Welcome to a wild tour of the planet’s most intriguing radioactive hotspots—places where glowing water, buried waste hills, test‑site ruins, radon‑rich mines, and even a nuclear reactor’s control room beckon the curious traveler. These five awesome radioactive locations will leave you literally glowing with wonder.
5 Awesome Radioactive Highlights
1 Stunning Blue Water
Australia’s Mary Kathleen uranium mine first opened its shafts in the 1950s in the remote north‑western reaches of Queensland. A purpose‑built town sprouted just under four miles away, swelling to about a thousand residents and boasting a school, post office, cinema, bank and the usual trappings of a thriving mining community. The operation shipped uranium to the UK Atomic Energy Authority until 1963, then lay dormant until a revival in 1974 that lasted until the ore ran dry in 1982.
When the mine finally shut down, every building was stripped away, leaving only foundations, a solitary sign where the town square once stood, and a massive pit that soon filled with water. Over time, a cocktail of chemicals leached from the exposed rock, turning the water an eye‑catching, almost surreal shade of blue. The striking hue has turned the abandoned pit into a magnet for Instagrammers, much like the similarly colorful site near Novosibirsk, Russia. Visitors now trek out to snap photos that will make their feeds sparkle with neon‑blue brilliance.
Is a selfie‑stop safe? Dr Gavin Mudd of RMIT notes that radiation levels around the pit sit above normal background, but a quick drive‑by for a few dazzling shots won’t cause any real radiological harm. He does advise keeping visits brief, steering clear of swimming or drinking the water, and remembering that the vivid colour stems from a chemical cocktail that’s certainly not meant for consumption.
2 Hike Up A Sarcophagus Of Nuclear Waste
Rising starkly from the green fields of Weldon Spring, Missouri, sits a barren, gray mound that looks like a giant concrete sarcophagus. Its backstory is a patchwork of wartime and Cold‑War activity: during World War II the site churned out explosives, and later it became a hub for enriching uranium destined for nuclear weapons. By the late 1960s, the area was littered with piles of uranium, radium, TNT, asbestos and other hazardous materials.
The solution? Engineers encased the entire waste load within a massive, man‑made hill officially dubbed the Weldon Spring Site Remedial Action Project Disposal Cell, though locals often call it the “Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail.” Visitors can scramble up a set of stairs to the summit, where the flat surrounding terrain offers surprisingly panoramic views. Night‑time astronomers and daytime birdwatchers both flock to the top, and a modest on‑site museum provides background on the mound’s creation and its environmental safeguards.
While the stark, vegetation‑free surface can feel unsettling—its barren look was deliberately engineered to keep plants at bay—former security guards report no health issues after years of service. One guard, who spent eleven years patrolling the site, said he never suffered any ill effects, underscoring the thoroughness of the containment strategy.
3 Tour A Nuclear Test Site
Between 1956 and 1963 the British government detonated seven nuclear devices at Maralinga, a remote outpost in South Australia. The biggest blast measured a modest 27 kilotons, and early cleanup attempts in the late 1960s involved simply turning over the contaminated topsoil and mixing it with cleaner layers below. Twenty‑two pits were later sealed with concrete, each containing roughly 8.8 pounds (4 kg) of plutonium.
A more comprehensive remediation took place in the 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of radioactive soil were excavated and buried, and the vehicles used during the cleanup were themselves interred in deep pits. The land has since been handed back to the Maralinga Tjarutja people, who have transformed the former test zone into a low‑key tourist destination. Guided bus tours now whisk visitors past the abandoned military village, the old airfield, and markers denoting each detonation site. Scattered across the desert are fused‑sand glass beads, remnants of the blasts, while the buried vehicle pits are capped with a five‑metre blanket of clean soil.
Although one sector remains off‑limits for an estimated 25,000 years, the accessible zones are deemed safe for the public. Tourists are asked not to dig, but those who obey the guidelines typically receive less than one millisievert of radiation—well within ordinary background exposure levels.
4 A Healthy Dose Of Radon?
Radon, a colourless, odourless, radioactive gas, is normally demonised as a carcinogen by the EPA and WHO. Yet in Boulder, Montana, a former uranium mine has been repurposed into the Free Enterprise Radon Health Mine, where enthusiasts seek therapeutic exposure. The mine opened in 1949 and pivoted to radon therapy three years later, inviting visitors to descend 85 feet (26 m) underground to inhale radon‑laden air in a cool 56 °F (13 °C) environment.
Patrons are advised to bundle up against the chill, and heat lamps are on standby for extra comfort. For those with a fear of tight spaces, an above‑ground “inhalatorium” channels radon from a deeper 105‑foot (32 m) shaft into a spacious chamber. While the EPA recommends keeping indoor radon below 4 pCi/L, the mine’s atmosphere averages a hefty 1,700 pCi/L. Typical treatment regimens involve 30 to 60 hours of exposure spread over ten days, a schedule believed to alleviate ailments like arthritis.
Despite the high radon concentration, the facility operates under strict safety protocols, and the therapy’s proponents argue that controlled exposure can yield health benefits—though mainstream science remains cautious, emphasizing that any radon inhalation carries inherent risk.
5 Visit Chernobyl’s Control Room
The HBO miniseries “Chernobyl” sparked a fresh wave of curiosity about the infamous Ukrainian Exclusion Zone, and now tourists can go beyond the ghost‑town streets of Pripyat to step inside the very heart of the disaster: Reactor 4’s control room. This once‑restricted area now welcomes visitors, albeit under strict safety measures. Radiation inside the control room can be up to 40,000 times the normal background level, so guests must don full hazmat suits and industrial boots.
Each visitor is limited to a five‑minute stint inside the room, after which they undergo two separate radiation screenings. The new offering arrived shortly after Ukraine officially declared Chernobyl a tourist attraction in July, formalising a practice that had previously existed only in an unofficial capacity. In 2019, roughly 85,000 people toured the broader zone, with day‑trip packages typically costing around $100. Pricing for the exclusive control‑room experience has yet to be disclosed.
While the experience is undeniably intense, the regulated exposure remains low enough to be considered safe for a brief visit. The combination of historical gravitas and palpable radiation makes stepping into the control room a once‑in‑a‑lifetime adventure for the bravely curious.