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Asked by to Simon, Becky on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Simon Albright answered on 13 Mar 2014:
In all honesty I have absolutely no idea what the record is but it definitely would kill a person very very quickly.
When the Chernobyl disaster happened the radiation was so high that the helicopter pilots who dumped concrete on the reactors were only able to fly over once and they suffered so much radiation damage they died a few years later.
Radiation is one of the things which can be used to save lives, but if we’re not careful it can do a lot of damge.
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Becky Martin answered on 13 Mar 2014:
The place with the highest natural background radiation in the world is called Ramsar, and its in Iran. Background levels are over 80 times higher than the average world background radiation levels!
The reason its background radiation levels are so high is because of local geology, as underground water dissolves radium from the rocks and carries out to the local hot springs, which are used as spas.
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Becky commented on :
As far as the highest recorded levels of radiation that are not naturally occuring go, I think that they would be safely contained within a modern nuclear power station or other nuclear facility. However, you probably wouldn’t feel very well at all if you went into these protected areas, where the nuclear reactions take place, in a power station.
This is why we use thick shielding and protective equipment to make sure we minimise risk of harm. A lot of the processes are automated – I went to Sellafield a while ago and it was amazing! I saw the pools where used nuclear fuel is stored and cooled, and it was all moved and transferred by these big mechanical arms, behind thick glass. Very exciting!
Simon commented on :
They use radium hot springs as SPAS?! I hope they wear lead swimming costumes!
Any idea what the rate of birth defects is around there?