r00tb33r wrote:
So my understanding is that Chernobyl is more like a dirty bomb and the stuff in the cloud are particles of unreacted fission fuel, and are pretty large, meaning they will remain radioactive for quite a long time regardless of the half life.
Modern fusion weapons (I don't believe anyone kept any fission weapons) don't really leave behind fuel particles as they tend to fully react, leaving behind only small product particles that quickly break down, so there's much less lingering fallout. That's how I understand it anyway.
I heard that the nuclear industry workers used to bathe in the cooling pools and the man saying this was interviewed 30 years later and he had bathed in them.
He said they were puzzled when several years later they were told they had to wear bio-hazard suits and were not allowed to bathe etc.
I do not know if this is true or not but he seemed very sincere and had no reason to hide this. He said radiation is heat. (Actually remember this from physics lessons).
All I do know is that I survived walking through that cloud and it was not the only event we saw a cloud like that as a few years later we had another cloud that no one anywhere knows what the event that caused it was, but the ground, cars, house roof etc were all covered with the yellow particles which are a bit like very light silly-string-like bits that float in the air that are yellow which were "Supposed" to be radioactive.
Around the late 1990's or early 2000's a man we knew used to go out early on the local beach near here and his hobby was metal detecting. When he went one early morning, he saw people metal detecting so as he was a chatty guy who was keen to share his interests, he went out to meet them. They had geiger counters and were checking the beach. The beach is one of Europes top ten beaches (I think fifth in the list of top beaches?)
The people were from the weapons testing area nearby on the other beach but the end of this beach is classed as a similar area and has a target range for military planes to practice on. Also an unofficial neudist area inbetween the military danger area and the public area and have cycled near there and seen them on chilly days turning purple! Haha! Silly men! Don't mind people down there if they want to strip as beach is 9 miles long and only the last mile or so is danger area, but they need to do it in the sunshine so they don't freeze! Haha! We only cycled down that far on the hard sand out of curiosity when I was younger.
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