What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?

[trappedslider]

Surprisingly, you'd be okay IF you made it pass the guards with the guns

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Huh. I'm reminded of a quote from Jules in Pulp Fiction:

"Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy mother...."

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

It's not that surprising when you think about it. The water itself can't be dangerously radioactive or simple evaporation would be constantly contaminating the area something fierce, as does the fact that service divers with breathing apparatus are a thing - although the dosimeters they wear is also an indicator that extended exposure isn't a great idea. I'd still be pretty leery about particulates in the water too, and certainly wouldn't want to risk a dip if the water's been stirred up recently.

The fact that even an arm's length of water (and perhaps a little extra shielding from the bucket) made a life-and-death difference for that diver in the example is a little unexpected though. Really says a lot about how well plain old water does at mitigating some types of radiation. Wonder if the poor guy suffered nerve damage in his hand or not.

 

[Clint_L]

Movies and television have given us a lot of weird ideas about how radiation works, which is why videos like this surprise us. My favourite was when the Chernobyl series suggested that if she subsequently got pregnant, a woman could pass her radiation sickness onto her child. What?! It's not contagious!

Which is a good thing, or we'd all be catching sunburns from each other.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

My favourite was when the Chernobyl series suggested that if she subsequently got pregnant, a woman could pass her radiation sickness onto her child.

I'd like to think they were trying to say her gametes might have suffered chromosomal damage that could result in health problems for her offspring (or just non-viable fetuses) but knowing television science it wouldn't surprise me if they thought the kid would pop out glowing like a lightbulb, perhaps with a tentacle or two to boot.

 

[Willie the Duck]

It's not that surprising when you think about it. The water itself can't be dangerously radioactive or simple evaporation would be constantly contaminating the area something fierce, as does the fact that service divers with breathing apparatus are a thing - although the dosimeters they wear is also an indicator that extended exposure isn't a great idea. I'd still be pretty leery about particulates in the water too, and certainly wouldn't want to risk a dip if the water's been stirred up recently.

The fact that even an arm's length of water (and perhaps a little extra shielding from the bucket) made a life-and-death difference for that diver in the example is a little unexpected though. Really says a lot about how well plain old water does at mitigating some types of radiation. Wonder if the poor guy suffered nerve damage in his hand or not.

Uranium emits a lot more alpha and beta radiation than gamma. Water absorbs the first two handily. It also attenuates gamma better than you might think (super dense and high-atomic-number material like lead only provide 20-30% better protection-by-mass than less dense material like water and concrete). The big concern would be, as you say, ingesting some particulates so that they would do ongoing unshielded emission from within you.

I'd like to think they were trying to say her gametes might have suffered chromosomal damage that could result in health problems for her offspring (or just non-viable fetuses) but knowing television science it wouldn't surprise me if they thought the kid would pop out glowing like a lightbulb, perhaps with a tentacle or two to boot.

I didn't see the series, so I don't know what was said. That said, in broad strokes, there's no reason not to have such concerns. Ionizing radiation can cause genetic and epigenetic damage. It happens more to rapidly dividing cells, and ova are effectively in stasis between when a woman is born and when the individual ovum undergoes follicle activation. Thus less of a concern than, say, male gametes. On the other hand, if she ingested actual radiological material which would still be actively producing radiation during ovulation or gestation (or breastfeeding), then those would all be genuine concerns.

 

[Stalker0]

On the other hand, if she ingested actual radiological material which would still be actively producing radiation during ovulation or gestation (or breastfeeding), then those would all be genuine concerns.

Yeah this was my thought. Its not the radiation "per say" but is she has a radioactive source in her body it is possible that gets transferred to the child.

 

[John R Davis]

They did inhale particulates in the series so it's possible a future child come carry some contamination

 

[Umbran]

Yeah this was my thought. Its not the radiation "per say" but is she has a radioactive source in her body it is possible that gets transferred to the child.

In the real world, the concern would be genetic damage to the ova, which means genetic damage to the child.

"Passing radiation sickness on to your kid," is a complicated way to say, "miscarriage."

 

[tomBitonti]

I was told by a chemist friend that what was most dangerous was sources of ionizing radiation, which, if taken in, for example, through ingestion or inhalation, would often be sequestered in the body close to sensitive areas. That suggests that the situation for a diver might be much worse — due to long term exposure to radiation — if radioactive material leached into the water and the water was accidentally ingested.

TomB