13 Places On Earth So Radioactive, They're Off-Limits To Humans
According to a report by The Metro, here are some of the most radioactive places on Earth - though the list is not exhaustive or ranked in any particular order.
1. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant(Location: Pripyat, Ukraine): A 1986 accident released radioactive materials, exposing millions to fallout and causing health issues.
2. Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant (Location: Fukushima, Japan): A 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused radioactive leaks and waste spills into the Pacific Ocean.
3. The Hanford Site (Location: Washington, USA): A US nuclear facility produced plutonium for nuclear weapons, leaving behind massive amounts of radioactive waste.
4. The Polygon (Location: Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan): A Soviet nuclear test site in Kazakhstan, where 456 bombs were dropped, affecting local residents with cancer and genetic defects.
5. Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan: Soviet uranium mining contaminated the area, leaving behind radioactive waste and health issues for locals.
6. Siberian Chemical Combine (Location: Seversk, Russia): A Russian nuclear facility had a 1993 accident, releasing radioactive materials and affecting 177,000 people.
7. Sellafield (Location: Cumbria, UK): A UK nuclear facility produces nuclear materials and releases contaminated waste into the Irish Sea.
8. The Somali Coast (Somalia): A dumping ground for nuclear and hazardous waste, posing environmental and health risks.
9. Karunagappalli, India: High background radiation from thorium in the soil, but no increased cancer rates found.
10. BOMARC Site RW-01: A US Air Force base with a 1960 nuclear accident, contaminating the area with plutonium.
11. Church Rock Uranium Mill(Location: New Jersey, USA): A 1979 spill released radioactive waste into the Puerco River, affecting locals and livestock.
12. Kyshtym Disaster (Location: Mayak, Russia): A 1957 nuclear accident in Russia released radioactive waste, contaminating a large area.
13. The Goiânia Incident (Location: Goias, Brazil): A 1987 theft of a radioactive source in Brazil caused four deaths and widespread contamination.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
15 hours ago
- NDTV
NASA Reveals How It Fixed A Camera 370-Million-Miles Away In Deep Space
JunoCam, which is a colour, visible-light camera on NASA's Juno spacecraft, suffered radiation damage while orbiting Jupiter. The exposure caused image noise and streaks. The space agency said that the mission team of the Juno spacecraft executed the deep-space move in December 2023 to repair its JunoCam imager in order to capture photos of the Jovian moon Io. NASA engineers used an experimental technique called annealing, which means heating the camera to 77 degree F (25 degree C), to repair microscopic defects in the camera's silicon components. The annealing process successfully restored JunoCam's function, allowing it to capture high-quality images of Jupiter's moon Io, including its north polar region with sulfur dioxide frosts and volcanic activity. NASA said that the results from the "long-distance save" were presented during a technical session on July 16 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Nuclear & Space Radiation Effects Conference in Nashville. "We knew annealing can sometimes alter a material like silicon at a microscopic level but didn't know if this would fix the damage," JunoCam imaging engineer Jacob Schaffner of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego said as quoted by NASA. "We commanded JunoCam's one heater to raise the camera's temperature to 77 degrees Fahrenheit - much warmer than typical for JunoCam - and waited with bated breath to see the results." Diagnosing and repairing the camera from 370 million miles away was a significant challenge, with the team relying on remote commands and waiting for results. The success of the annealing technique has implications for future space missions, showing the potential for remote diagnostics and repair in deep space. "After orbit 55, our images were full of streaks and noise," JunoCam instrument lead Michael Ravine of Malin Space Science Systems said as quoted by NASA. "We tried different schemes for processing the images to improve the quality, but nothing worked. With the close encounter of Io bearing down on us in a few weeks, it was Hail Mary time: The only thing left we hadn't tried was to crank JunoCam's heater all the way up and see if more extreme annealing would save us." NASA plans to apply this technique to other instruments and subsystems on the Juno spacecraft, and it may benefit satellites in Earth's orbit and future space missions. Despite the camera issue, Juno has continued to orbit Jupiter 74 times, providing valuable insights into the planet's atmosphere and polar regions.
