What is radioactive fallout? Detailed answer

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What is radioactive fallout? Detailed answer

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What is radioactive fallout?

The dust that rises into the air as a result of a nuclear explosion - a nuclear weapon test or an accident at a nuclear power plant - and then settles to the ground is called radioactive fallout. This dust infects everything around precisely because it is radioactive. This means that it contains certain types of atoms that undergo spontaneous decay. When each of these atoms decays, a small amount of energy and matter is released - this phenomenon is called radiation.

In a nuclear explosion, a strong blast wave occurs, a large amount of heat is released and many radioactive atoms are formed. These atoms mix with soil particles, which, being lifted into the air by the force of the explosion, form a multi-ton radioactive dust cloud. After some time, this dust settles to the ground in the form of radioactive fallout. The heaviest particles from this cloud fall to the ground in the first minutes or hours after the explosion. However, the lungs stay in the atmosphere for a longer time. The wind can carry them around the globe for months and even years. In the end, they still inevitably return to the surface of the earth along with snow, rain or fog.

Radioactive fallout on human skin can be washed off with water. However, if particles of radioactive dust get inside the body, they can stay there for many years. They enter the body along with air, water and food. And the last way is the most common.

Radioactive dust settles on leaves and fruits, infects the soil, from which radioactive atoms enter the plants through the roots. Even if these plants are not eaten by humans, they can be eaten by animals, whose meat, in turn, is eaten by people or other animals. Once inside the body, radioactive atoms emit radiation that destroys living cells, or at least weakens their protection against all kinds of diseases.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

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This year, the Muslim fasting of the lunar month of Ramadan, when one cannot eat or drink from sunrise to sunset, will begin on July 20. It lasts 29 days, so it will capture the entire period of the Olympic Games, a week before them and almost a week after them.

3000 Muslims are expected among the athletes who will come to London, but some English athletes also adhere to this religion. How will fasting affect their success? This issue was discussed at the nutrition commission of the International Olympic Committee. Conclusion: In some sports, the negative effect may be noticeable, but the picture is far from clear. So, studies conducted on football players have shown that fasting does not affect their speed of running or dexterity of movements, but reduces muscle efficiency, endurance and jumping ability. Moderately trained Muslim stayers in Ramadan can run an average of 5448 meters in half an hour without rest, and 5649 meters in normal times.

Especially difficult for Muslims will be those competitions that will take place in the late afternoon and in which each performance lasts more than 30 minutes. Athletes will endure the ban on drinking harder than the ban on food. In any case, English canoeist Mo Sbihi, who previously completed his thesis on dehydration, has already announced that he will postpone his Ramadan until November this year.

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