Wikipedia has an entire list of civilian radiation accidents.
The one that scares me the most happened in Ukraine where a radioactive capsule was accidentally built into an apartment building. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_radiological_accident
New fear unlocked.
Dude! How come something like that is considered lost and “well, enough searching”!?
I personally find the demon core quite haunting.
The demon core doesn’t really scare me because at least everyone there knew about the potential for harm.
It is always unsettling that dropping the reflector for a second caused a deadly radiation dose. Radiation is a bitch.
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It is pretty depressing to find this kind of reply here. If the person was ignorant enough to think that was gunpowder that obviously means they lack knowledge. Some of these people didn’t even know what makes something radioactive. Do you really think the guy would give the powder for his 6yo daughter to play if he knew better?
Have some empathy for people less privileged than you.
You’ve saved someone who is almost certainly already dead from criticism on the internet. You’ve done absolutely nothing for no one, but you’ve put yourself in a position of moral superiority. Well done, I guess.
The intention wasn’t to feel morally superior. I am from Brazil and I know these people didn’t know better. They scavenged for scraps to live, most likely didn’t go to high school. Just wish people were more empathetic, but I imagine that most of the user base here is quite privileged and don’t know how poor and uninformed people can be in 3rd world countries.
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Seriously, there’s not knowing about radiation and not thinking something is dangerous because it didn’t ignite with a flame, and then there’s thinking something salvaged from a hospital might contain gunpowder. These are two completely different levels of ignorance or perceived lack of privilege.
English isn’t my first language so I don’t understood what you meant by this. I think you just made me realize that the english might be confusing. The people that stole the equipment aren’t the same that found it in the scrapyard. It is dumb but yes, they didn’t know better.
As a Brazilian myself it felt disrespectful. I haven’t seen anyone before judging people from this case like this.
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allowing him to see a deep blue light coming from the *roadside picnic he had created
Ftfy
Plainly Difficult has a lot of videos on similar radiation incidents if you are interested. Here is a video covering a stolen radiotherapy device in Mexico.
Love Plainly Difficult! Def recommend them 🙂
Those deaths were horrific and it is especially said about the 6 year old girl.
Another interesting fact:
Other contamination was also found in or on:
Three buses
42 houses
fourteen cars
five pigs
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Tim Harford just did an episode on this story. Great listen. Great podcast!
https://timharford.com/2023/11/cautionary-tales-the-lethal-fallout-of-a-stolen-treasure/
Also covered in this video. The channel has an entire playlist with similar accidents called “Sources in the wild”.
