Pop Culture and Radiation

[mis_mariposas]

From a historical perspective it makes perfect sense that, here in the 21st century, there tends to be a lot of misinformation about radiation and nuclear science in general. American comics liked to use radiation at a magic catalyst for pretty much everything. Quite frankly there has been very little accurate information with a wide circulation among the general public.



The thing about radiation is it's boring. No, hear me out. Radiation is invisible under most circumstances (more on that later), unless you have very high levels the effects are not instantaneous, and it's not an issue most of the time.

It is extremely jarring to be watching a TV show or reading a book and suddenly have a bunch of things that are completely wrong sprung on you.*

Case in point: There is an episode of Bones called "The Glowing Bones in the Old Stone House" that deals with a mysteriously glowing corpse.

Let's count the number of inaccuracies that occur in the first 3 minutes.

00:12 "Could be dealing with a group that has acquired nuclear material..." BZZZZT! Wrong. One of the most common and irritating fallacies surrounding nuclear material is the idea that they glow. While this is not entirely inaccurate, I have never seen it used correctly outside of an environment where people handle radioactive material.

Nuclear material gives off a BLUE glow when submerged in WATER with sufficiently HIGH levels of activity.



Three key parts: Blue glow, in water, really fucking radioactive.

Why? Because the glow is caused by free electrons (aka beta radiation) moving faster than light in water**, which bumps electrons in the water molecules into higher energy levels. When they drop back down into lower energy levels the energy they give off is in the form of ultraviolet and blue light. But mostly ultraviolet. This is known as Cerenkov radiation.



Things of note: Purple/Blue glow, not green. Never green. Does NOT work in air. Only works for things that are incredibly dangerously radioactive.

So if you encounter something glowing green in the air, surprise! it's not because it's radioactive.

You know orange fiestaware?



Shit's radioactive. They used uranium in the dye because uranium oxide is really pretty. Looks gorgeous, makes a geiger counter light up like a Christmas tree, and not particularly dangerous. Not actually a good idea though.


00:37 Giving people Potassium Iodide when anticipating radiation exposure because "it helps the thyroid block the absorption of radiation."

Right idea, wrong situation.

Iodine collects in the thyroid, this is a fact. It is also a fact that Potassium Iodide is given to people during nuclear disasters.

Potassium Iodide does jack shit against radiation.

The reason people take the pills is because Iodine 131 is is a radioactive isotope that is also a fission product of U235 the most common nuclear fuel in the USA. The body does not distinguish between stable iodine and radioactive iodine, but the radioactive one can give you cancer. By dosing your body with stable iodine you can keep radioactive iodine from building up in your thyroid.

1:54 "300 milliRems, oh that's perfectly normal"

Ok, kiddo. I got news for you: that is NOT normal. In fact, by US law it is ILLEGAL for the two main characters to be anywhere near that area and you, sir, are violating a whole bunch of safety standards by standing there.

I'm gonna break this down:

<5 mRem This is life and normal exposure, but generally you do not expect to be hanging out in an area with a measurable field. People who are not radiological workers are not allowed to get 2 mRem within an hour.

5-100 mRem Congratulations you have a radiation area. You now have to put up signs marking it.

>100mRem Ooh, now you have a High Radiation area, guess you 'd better restrict access because this is approaching levels you really shouldn't stand in for too long.

And a pet peeve, people. I KNOW Geiger counters make a sweet beeping noise, but they cannot be used to measure radiation fields. That's just not what they measure. What you're looking for is an ION CHAMBER, but they don't make sweet noises. However, they could keep you from walking into a deadly radiation field. Fun fact about Geiger Counters, in really high radiation area they swamp out and display a reading of zero.




This is an Ion Chamber. This does not beep.

This is a Geiger Counter. This one beeps.

A geiger counter reads in cpm: counts per a minute. 300 cpm is perfectly safe to stand in AND is basically normal.

*I imagine this is how doctors, lawyers, and cops feel all the time, but I can only speak from a scientist's perspective.
**Which is significantly slower than the speed of light in a vacuum, which is the cosmic speed limit. People get this wrong a lot too.