7 Terrifying Photos Of Nuclear Fuel Rod Pools

When a nuclear fuel rod has been exhausted, it's sent to chill out in a pool for a few years. It's still horrifically radioactive, and it needs to cool down before we stuff it into a giant concrete cask to be stored for the rest of conceivable existence.

This is what nightmares are made of:

Because radiation loses half of its intensity every 7 centimetres underwater, it actually only takes about 8 feet of pool to keep the radiation under wraps. The extra water at the top acts as a safety buffer. However, within an arms-length of the bottom, the radiation is lethal.

Imagine hearing a Geiger counter's crackly protests as you slowly descend, the water getting hotter and hotter. A burning sensation starting on your skin as the beta-particles chew through your DNA with carcinogenic fury. Nausea and migraines pummeling your body as you alight on the bottom of the pool, your ability to produce viable children immediately compromised.

Don't worry, it wouldn't last long.

Keep treading water, you guys.

Fecal Transplants: Please Give a Sh*t

I consider myself an Adonis-/Chris Traeger-type because I don't need to go end up going to the doctor very often. I buff my immune system by exercising, meditating and occasionally eating things off of the floor.

However, many people DO go to the doctor, and 4/5 of Canadians will end up on antibiotics at some point in 2013. Doctors prescribe antibiotics with the knowledge that your own personal cohort of germy hangers-on outnumbers the 'bad' bacteria that are making you ill.

Due to their strength, antibiotics may kill off your good bacteria as well. When this happens, there's nothing stopping seriously bad bacteria from flooding your guts and setting up shop (for a refresher on guts, click no further; also read bacteria vs. viruses). Ironically, you're highly likely to contract these horrible organisms from the sparkling bastion of cleanliness that is your local hospital.

Once established, bugs like C. difficile (Clostridium difficile) thwart the return of your good bacteria. This lets the baddies launch a bowel takeover that can punch holes in your intestines and bloat up your butt-tube into what's called a 'toxic megacolon'. Up to 15,000 patients die every year from hospital-contracted C. difficile.

Who ya gonna call

If you get C. difficile, you're going to reach over with your immuno-compromised hand to pick up the phone and personally thank Dr. Ben Eiseman, former VP of the American College of Surgeons and founder of the fecal transplant.

 In 1958, Eiseman took a diluted sample of donor poo and pumped it into a colitis patient. Nowadays, they use a colonoscope (don't ask) or a nasoduodenal tube (REALLY don't ask). The good bacteria re-colonize the comprimised digestive tract, giving C. difficle the boot and allowing food to be digested once again. A study reported fecal bacteriotherapy works 94% of the time, and it's much cheaper than antibiotics.

What did we learn

Your body is a giant petri dish that hosts a raucous and volatile bacterial feeding frenzy. I'm going to go shower 17 times.