Radiation question?

Question

I was rewatching the Jericho episodes and I was wondering after a nuclear exchange how would you use the plants in your garden or any thing that was exposed to the radiation?

Answer 1

It depends on what the plants are. Most will absorb radiation, but some do it slower than others. So, you can eat some plants for longer than others. But it depends on how much radiation is falling on the ground/plants. If it is falling on the ground, then the people are getting it, too. I think one premise of Jerico is that they are rather isolated, and wind patterns do not subject them to much fallout.

If your potato makes a geiger counter go wild, I wouldn't eat it...

Ron.

Answer 2

Some radiation harms living things, and some does not. Radio waves are radiation, but they do not affect living things at all. Visible light is radiation, and it is necessary for plant growth. However, when you get to the higher-energy radiation, like gamma rays, it starts becoming harmful.

A high-energy photon (a gamma ray) can strike a molecule with enough energy to blast it to pieces. If that molecule happened to be a DNA molecule, all of a sudden the DNA has an error in it. If it's a particular kind of error, this causes the DNA to start making more erroneous copies of itself, leading to cancer in animals. In plants, it would have a similarly lethal effect.

Essentially, the more high-energy radiation you have (like gamma rays from nuclear fallout), the greater the chances an organism's DNA will be irreparably damaged.

Answer 3

Depending on how close you were to the blast, the largest worry is contamination due to fall out. Plants that you use really soon after the blast will have fall out on their surface which can be removed by washing. As time passes the fallout gets into the ground water and gets absorbed by growing plants making them radioactive. So, if you don't use the fresh plants quickly, they will become radioactive.

If you are close enought to the blast to have direct radiation from the explosion, then surviving plants may become radioactive due to interaction with the energetic neutrons and gamma rays from the explosion.

Answer 4

You may or may not be able to use the plants or their produce depending on the dose to which they were exposed. You may need to start afresh and then too if the soil is not unduly affected.