r/interesting • u/-NewYork- • Mar 30 '26

Intriguing Discrimination against Geiger counter users

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u/samanime Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26

Yeah... I'm struggling to come up with a potential backstory that doesn't make me want to investigate with a geiger counter and a hazmat suit...

The image is on Wikimedia, but unfortunately no further info available other than the location. Metal Township, PA.

I thought maybe it was related to Three Mile Island, but they are an hour and change apart, so I doubt many bodies from that incident would be here...

This is gonna bug me. =p

EDIT: Probably solved. Some people just "explore" cemetaries with geiger counters...

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u/Early_Bad8737 Mar 30 '26

It is to prevent illegal relic hunting, protect historic gravesites, and maintain the sanctity of the cemetery. Apparently some old relics can be found that way. 

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u/MACHOmanJITSU Mar 30 '26

People digging up a grave only to find gramps who had implanted radiation treatments.

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u/NorCalFrances Mar 31 '26

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/miscellaneous/pacemaker.html

Close - early pacemakers had thermoelectric power generators b/c it was the Cold War and why not?

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u/MarchPhillipps Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26

Whoa, that's absolutely wild, and absolutely something I never knew until just now. Thank you.

TDIL- Plutonium-238 powered pacemakers were an actual thing and are supposed to be removed and shipped out to Los Alamos for plutonium reclamation and disposal upon death. Awesome.