Wednesday, February 10, 2016

The Effect of Radiation.

Radiation can affect a lot of things leaving a long lasting effect.  I bet you would like some examples?  I doubt if I could get away with writing a one sentence blog posting.

There have been quite a few nuclear accidents, and probably the worst one was the one in Russia, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.  It left a measurable contamination in a 15,000 square mile area that will last for 300 years!!  Just think, that is a larger area than some of our states, in fact it is larger than nine of them.

There have been others.  Three Mile Island was in Pennsylvania, but it was well contained, unlike the one at the Fukushima, Japan when it had a meltdown.  In the area near it they found deformed butterflies and monkeys with a low red and white cell blood count.  So, one may surmise that it had a bad influence on all life around the area.  Not so, spiders seemed to benefit from the disaster, probably because the radiation slowed down the insects that they prey on.  Also, there was a fungus that flourished since it contained melanin that helps convert gamma rays into energy.  So, unless you are spider or a fungus, try not to get exposed to radiation and have a great day, you hear?


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17 comments:

  1. Barney, The Old Fat ManFebruary 10, 2016 at 8:30 PM

    The five and a half years I worked on nuclear stuff at the Hanford site in Washington was a real eye opener about how radiation actually works. There is a lot of mythology out there on radiation. None of what you stated was wrong by the way except the 300 years is likely 3000 to 10000 years depending on the particular contaminant. One of our nuclear engineers was a Chernobyl engineer who happened to take vacation at the right time.

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    1. Dizzy-DickFebruary 11, 2016 at 9:42 AM

      I worked at the GE Nuclear plant in N.C. where they make the fuel rods and channels that they fit in. And yes, they loaded the rods with fuel pellets there, also. One of the vp's there told me to disregard the instructions to go to designated gathering spots if there was a real leak but remember to get as far away as possible. Distance squared, right?

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    2. Barney, The Old Fat ManFebruary 11, 2016 at 5:42 PM

      Yep. designated gathering spots is for making it easy to count bodies.

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  2. GypsyFebruary 10, 2016 at 9:23 PM

    How do any of us know where radiation is a problem and how much there is. The govt isn't going to tell us unless they are forced to. It seems like there are a lot of bad things coming from the methane leak in L.A., and that won't just stay in L.A. - it could waft over to Texas or up to N. CA.

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    1. Dizzy-DickFebruary 11, 2016 at 9:47 AM

      Buy a Geiger Counter. But don't worry about it. You get a dose of radiation from outer space when you fly high in airliners. The sun emits energy in a lot of frequencies. We can not escape it.

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  3. lotta joyFebruary 10, 2016 at 10:16 PM

    Radiation, IMHO, does as much - if not more - damage in the treatment of cancer than most are aware of.

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    1. Dizzy-DickFebruary 11, 2016 at 9:49 AM

      Yes, that is for sure. But since my cancer is in my bone marrow, it can't be reached by x-ray or chemicals, so I don't have to worry about that.

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  4. linda mFebruary 11, 2016 at 7:14 AM

    I don't plan on getting exposed to radiation if I can avoid it. Don't even like getting x-rays. Was forced to go thru an airport full body scanner under protest. Guess I have this thing about becoming a "Mutant".

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    1. Dizzy-DickFebruary 11, 2016 at 9:51 AM

      When I was a kid, the shoe stores had those x-ray units that you stuck your feet in to see how the shoes fit. When my Mom was trying on shoes, I was sticking my feet in that machine and watching my bones move as I wiggled my toes. We didn't know the dangers.

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  5. The Odd EssayFebruary 11, 2016 at 7:16 AM

    Well, again, Bill came to my rescue.... had to explain the difference between x-rays and radiation to me. One of our sons-in-law is a nuclear engineer... currently working at a nuclear power plant in the Yucatan in Mexico... Our daughter in Texas lives about 5 miles from the Commanche Peak Power Plant... I don't think we're the exception when I say we all live a lot closer to this than we might think.

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    1. Dizzy-DickFebruary 11, 2016 at 9:54 AM

      We can't escape it. It is everywhere and a lot of it is not man-made, but natural from the Earth and from space.

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  6. TROUBLEnTXFebruary 11, 2016 at 7:50 AM

    As much as im getting not gonna worry ,,, lol.

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    1. Dizzy-DickFebruary 11, 2016 at 9:55 AM

      If you walk into a dark room and you glow enough so that you do not need to turn on a light, then I would worry a little bit (grin).

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  7. klahanieFebruary 11, 2016 at 8:32 PM

    I shall pay heed to your post because, upon last checking, I was neither a spider or a fungus.

    Your post radiates with a certain ambience, good sir.

    Gary

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    1. Dizzy-DickFebruary 12, 2016 at 10:57 AM

      Thanks Gary. Some of us have been around radiation more than others.

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  8. MsBelindaFebruary 11, 2016 at 11:12 PM

    I am with Gypsy, hard to tell where radiation is found at high levels and the government certainly is not going to tell us.

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