Kind: captions
Language: en
[Music]
so I'm not be H it's overloaded
radiation is frightening at least
certain types of it are I mean my guer
counter doesn't go off near my mobile
phone or the Wii 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 CTS if you're exposed to
more than two CTS 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 CTS of radiation that's 1 10
millionth of a SE 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 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 .15 micro per
hour and that's about average globally
the levels usually between .1 and2 micro
CS per hour but there are places with
significantly higher levels so who on
Earth do 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 hirosima and that is the
peace Dome it was about 600 m 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
only3 micro CS per hour
I'm about to get into the uh an elevator
we're going down in a m shaft this is an
old uh uranium mine this is the mine
where uranium was
discovered it's also the place where
Marie kir obtained her raw material 17
micro per hour it's about 10 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
flues look at that fluorescent uranium
ore this is the lab of Marie C she won
two Nobel prizes one in physics and one
in chemistry and uh she conducted a lot
of her work
here and this is her office
she would have sat right there
apparently there are only a few parts of
this area which are still radioactive
one is this door knob well it climbs not
not much but but that's like 10 times
the background
yes more that's in and another is the
back of her chair you can still detect
alpha particles coming off this spot
right here apparently after she was
working in the 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 8 micro
an hour the trinitite itself is a little
bit more radioactive I've got readings
of two or three micro 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.5 micro
per hour at 18,000 ft up to 1 micr per
hour at 23,000 ft over two micr per hour
at 33,000 ft and over three micro cerss
per hour at even higher altitudes and
towards the poles
[Applause]
that is Chernobyl nuclear reactor number
four it melted down on April 26th
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 to
Europe and that is why we can still
detect the contamination here today now
right now it's reading around 5 micro an
hour if I stayed here for 1 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 top soil from this whole
area then they dumped it somewhere
that's why we can stand
here we're uh driving into the Fukushima
exclusion zone now I'm just watching as
the levels on my Geer caner 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 top soil
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 Chernobyl only about
10% because it's much fresher only 3
years since the accident much less of it
has
decayed so I've been getting readings up
around 5 to 10 Micro an hour and uh I
think we won't be staying here for too
long because of
that I'm about to go into the hospital
at
Prat and this is where the firemen were
taken after they bought 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 they chucked it
down
there out of the
room that
she there is
but you can see there's a huge pile of
that gear there right outside the door
I'm getting 500 micro sus an hour just
outside the
door 1,500 micro CS an hour you know if
we stayed here for a couple hours we'd
receive an annual dose of background
radiation that basement was the most
radioactive place I visited and it's one
of the most radioactive places on Earth
if ID stayed down there for 1 hour I
would have received 2,000 micro seers
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 CS that's 3 years worth of natural
background radiation it's been estimated
that the people living around Fukushima
will receive an additional 10,000 micro
over their lifetime due to the nuclear
power disaster
for comparison us radiation workers are
limited to a maximum of 50,000 micro
certs per year but that's less than
another occupation astronaut an
astronaut on the space station for 6
months will receive about 880,000 micro
SS 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 smoker's lungs a
smoker's lungs on average receive
160,000 micro CS 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 /
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
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and I want to thank you for watching