Want to go fishing ?

in Soviet Russia, you better watch out
http://www.metalguitarist.org/chris/random/karachay.jpg
One hour of exposure there is enough to kill a human being.

"According to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute on nuclear waste, Karachay is the most polluted spot on Earth.[2] The lake accumulated some 4.44 exabecquerels (EBq) of radioactivity,[3] including 3.6 EBq of Caesium-137 and 0.74 EBq of Strontium-90.[1] For comparison, the Chernobyl disaster released from 5 to 12 EBq of radioactivity, but this radiation is not concentrated in one location.

The radiation level in the region near where radioactive effluent is discharged into the lake was 600 röntgens per hour in 1990, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defence Council, [4][5] more than sufficient to give a lethal dose to a human within an hour.

"If Lake Karachay's radioactive load leaks into the Arctic Ocean, one of the planet's last great wildernesses, it could travel halfway across the globe."

Karachay - The Deadly Lake That Kills Within 5 Minutes - Popular Science and Technology Blog by Jos Kirps

Gah, why do people still use Röntgens??? Converted this equals 5.21 Grays / hour. Sh-t, 6 Gy has a 50% mortality rate with top notch medical care, 95% without medical care, while 8 Gy is 100% fatal, no matter what. Even 2 Gy can cause serious problems. You couldn't even sit on the beach for five minutes without being in serious danger. Even insects couldn't call that lake home.

Man, the Russians are crazy. As I recall, they used to dump their spent fuel rods in the river delta of one of the Siberian rivers (maybe the Lena?). Literally, they'd just haul them out a couple of miles out and dump them. They also just left old reactors sitting around on the Kola Peninsula.

I bet some microscopic extremophiles have already evolved to live happily in that lake! Too bad macroscopic beasties (like us), can't do the same so quickly.

Inside the Chernobyl reactor sarcophagus, a type of fungus has already "arisen" that uses melanin to capture energy from gamma rays for nourishment :eek: (the same way photosynthetic creatures do with the chlorophyls and visual spectrum light). Chernobyl was what, 25 years ago, and these beasties are already thriving? It's a pretty good indication that worlds we once thought must be sterile due to their proximity to serious radiation sources (neutron stars, etc.) may not only harbor live but may be home to life that is gamma powered.

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Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Starting in the 1960s, the lake began to dry out; its area dropped from 0.5 km2 in 1951[1] to 0.15 km² by the end of 1993.[6] In 1968, following a drought in the region, the wind carried radioactive dust away from the dried area of the lake, irradiating half a million people with 185 petabecquerels (5 MCi) of radiation.

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That's great. Now the thing is able to reach out and irradiate people from a far. Sure, we can dump the waste in the lake, what could possibly go wrong... :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Telionis

Man, the Russians are crazy.

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Russian government, i think words are not enough to describe

its very sad what is still going on there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z21On24m4Lc

I would hope that its well labeled that you will be dead if you go in there.