What is something that people think is dangerous but in reality is completely harmless?

Datman2020@lemmy.fmhy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 310 points –
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Woah, this one is actually surprising to me. Even though I am in favour of nuclear power, I do have some fear of living in close proximity of such plants, especially seeing how even the clothing used in the facility is mixed into the barrels of radioactive wastes.

Would you rather the clothing get washed at your local cleaners? Or washed on-site and the water drained into the city sewers?

Seems like a sensible precaution

Yeah, you are correct. It is just that it never occurred to me how careful they take their operations to be. That is why I assumed they would even disallow residential buildings to be built close to them.

Not all the clothing anyone wears in a plant. Clothing special for contamination areas. They also do scans at thresholds and anything you carry with you that gets contaminated is confiscated. Nuclear plants genuinely have a level of safety in the us that is pretty hard to comprehend, it's all done out of an abundance of caution more than a genuine need for it. Not quite security theater, just a very high degree of security.

I remember reading about a guy who worked at a nuclear plant that was tripping their radiation detectors on his way into work but not on his way out at the end of his shift. Turned out he had a radon problem in his home that needed to be addressed.

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