so the radioactive shrimp comes from the cesium-137 contaminated Indonesian shipping containers... in what way is this NOT a William Gibson novel
Replies
When reality is exactly like a Gibsonian throwaway world-building detail, it gives me a very specific and disturbing frisson.
aug 30, 2025, 1:31 am • 0 0 • view
When I worked at the NIH, a list of missing items was circulated which included a cesium-137 source. I always wondered where that ended up.
aug 30, 2025, 3:49 am • 2 0 • view
I know there was one case where a pellet in Australia ended up embedded in a road for a while. Not saying same one, but a lot of them are lost to situations where people didn't know what they had. Which is something of a relief?
aug 30, 2025, 10:35 am • 2 0 • view
I always kinda wondered, who would take a cesium source and why? Home radiotherapy?
aug 31, 2025, 1:20 am • 0 0 • view
There are Bad Things people can do with them, but a lot of times they're taken by accident or by people who don't know what it is. I'm sure it's possible there's mad scientist types that would plan to do something with them but 🤷🏻♀️
aug 31, 2025, 9:30 am • 1 0 • view
A loooot of them that have ended up where they're not supposed to be have been from improper recycling of equipment - things with cesium in should NOT be sent off to the scrappers but it happens, then everything processed with it is contaminated. Likely what happened with the shrimp container.
aug 31, 2025, 9:32 am • 1 0 • view
Oouf. That's really yucky. Any equipment containing radioactive parts should be carefully shepharded from manufacture through disposal.
sep 1, 2025, 4:13 am • 0 0 • view
Has there been any explanation as to how the shrimp in question were contaminated with cesium-137? Is the shipping company transporting a lot of radioactive materials in run-of-the-mill shipping containers?
aug 30, 2025, 1:35 am • 2 0 • view
A rad-hunter in a bespoke jacket made from a very particular Japanese denim discovers this?
aug 30, 2025, 5:53 pm • 0 0 • view
Id been hoping they'd decide on an exposure source - id assumed ship or processing plant used some unwisely recycled metals somewhere, didn't consider shipping containers. Was tired of idiots who thought the shrimp were living an irradiated lifestyle. I mean, they are, but not at that level.
aug 30, 2025, 10:33 am • 2 0 • view
I take it that everyone has already seen the "Radioactive shrimps from Walmart" parody song ..?
aug 30, 2025, 2:10 am • 0 0 • view
Perhaps in the fact that the levels detected are like 1/20 of the level they actually look for, which makes them 1/100 the danger level. But they're "foreign" so ohh, watch out. 😾
aug 30, 2025, 1:55 am • 0 0 • view