and check themselves for radiactivity exposure. I see them for the check-up, as my printer is in the way. Believe me, I have goose bumps every time.


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## Montero (Oct 6, 2018)

Well, my personal reaction is less scary. I'm not saying not scary, just less. In terms of increasing scary for pollution, I go radioactivity < chemical < biological - because the last can evolve, and it can infect people and you can be infected by the biological contamination without ever going near the source.......
I do also think that radioactivity has been turned into a bit of a horror-fest - not saying it isn't dangerous, just that it has taken over popular imagination in a way that chemical pollution hasn't, despite things like the Bohpal disaster, use of chemical weapons in the Middle east, asbestosis, heavy metal poisoning etc etc. Far more people have died of chemical pollution than of radioactivity - heck in that total you can count air pollution in the UK - that kills people every year, or contributes to their early death and that is happening right now.


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