The Most Radioactive Places on Earth

Radiation is scary. At least certain types are. I mean, my Geiger counter doesn't alert near my phone, or my Wi-Fi router, or my microwave. This is because a Geiger counter only measures ionizing radiation, that is, radiation with enough energy to eliminate electrons. And it is measured in sieverts. If you are vulnerable to more than 2 sieverts at the same time, you will probably die immediately after that. But at the same time we are vulnerable to low levels of ionizing radiation. Bananas, for example, are rich in potassium and potassium is naturally

radioactive

. So when we eat a banana, we are exposed to 0.1 microsieverts of radiation.

This is 1 and 10 millionths of a sievert. Let's use the banana to measure radiation. We know that because people eat bananas, we are also

radioactive

. Therefore, you are actually more exposed to radiation if you sleep with someone than when you sleep alone. But don't worry because this dose is negligible in relation to the

earth

's radiation. I am referring to the ionizing radiation that comes out of the ground, from the interior of rocks, from the air and from space. The radiation level in Sydney is approximately 15 microsieverts per hour and this is approximately the global average. The level is usually between 0.1 and 0.2 microsieverts per hour.

But there are countries with considerably higher levels. So which country do you think receives the maximum dose of ionizing radiation? Let's answer this question by going to the

most

radioactive

places

on Earth. Some

places

where you expect to have high levels of radiation may surprise you. I'm in Hiroshima and there is the Peace Dome. About 600 m above that dome, the first nuclear bomb that was activated over the city exploded. It was activated to have maximum destructive impact. Well, the radiation level today, al

most

70 years later, is 0.3 microsieverts per hour. I'm entering an elevator. We went down to a mining gallery.

This is an old uranium mine. This is the mine where uranium was discovered. This is also the place where Marie Curie obtained her living materials. 1.7 microsieverts per hour. It is almost 10 times larger than it would be naturally. Today, most of the uranium has been mined. But on this wall there is a small part and you can see that it glows under ultraviolet light. Look at it. Fluorescent uranium. This is Marie Curie's laboratory. She won 2 Nobel Prizes, one in physics and one in chemistry and she has done most of her work here. This is her office. She would sit here.

Apparently some parts of this area are still radioactive. One of them is the door handle. It doesn't stick much, but it is 10 times larger than the background. Yes. More than 10. And another place is the back of the chair. You can still see alpha particles in this part here. Apparently when she was working in the laboratory she came, she opened the door leaving traces of radium here and she was going to pull her chair. Welcome to New Mexico. This is the Trinity Bomb Test Site where the world's first bomb was dropped. Here in this place. This whole place has been vaporized.

In fact, there was so much heat in this bomb that it is embedded in desert, sand and grass. And you can still find it here. They are named after the mineral that came out of the test. It's called Trinity. This is the only place in the world where it is done. The radiation level here is 0.8 microsieverts per hour. Trinity is the most radioactive oak. I read 2 or 3 microsieverts for an hour. Now, who was the country that had the highest level of radiation so far? The answer is an airplane. You know that the higher you go, the less atmosphere there is above you to protect you from cosmic rays.

Thus, the radiation level in the plane can reach 0.5 ms/h at 18,000 feet, 1 ms/h at 23,000 feet, more than 2 ms/h at 30,000 feet, and more than 3 ms/h at the height of high and in the direction of the pile. This is Chernobyl reaction number 4. It merged on April 26, 1986. So what happened was so much heat was stored in that reaction that it essentially blew up Catine, spreading radioactive isotopes throughout this area and into Europe. And this is the reason why we can still detect pollution today. Now we can read about 5 microsieverts per hour. On the kite we would stay here for an hour, we would receive a dose equal to the one we would receive when they take a dental x-ray.

So this is not a large amount of radiation. And one of the reasons the radiation is not very high is because they have actually moved several meters of viable layer from this entire area and taken it somewhere. That's why we can stay here. We are driving in the exclusive Fykushime area. I'm watching the levels on my Geiger counter increase as we get closer to the area. See those black bags on the side of the road? The Japanese are now doing what they did in Chernobyl: seizing meters and meters of arable land. Maybe the mask is too much.

It is to prevent radioactive smoke from entering healthy lungs. This is probably one of the most radioactive places I have ever been to. Although the release of radioactive material was less than in Chernobyl by about 10%, because it is fresher (it has only been 3 years since the accident), less has been destroyed. I read approximately 5 to 10 microsieverts per hour. And I think we shouldn't stay too long because of this. I only go to a hospital in Pripyat. And this is the place where firefighters were taken after fighting the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. And in the basement of this ship they left all the firefighters' clothing.

After realizing they were contaminated, they place them here. (Inaudible) But you can see a mountain of his clothes there. Out of the gate, I get 500 microsieverts per hour just out of the gate. 1,500 microsieverts per hour. You know, if we stayed here for a few hours, we'd get an annual dose of radiation. That basement was the most reactive place I visited and is one of the most radioactive places in the world. If I stayed there for an hour, I would receive 2,000 microsieverts. It is a year of natural radiation. Each cube here features a banana. Well, I know that doesn't sound like much, but consider that in a CT scanner, patients receive about 7,000 microsieverts.

This is the amount of natural radiation for 3 years. It is estimated that residents around Fukushima will receive an amount of 10,000 microsieverts over their lifetime due to the nuclear disaster. By comparison, radiation workers in the United States are limited to a maximum of 50,000 microsieverts per year. But it is less than a profession. Astronauts. An astronaut who stays on a space station for 6 months receives about 80,000 microsieverts of radiation. But even they are not detected by the highest level of ionizing radiation. So can you guess who he is? The answer is a smoker's lungs. A smoker's lungs receive an average of 160,000 microsieverts of radiation each year.

This is due to the radioactivity of polonium and radioactive particles from the tobacco you smoke. So not only are they exposed to cancer and toxins, but they also receive high levels of radiation. Therefore, it is not the inhabitants of Fukushima or Chernobyl, nor the radiation workers, nor even the astronauts, who receive the largest dose of ionizing radiation. Pride is for the habitual smoker.