Quantcast
Channel: Is it safe to grow and eat food on post-nuclear-war land? - Worldbuilding Stack Exchange
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 9

Answer by RonJohn for Is it safe to grow and eat food on post-nuclear-war land?

$
0
0

http://optimalprediction.com/radiation-uptake-in-edible-plants/

https://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/5407895

The first thing that is obvious from the table is how much higher the values are for strontium-90 than other isotopes. This shows how dangerous Sr-90 is, how pervasive it is in the environment. This isotope, which causes bone cancer and leukemia, concentrates in bones and bone marrow. Note that 8 times as much collects in wheat, versus corn and rice. Also 33 times as much Sr-90 is absorbed into alfalfa than cesium-137. Alfalfa is fed to dairy cows. Trying to gauge the safety of milk and dairy products by cesium alone is misleading.

Iodine-129 is also very high in alfalfa (20 times the ratio of Cs-137). We can see that the highest risk in milk is in Sr-90 and I-129 (which causes thyroid cancer). These two isotopes are also found in grasses, which is the food source for beef cattle.

Note that the ratio of plutonium-239 is very low. The main risk for exposure to Pu-239 is in air and drinking water. Plutonium binds tightly to clay soil. But note americium-241 has a much higher ratio. Pu-241 decays to Am-241 with a half-life of 14 years. Americium is a bone seeker like strontium and plutonium."

I don't know about vegetables, but we'd all be pretty screwed for at least six 14 year generation (dying from bone cancer and leukemia).

EDIT: existing stores of food (everything from cans to still-standing granaries that hadn't been ravaged by rodents) would not be affected by nuclear radiation.

Plant absorption of radionucleotides


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 9

Trending Articles



<script src="https://jsc.adskeeper.com/r/s/rssing.com.1596347.js" async> </script>