how does tabacco contain radioactive polonium? Where does it come from? Does the plant make it radioactive, does it collect it? Do other plants do this too?
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Tobacco is an excellent indicator plant for the existence of radioactivity in an area. As a rule you will hard pressed to find the plant in fields around nuclear reactors. The operators like to keep the locals as unaware as humanly possible because tobacco changes its color depending on the level of radiation. I live in Germany close to the experimental reactor in Karlsruhe. I remember judgements of court cases initiated by conservative politicians which ordered farmers to plow under the tobacco fields close to the reactor – before Chernobyl – me thinks 1980 or so.
And yes, there are oodles of indicator plants. A botanist is able to figure out soil composition based on the plants which grow at the location . Some plants, for example, absorb precious metals like gold and silver from the soil. There is ongoing research on cost effectiveness on this kind of “mining”.
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