Nuclear power is arguably the safest and most efficient form of power we currently have. Despite how great and reliable it is, the nuclear stigma will probably never go away because when it has gone bad in the past, it’s gone really bad. And there’s the eternal association it’s going to have with nuclear weapons in people’s minds.
The technology is remarkable stuff but, for many, it’s misunderstood and scary. Nuclear bombs and nuclear disasters are what too many people think of. Over the years people have tried to come up with new uses for nuclear power and radiation. Some were a little more successful than others.
10. Colorado Tried Fracking With a Nuclear Bomb
Fracking is a method of extracting resources like natural gas from the earth by digging a deep hole and then forcing a bunch of crap down that hole so it busts the rock up and releases the gas or oil you’re trying to get. It probably sounded like a good idea at first but, in reality, it causes all kinds of problems from groundwater pollution to potential earthquakes.
Normal fracking uses water, sand, and chemicals to bust up the shale to get to the plunderable resources and it’s bad news. So imagine how people would react to nuclear bomb fracking. You know, drilling a hole, dropping a nuke in it, and then cleaning up the leftovers. Colorado gave it a try.
Way back in 1969, Colorado dropped a 40-kiloton nuclear weapon down a hole to get to the natural gas deposits located below the Piceance Basin. For a little context, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 15 kilotons and the one on Nagasaki was 25. Colorado combined them and put it in the ground near a town called Rulison.
Townspeople made a day of it and were invited to come out and watch. Some folks had a picnic, and overall, the damage to the surface was minimal. It was like a mid-level earthquake to those in range.
The test didn’t cause devastation, but it didn’t prove to be the key to effective fracking, either. Radiation has not been detected in groundwater but oil companies have detected radiation in samples of the natural gas, causing them to pack up shop and leave. The oil it produces can’t be used for anything because of the radiation, making the whole experiment pointless.
9. Ruby Red Grapefruit Was Bred Thanks to Radiation Mutations
Some people really like to start their day dousing a half of bitter, terrible grapefruit with sugar so it’s palatable enough to eat. But at some point, grapefruit growers realized they needed to make a tastier and more attractive version of their fruit if they wanted to keep making a living and the Ruby Red grapefruit was born. Except it wasn’t as simple as all that and radiation was involved.
Back in the 1920s, grapefruit was not even considered a real crop. It was described as worthless at one point because the pale, bitter fruit was basically inedible. But there were a few mutant strains of grapefruit that didn’t have pale or pure white flesh and those were much more appealing.
Focusing on the pink grapefruit, farmers bred them and created a new strain of all pink grapefruit and people liked them. Except that, over time, the color faded and soon they were ugly, pale fruits again.
Using thermal neutrons, scientists irradiated those trees and forced them to mutate further. This ended up causing them to rocket right past pale pink and gave rise to red grapefruit. The first strain, Star Ruby, came out in 1971. Later, in 1985, Rio Red was introduced. People have been loving red grapefruit ever since and over 75% of all the crops in Texas are these irradiated mutant strains.
Many other crops get the same treatment as grapefruit. Barley, rice peas, bananas, pears, and many other plants have all been cultivated thanks to radiation mutation.
8. Radiation is Used as a Preservative for Food
Radiation can do more than just cause helpful food mutations, it can also extend the shelf life of produce. It’s not just about making Incredible Hulks.
Ionizing radiation, which doesn’t make food radioactive, can kill off microorganisms. That means the bacteria that could start proliferating on your produce and make it rot faster is killed off and the produce can stay fresh and edible longer.
Not only does radiation preserve your food, but it also improves safety. It can kill off E. coli, salmonella, and other food-borne bacteria that cause severe food poisoning and can even be fatal. It can destroy insects and larvae and certain foods sterilized with radiation can be shelf-stable for years after as a result.
If you see the Radura logo on your food, that means it has received radurization treatment, or ionizing radiation. The process is completely safe and the FDA, USDA, CDC, and WHO as well as international organizations have all tested the food and determined it poses no risk to humans.
7. Boy Scouts Have a Nuclear Science Merit Badge
When you think of who might be responsible enough to handle nuclear materials, who do you think of? Scientists? Military? Boy Scouts? That’s right. There’s a nuclear science merit badge you can achieve as a Boy Scout and achieving it requires far less radiation than you’d think. Hopefully, you don’t think it’s much.
Boy Scouts can get their badge by doing a few things. First and foremost is learning about radiation and understanding the different kinds and what they do. Then the Scouts get a little wiggle room for activities they can do. A few years back they could grow irradiated seeds and start their own fun little nuclear garden, or prepare dishes with irradiated vs non-irradiated foods and compare.
New rules for the Scouts have removed the radiation handling aspect, even though it was harmless, so no more eating irradiated food or growing irradiated seeds. That said, they can still visit nuclear reactors to have a tour or check out an x-ray lab for fun to qualify for the badge.
