Radioactive

Speaking of radioactive stuff there is this.

A couple of decades ago a free radon detection kit came into my possession.  Some of my readers may know that radon is an odorless, colorless, naturally-occurring radioactive gas that is produced as a consequence of the decay of uranium and radium in soil, bedrock and groundwater.  It enters buildings primarily through foundations, footings, construction supports and plumbing.  

And like all things radioactive, radon is hazardous.  Prolonged exposure to the stuff is a major contributor to lung cancer.

Pondering the detection kit I figured I would use it on our newly-constructed house as opposed to our almost one hundred year old house.  The foundation of the new house was close to bedrock along with a high water table and the logic was that it was tightly-constructed and therefore more likely to trap or retain dangerous gases. I didn't give much thought to the fact that a certified Energy Star dwelling was also equipped with a whole-house fresh air exchange system.  I wasn't thinking.  I digress.   

As for the old house, it was constructed upon a shallow hand-dug basement, poorly insulated, generally leaky and drafty and to my mind if it was capable of allowing mice to come and go freely it was unlikely to retain any gas for very long; radioactive or not.  I wasn't going to test it for radon even if it was free.  

So I tested the new house.

Wouldn't you know it, the dwelling tested positive for radon.  A more sophisticated follow-up test conducted by a HVAC contractor revealed sufficient radon contamination to warrant remediation. 

So we had the contractor install a sub-slab depressurization system which uses a pipe and fan to draw radon from beneath the basement, via the sump-pump crock, and vent it safely outside.  

After installation a follow-up test resulted in no detectable radon.  And the basement smelled remarkably fresh from there-on.

Anyway, while outside and playing with the dog recently I happened to look up for some reason and absolutely had to take a picture of the stack from which our radioactive radon is vented.

To be clear this has happened before, yet is exceedingly rare and unusual; likely the result of a week of negative Fahrenheit temperatures.

Nevertheless, a passing thought occurred to me that if a person mixed a cocktail and used the ice from the stack would the libation have radioactive properties?  Glow in the dark perhaps?  In my lifetime all things nuclear enjoyed some popular culture notoriety after all....