drktrts avatar

drktrts

@drktrts@kbin.social

Why do we associate nuclear radiation with a green glow?

So I just saw the YouTube video someone posted that showed nuclear reactors starting up, and the first thing I noticed was that they all glowed a very bright, pretty blue. I'm probably an idiot, but I was honestly expecting green, because of many years of dramatized depictions in popular media....

panoptic,

I’m almost certain this is it.

Most people’s experience in the early days with “glowing radioactive stuff” would have been radium paint, which glows green.

Normal people wouldn’t have seen Cherenkov radiation (blue glow)

Edit: just to make it clear, stuff painted with radium paint was not uncommon decades ago
Source: I’m gettin kinda old

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