The Most Radioactive Places on Earth

radiation is frightening at least certain types of it are I mean my Geiger counter doesn't go off near my mobile phone or the Wi-Fi router or my microwave that's because a Geiger counter only measures ionizing radiation that is radiation with enough energy to rip electrons off atoms and it's measured in units called sieverts if you're exposed to more than two sieverts all at once you'll probably die shortly after that but we're exposed to low levels of ionizing radiation all the time bananas for example are rich in potassium and some of that potassium is naturally radioactive so when you eat a banana you're actually exposed to about 0.1 micro sieverts of radiation that's one ten-millionth of a sievert let's use a banana for scale of radiation doses you know since people eat bananas we become radioactive too so you're actually exposed to more radiation if you sleep next to someone than if you sleep alone but I wouldn't worry about that because that dose is insignificant compared to the natural background radiation of Earth I mean there's ionizing radiation coming out of the soil and the rocks and the air and even from space the level of radiation here in Sydney is about 0.15 microsieverts per hour and that's about average globally the levels usually between point 1 and point 2 microsieverts per hour but there are places with significantly higher levels so who on earth you think receives the maximum dose of ionizing radiation let's answer that question by going to the most radioactive places on earth some places you'd expect to have high levels of radiation might surprise you I'm in her rush MA and that is the peace dome it was about 600 meters above that dome where the world's first nuclear bomb was detonated over a city it was detonated there to have maximum destructive impact with a level of radiation today almost 70 years later is only 0.3 microsieverts per hour this is the mine where uranium was discovered it's also the place where Marie Curie obtained her raw material 2007 microsiemens per hour it's about ten times the natural background that you would have nowadays most of the uranium has been removed but in this wall there's still a small piece and you can see under UV light it flores's look at that florescent uranium ore this is the lab of Marie Curie she won two Nobel prizes one in physics and one in chemistry and she conducted a lot of her work here and this is her office she would have said right there apparently there are only a few parts of this area which are still radioactive one is this doorknob what it climbs looked a lot much bit but that's like 10 times the background yes more that's it and another is the back of her chair you can still detect alpha particles coming off this spot right here apparently after she was worth being a lab she would come open the door leaving traces of radium here and then go and pull out her chair welcome to New Mexico this is the Trinity bomb test site where the world's first nuclear bomb was set off right here right in this spot this whole area was vaporized in fact there was so much heat liberated by that bomb that it fused all of the desert sand into this green glass and you can still find it here they've actually named this mineral after the test it's called Trinitite yeah this is the only place on earth that this has ever been made the level of radiation here is about 0.8 microsieverts an hour the Trinitite itself is a little bit more radioactive i've got readings of two or three microsieverts an hour off them now which place has higher levels of radiation than anywhere we've seen so far the answer is an airplane you know as you gain altitude there's less atmosphere above you to shield you from cosmic rays so the level of radiation inside the plane can go up to 0.5 microsieverts per hour at 18,000 feet up to one micro sievert per hour at 23,000 feet over two microsieverts per hour at 33,000 feet and over three microsieverts per hour at even higher altitudes and towards the poles that is two noble nuclear reactor number four it melted down on April 26 1986 so what happened was so much heat was generated inside that reactor that it basically blew the top off spreading radioactive isotopes throughout this whole surrounding area and over into Europe and that is why we can still detect the contamination here today now right now it's reading around five microsieverts an hour if I stayed here for one hour my body would receive a similar dose to what you'd receive when you get a dental x-ray so this is not a huge amount of radiation and one of the reasons why the radiation level is not too high is because they actually removed a couple meters worth of topsoil from this whole area then they dumped it somewhere that's why we can stand here we're driving into the Fukushima exclusion zone now I'm just watching as the levels on my Geiger counter go up as we approach the zone see those black bags at the side of the road the Japanese are doing now exactly what the people in Chernobyl did collecting up meters and meters of topsoil the mask is probably overkill it's just to stop radioactive dust from getting into my lungs this is definitely one of the most radioactive places where I've been even though the release of radioactive material was less than true noble only about 10% because it's much fresher only three years since the accident much less if it has decayed so I've been getting readings up around five to ten microsieverts an hour and I think we won't be staying here too long because of that I'm about to go into the hospital at Pripyat and this is where the firemen were taken after they fought the fires at the Chernobyl reactor and in the basement of this building they have left all of the firemen's clothing once they realized it was so contaminated they chucked it down there but you can see there's a huge pile how about Judah read upside the bear I'm getting half hundred Mike receive it's another bill that basement was the most radioactive place I visited and it's one of the most radioactive places on earth if I'd stay down there for one hour I would have received 2,000 micro sieverts that's a year's worth of natural background radiation every yellow pixel here represents a banana now that might seem like a lot but consider that in a CT scan the patient receives about 7,000 micro sieverts that's three years worth of natural background radiation it's been estimated that the people living around Fukushima will receive an additional 10,000 micro sieverts over their lifetime due to the nuclear power disaster for comparison us radiation workers are limited to a maximum of 50,000 microsieverts per year but that's less than another occupation astronaut an astronaut on the space station for six months will receive about 80,000 micro sieverts worth of radiation but not even they are exposed to the highest levels of ionizing radiation so can you guess who is the answer is a smokers lungs a smokers lungs on average receive 160,000 microsieverts worth of radiation every year that's due to the radioactive polonium and radioactive lead in the tobacco that they're smoking so not only are they exposed to carcinogens and toxins they also receive very high levels of radiation so it's not the people of Fukushima or Chernobyl or radiation workers or even astronauts who receive the highest doses of ionizing radiation that honor goes to your ordinary average smoker hey as you can see over the last few months I've been traveling around the world actually filming a documentary for television it should be on in the middle of next year but being in places like Chernobyl and Fukushima reminded me of this book the day of the Triffids it's about a post-apocalyptic world in which plants take over I know it sounds like a crazy idea but it's actually a brilliant book so you should really check it out if you're looking for something to do over the holidays now you can download this book for free by going to audible.com/veritasium or you can pick any other book of your choosing for a one-month free trial audible is a great audiobook website with over 150,000 titles in all areas of literature including fiction nonfiction and periodicals so I really want to thank audible for supporting me and I want to thank you for watching

