The Most Radioactive Places on Earth
23,628,512
Published 2014-12-17
Check out Audible: bit.ly/AudibleVe
I'm filming a documentary for TV about how Uranium and radioactivity have shaped the modern world. It will be broadcast in mid-2015, details to come. The filming took me to the most radioactive places on Earth (and some places, which surprisingly aren't as radioactive as you'd think). Chernobyl and Fukushima were incredible to see as they present post-apocalyptic landscapes. I also visited nuclear power plants, research reactors, Marie Curie's institute, Einstein's apartment, nuclear medicine areas of hospitals, uranium mines, nuclear bomb sites, and interviewed numerous experts.
Notes about measuring radiation:
Sieverts are a measure of 'effective dose' - that means they measure the biological impact of the energy transferred to tissues from radiation.
Obviously I owe a debt to the fantastic chart made by xkcd, which inspired my visual approach to this video.
xkcd.com/radiation/
DOSES MAY VARY
The level of radiation varies widely around the world depending mainly on altitude and geology (excluding nuclear accidents).
Estimates of particular doses also vary. All numbers reported in this video should be taken as order of magnitude only.
The most contentious claim may be that smokers receive the highest dose of ionizing radiation. This is not a whole body dose, but a dose to the lungs as specified in the video. References are here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco
www.rmeswi.com/36.html
Special thanks to:
Physics Girl: youtube.com/physicswoman
MinutePhysics: youtube.com/minutephysics
Natalie Tran: youtube.com/communitychannel
Bionerd23: youtube.com/bionerd23
Nigel and Helen for feedback on earlier drafts of this video.
Music is "Stale Mate"
All Comments (21)
-
This man traveled all over the globe just to make an anti-smoking add
-
Best non-smoking ad ever!!
-
"50 thousand people used to live here, now its a ghost town"
-
Thanks! This video got me to finally quit smoking once and for all back in 2015.
-
*throws cigarette down. *moves to Pripyat for cheap housing.
-
Person: *falls into a pile of 20,000,000 bananas. Person: dies
-
4:00 apparently, her notebooks are also radioactive. The are so radioactive in fact that they are too dangerous to touch and kept in lead box’s.
-
I had a mental sigh of relief every time he revealed the level of radiation to be far lower than harmful, even at places where I didn't expect like Chornobyl, Fukushima🙂
-
This must be the absolute best anti-smoke video i've ever seen!
-
Astronaut: 80000 microsieverts smoker: 160000 microsieverts Astronaut Smoker: it's time to die
-
貴重な資料だな〜、 それを一般公開&日本語で字幕出してくれてる公式さんや翻訳者さんには感謝しかねぇ〜
-
I had two CT Scans over the last 6 months and I was worried about the amount of radiation I was exposed to, but seeing that just one year of smoking is 22 times as much of radiation as one CT scan, makes me feel less worried.
-
For those who are wondering... Yes, this means eating 20 million bananas at one time might kill you due to radiation exposure. But let's face it, if you're eating 20 million bananas, the radiation is the least of your worries.
-
This guy literally went to chernobyl just to tell people that smoking is bad. If that wasnt enough to make you quit smoking, i dont know what will.
-
"1 hour of marie curie's door knob" got me cracking up
-
One of the best videos ever made by Derek. Watched it so many times. Hats off.
-
“Every pixel here represents a banana” Switches to 140p HA
-
The radiation levels in the Pripyat hospital were unreal. That geiger counter went bananas...
-
The world’s best anti smoking ad doesn’t exi-
-
Such a great detailed outlook on radio active radiation across the globe . Looking for something like this for sometime now
