On the outskirts of Vilcha, my new generation hand-held Geiger counter "inspector" reads 109 mR/hr. The town is located some 45 km from the reactor and in a direction where the first radioactive clouds drifted. My friend "inspector" measures all types of radiation known to man. Now, it is time to learn a couple of simple things about radiation types.

Radiation that goes through us is called gamma radiation. It is cumulative, it adds up, so we can calculate what damage it does to our bodies and how it effects our health. Gamma rays are almost identical to X-rays. X-rays are human made, while gamma rays occur in nature. It is also called cosmic radiation. Everyone who flies in an aircraft at high altitudes is exposed to 25 mR/hr of cosmic radiation. Gamma is a type of radiation that can cause immediate problems. Gamma is a wave. It is sort of like an invisible bullet that can kill in hours. Alpha and beta on the other hand are particles and work as a time-bomb. With breathing of radioactive dust, they get inside of a human body, lodge there and in a few years explode with the cancer cells. Alpha particles are the heaviest of the three, betas are extremely light and gammas have no mass at all. Alpha radiation generally can not travel more than 4 - 12cm (1 - 3 inches) before they are stopped, so we can play billiards with balls of pure plutonium. The dead cells on our skin will stop beta radiation, so even juggling with plutonium balls will be safe, just don't swallow them by mistake.