Channel: Veritasium

Views: 22,523,851

Keywords: veritasium, physics, nuclear, radiation, radioactive, radioactivity, Weapons, Atomic, trinity test, trinity site, trinity, uranium, sievert, microsievert, scale, dose, marie curie, atomic bomb, fukushima, chernobyl, pripyat

Id: TRL7o2kPqw0

Length: 11min 17sec (677 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 17 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Sploifen]

There is a small lake in the ural mountains in southern Russia named lake Karachay. It was used as a dumping site for radioactive waste from the nearby nuclear facility Majak - which produced weapon grade nuclear material for bombs.

This lake is estimated to be the most polluted place on earth where you'll receive a dose of 600 roentgens or about 6 sieverts, which is 3 times the lethal dose, if you stand on the shore for an hour.

[u/Wheeto]

As a smoker, I enjoyed this video until the last 30 seconds.

[u/UrbanRich]

Shit, I'd better quit smoking bananas.

[u/Larjersig18]

The banana for scale was indeed intentional.

[u/[deleted]]

It would have been cool to see the Elephant’s Foot

[u/Knillish]

50'000 people used to live here... now its a ghost town

[u/[deleted]]

That's a really really well made video.

[u/Cappy_]

Radiation dosage chart so you can get an perspective on the dosages if anyone interested:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/blag/radiation.png

[u/Mr_Unknown]

My main question is, what the hell did they do with all the radioactive top soil in chernobyl? Also what are they going to do with the top soil in fukushima?