• overcast5348@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    What about contamination in disaster sites like Chernobyl or Fukushima? Is that also mainly radioactive substances that we’re spread around the area by air/water making the whole place dangerous to live or are other previously-non-radioactive objects radioactive now?

    • dgmib@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yea basically the main contamination issue is that radioactive substances were spread around. Contamination of the surrounding area isn’t the only issue we have to deal with, nor is it the most serious, but it is generally is the most costly remediate.

      The contamination problem is caused by radioactive matter spewed into the air and settling on the trees, buildings, ground etc… in the surrounding area.

      The main remediation strategy is to remove everything in the surrounding area including the top ~3 ft or so of soil of the and haul it off to an underground landfill to slowly decay for at least a few hundred years safely separated from humans.

    • spicy pancake@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      The former, unless those disasters also included neutron radiation (admittedly I don’t know much about either disaster)