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Originally Posted by Schone23666
So, I was watching snippets of "Cooking in the Danger Zone" that was shown on the BBC, specifically the episode where the host went to the infamous Zone of Exclusion in the Ukraine, the site of the Chernobyl disaster. They were talking about the various levels of radiation that still existed in areas, with some of the higher level areas still in places like the Red Forest. They also commented about how nature, in particular wildlife and native vegetation had reclaimed much of the area.
My question would be, let's assume in a T2k or similar setting that you're traveling/wandering near areas that were hit at some point in the war by tactical nukes. It's been several years since the nukes fell, and wildlife has returned to the area. However, you now have residual radiation in areas, and the animals are likely being exposed to it as they're eating vegetation that has been growing in the area and have absorbed the radiated particles.
We'll assume you've got geiger counters, or at least have a general idea of areas to avoid that were exposed to lethal doses of fallout. However, animals tend to wander unlike vegetation, so how do you protect yourself knowing that deer, wild boar, etc. that you shot or trapped may potentially be contaminated?
Also, refugees will likely be more desperate and will eat whatever food they can scrounge, including food grown in areas that may still have hazardous levels of radiation in the soil.
Also, it's not just radiation to worry about. Lingering residue from chemical or bio weapons may have contaminated certain water supplies or soil as well, again affecting produce and anything eating it. Granted most of it will disperse and break down over time when exposed to weather (theoretically anyway), but there may still be nasty side-effects.
So...any thoughts?
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Great topic. Indeed weather breaks down radiation. Also, chemical weapons do not last very long exposed to weather. Most CBRN experts will tell you that bleach kicks the snot out of most biological weapons because they are based on bacteria and dish detergent (yes, dawn) kills chemical agents because they are made of oils and dawn takes grease, out of your way.... on a more serious note, going all the way down to battalion level, units have built in decontamination units and cold war soldiers trained heavily in NBC. I'd think that by 2000, there wouldn't be much left for effects from B and C.
I actually would not think there would be much left for wildlife. As you already pointed out, they tend to wander, and most would die. Also, as you have pointed out, refugees and hunters would kill everything in sight. I would not reccomend eating meat from animals that were even grazing on radiated plants.
Radiation does not kill plants unless they are in seed form. However, plants do pass the radiation into their leaves and fruit. Two exceptions to this are corn and sunflowers. Corn has some funky side parts to how it works, but sunflowers actually eat up radiation. Once the radiation is cleaned up by weather, time, or moved, then plants growing in clean soil are safe to eat.
In the past, I was a CBRNE recon platoon leader, but I was not school trained. If you are looking at modern day survival, I'd do more research. Don't take what I say as complete 100% accurate, its just my basic knowldege