Blowing in the wind: Plutonium at former nuclear weapons site

Re:Blowing in the wind: Plutonium at former nuclear weapons ... by rapnie on Monday April 16, 2018 @04:33PM (#16852473)

Could you explain what you mean by habitable? Is that in that you can walk around with relative safety in certain places, or that you can safely live their again?

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Re:Blowing in the wind: Plutonium at former nuclear weapons ... by TeMPOraL on Tuesday April 17, 2018 @09:49AM (#16858237)

I'd guess the latter. The way half-life works, the stuff that's dangerous to you as you walk around quickly decays and stops being dangerous.

The problem is with long half-life (and thus low-radioactivity) elements that sit on the trees, get mixed with soil, and thus eventually end up in ground water and local food chain. You might be able to walk around a disaster site safely in relatively short time after the event, but I wouldn't try growing anything there.

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