6. Blue Topaz is Made by Irradiating Normal Topaz
If you’re a gem person, then you know that blue topaz is the birthstone for December. Most topaz is pale yellow or even brown but impurities can lead to various colors from yellow to orange and even blue. Blue is one of the more desirable colors because it’s visually striking and also relatively cheap. Unlike rare stones that you need some luck to find, you can just make blue topaz in a lab by irradiating normal topaz.
Natural blue topaz is hard to find and much more expensive, but irradiated ones are often more uniform in color and less expensive. Bombarding the crystals strips away electrons and alters the lattice of the crystal, changing how light passes through and the color we perceive. After radiation, it’s heated and can turn anywhere from a pale blue to a rich, deep blue.
Blue topaz could potentially be dangerous so the crystals have to be set aside after they’re irradiated so the radioactivity can decay and render them mostly inert once more.
5. Chernobyl Soybeans Could Protect Human Blood from Radiation
In general, there are not a lot of good things associated with the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. We got a really good miniseries out of it, the land is now home to many animals that can live peacefully, and not much else. Except for the soybeans.
Scientists have tried to make the most of what happened by learning from it. Part of that included growing crops in the irradiated areas nearby to learn how radiation affected nature using some real-world examples.
Soybean crops grew, just like everything nearby grows, but they differ from typical crops. The various proteins produced by the beans are remarkably different from ones grown in non-irradiated soil. And one of them is known to protect human blood from radiation damage.
Plants are highly adaptive organisms so it makes sense that they might develop methods of living in an inhospitable environment like Chernobyl. That’s essentially evolution in action. The beans are smaller; they absorb water more slowly, but they produce three times the amount of cysteine synthase, which binds heavy metals and 32% more betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase which can reduce chromosomal abnormalities in humans.
If you’re curious, the point of the research is far-reaching for the future. If we can grow radiation-resistant and adaptive crops here, we can grow them in space.
4. Russia Used a Nuclear Bomb to Make a Lake
Everyone loves having property on the water, right? A nice lake-front cabin would be lovely. But how do you get one if it’s all scooped up already? Maybe just make a new lake. Russia tried it once and all it took was a nuclear bomb.
In 1965, the Soviet Union ran a nuclear test called Chagan in Kazakhstan. It was the largest of 124 such tests and exploded a 140-kiloton bomb, nearly ten times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima. The plan was to explode the device in a dry riverbed and create a new lake. And it worked.
The newly formed lake, drawing water from a nearby river after the explosion, was 1,339 feet wide and 330 feet deep. To this day the lake is called Atomic Lake because, although it worked, it’s still 100 times more radioactive than is considered safe nearly 60 years later.
3. Russia Used a Nuke to Stop a Gas Well Fire
Russia has been nothing if not industrious with its nuclear weapons. If they’re not making lakes, they’re using them to solve problems, like a never-ending gas fire. That’s what happened in a place called Urtabulak in 1966.
For three years, a gas fire had been burning out of control despite all attempts to put it out. The Soviets decided that fighting fire with fire was literally a good idea and came up with the nuclear option.
The fire was burning 12 million cubic meters of gas per day, which is a hell of a lot over three years. A hole was drilled next to the flaming vent and a 30-kiloton bomb was put inside. As crazy as it sounds, the plan worked like a charm. The blast sealed the well completely, put out the fire, and no radiation leaked out, either.
2. Radioactive Baths are Used to Treat Chronic Pain
Chronic pain conditions can be brutal for those who endure them. Modern medicine has very few options for people with serious nerve damage and most drugs dull the pain but never truly eliminate it. For some, radioactive baths are a solution.
People with arthritis and other degenerative conditions have reported that spa treatments using radioactive gas radon can help ease the pain. It’s low dose and the treatment time is short but some evidence suggests it has a therapeutic effect.
In Japan, a bathhouse offers patrons the chance to soak in water that has been exposed to radium. It’s also very low dose and sourced from a mine. The water is extremely low in radiation levels but, again, people claim it makes them feel better.
1. The US Military Tried to Fight WWII with Radioactive Foxes
The government will never stop surprising you with mind-blowingly weird ideas they’ve tried to enact, often in secret, and often during wartime. One such plan involved radioactive foxes during WWII.
Operation Fantasia was the name of a plan meant to demoralize and sow discord among Japanese troops. In Japan, there is a lot of fox-related folklore. The kitsune, as you may be aware, are powerful spirits in traditional Japanese folklore and there are a lot of superstitions about them the same way the Irish might have beliefs about leprechauns.
An agent named Ed Salinger of the Operation of Strategic Services, the intelligence agency of the US military in WWII, came up with the idea to exploit the fox superstitions. His plan? To capture foxes, spray paint them with glow-in-the-dark, radioactive paint, and set them loose in Japan. The belief was that it would cause a panic. Keep in mind, the same man also thought spraying fox scent would do the same thing as if the Japanese people knew the smell of foxes and feared them.
The military painted 30 foxes and let them loose in a park in Washington, DC as a test run. Parkgoers, unaware of why foxes were glowing, were suitably afraid. One report to the National Park Police indicated a parkgoer ran away with a case of the “screaming jeemies.”
After having no idea how to get foxes to Japan with the paint intact or keep them in populated areas, the idea was abandoned.