Economic Times
21 hours ago
- Economic Times
Plane-sized Asteroid 2025 OW will fly-by at 47,000 mph this week, but NASA scientists say it's nothing new
An asteroid roughly the size of a commercial aeroplane is expected to pass Earth on 28 July, according to NASA. The object, known as 2025 OW, is about 210 feet across and will fly by at a distance of approximately 393,000 miles. That's about one and a half times farther than the experts are clear: there's nothing to worry about. 'This is very routine,' said Ian J. O'Neill, media relations specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 'If there was a threat, you would hear from us. We would always put out alerts on our planetary defence blog.'The asteroid is moving at a speed of nearly 47,000 miles per hour. Despite that, its trajectory has been calculated with such accuracy that scientists say they already know its path for the next hundred idea of a fast-moving space rock zipping past Earth sounds dramatic, but it's not unusual. 'Close approaches happen all the time — it's just part of the fabric of the solar system,' said Davide Farnocchia, an asteroid expert at NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). NASA keeps track of thousands of near-Earth objects (NEOs), including five currently expected to pass close by next week. Most are far smaller than 2025 OW and travel at much greater distances. While 2025 OW is larger than most, it does not qualify as hazardous. For that, an object needs to be more than 460 feet wide and come within 4.6 million miles of Earth's orbit. Even so, large asteroid impacts are incredibly rare. According to Farnocchia, 'For an object the size of 2025 OW, while close approaches might happen yearly, an actual Earth impact would only occur roughly every 10,000 years.'Not this time. Despite its size and speed, 2025 OW won't be visible without specialist equipment. 'It won't be visible through binoculars,' said there's something on the horizon that could be much more dramatic. A much larger asteroid, called 99942 Apophis, will pass significantly closer to Earth in April 2029 — just 38,000 kilometres away. That's closer than some of our which measures over 1,100 feet across, will be visible to the naked eye. For the public, it could be a rare chance to see an asteroid without needing a is hit by around 100 tons of space dust and small debris every day. It's mostly harmless and burns up in the atmosphere. Larger strikes are rare but not most recent example happened in 2013, when a 20-metre asteroid exploded above Chelyabinsk in Russia. It caused injuries and property damage. Events of that scale happen once every 60 to 80 years. The Tunguska explosion in 1908, caused by an asteroid possibly between 160 and 200 feet wide, flattened trees across over 2,000 square kilometres of Siberian forest. That type of event is expected only once every 200 to 300 terms of size, 2025 OW is in that same range. But unlike the Tunguska asteroid, we know exactly where 2025 OW is going — and it's not tracking capabilities have come a long way. Astronomers rely on a global network of telescopes, with data sent to the Minor Planet Center, the organisation responsible for collecting information on small solar system CNEOS uses that data to model orbits and predict flybys, often years or even decades in advance. There are currently over 30,000 recognised NEOs, out of more than 1.1 million known asteroids in our solar tools are also being developed. NASA's NEO Surveyor mission, along with the European Space Agency's NEOMIR and the Vera Rubin Observatory, aim to spot more asteroids, especially those that approach from the direction of the Sun — a known blind spot for many Earth-based big event on the calendar is Apophis in 2029. Originally discovered in 2004, early models gave it a slim chance of hitting Earth. But after years of observations, scientists have ruled out any impact for at least the next century.'Apophis will come within 38,000 kilometres of Earth in April 2029 — closer than our geostationary satellites,' Farnocchia close pass is expected to give scientists a rare chance to study the effects of Earth's gravity on the asteroid's orbit. Some models suggest that this flyby could slightly alter its path, but not enough to pose any danger in future passes.2025 OW will pass silently and safely. There will be no light show, no debris, and no need to prepare for impact. But it's a timely reminder of the constant motion above our heads, and the systems in place to monitor experts continue to keep watch, not because of 2025 OW, but because one day, a different object might be worth worrying about. Until then, we observe, we prepare, and we learn.
United News of India
3 days ago
- United News of India
Iran launches Nahid-2 telecom satellite into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket
Tehran, July 25 (UNI) Iran's domestically made Nahid-2 telecommunications satellite was successfully launched into orbit today aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, marking Tehran's second space-operation this week, reports Iran International. The launch took place from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome at 9:54 a.m. Tehran time, as part of a broader mission carrying two Russian Ionosfera-M satellites and 18 smaller payloads. Russian media did not publicly name Iran but said one of the CubeSats aboard was being launched 'for the benefit of a foreign customer.' Iranian outlets later confirmed it was Nahid-2. The 110-kilogram (242 lb) Iranian satellite is supposed to circle the Earth on a 500-kilometer (310-mile) orbit and has a service lifetime of two years. The launch comes four days after the IRGC launched its own Qased satellite carrier, an operation which it claimed would strengthen Tehran's space program. Observers say the timing reflects Tehran's intent to project technological resilience and strategic messaging following last month's war with Israel. While Iran maintains that its space program is not intended for weaponisation, analysts have repeatedly voiced concern over Iran's satellite launches due to their dual-use nature, stating that the same technology could be used to launch missiles, and each launch further advances Iran's ballistic missile capabilities. In November, Russia launched a pair of Iranian satellites named Kowsar and Hodhod, the first launched on behalf of the country's private sector. It followed two previous Russian launches of Iranian satellites in 2022 and 2024, highlighting the growing 'strategic partnership' between Moscow and Tehran. Simultaneously, Russian President Vladmir Putin has repeatedly offered mediation by Moscow in an effort to reach a settlement with Iran, while trying to assuage Israel's security concerns. Putin has further stressed that Russia hasn't given Iran any military assistance despite Moscow's open support for Tehran during its conflict with Jerusalem, trying to maintain good ties with Israel while further developing its economic and military ties with Iran.
