Can Nuclear Radiation Give You Superpowers?

Pripyat Amusement Park, Pripyat Ukraine

After Chernobyl's infamous nuclear disaster, the area produced a large number of mutants. Despite clean-up efforts to make the fallout zone somewhat safer to current visitors, much of the exposed land still has an unhealthy amount of radiation. Perhaps one of the most evocative victims of the meltdown is the Pripyat Amusement Park just kilometers away from the plant. It was evacuated before it was officially opened so many of the attractions still remain. Radiation levels around the park do vary. The liquidators washed radiation into the soil after the helicopters carrying radioactive materials used the grounds as a landing strip, but the concrete areas are relatively safe. However, some areas where moss has built up can emit up to 25000 sievert. That is among the highest level of radiation in the whole of Pripyat. If you were to stay in the area long enough, you could perhaps get a mutation or even superpowers.

Pripyat Amusement Park, Pripyat Ukraine

Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard, San Francisco

Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard is an abandoned military base used during WWI, WWII, and during the Cold War. It is located on nearly 700 acres of water and has a history of both irresponsibly disposed toxic waste and radioactive testing. It was built in 1870, and there is a large amount of hazardous waste on site from both the large base and the nearby landfill. The Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory was eventually based there and had materials from the first atomic bomb. It was abandoned in 1994 and is still hazardous today. Clean-up efforts are ongoing, but if you were to act quickly and go exploring there, you may end up with metal skin or a horrifying transformation.

Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, California

Primo Autobody Repair, Flushing, New York

Primo Autobody Repair, Flushing, New York

This is no ordinary autobody repair shop. It is actually located in a 100-year-old building that once housed the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company. It is the most radioactive place in New York City. While it isn't immediately lethal, workers receive up to three times the safe amount of radiation every day. So, if you were to work there long enough, you could definitely get a car-like mutation or superpower. And if you do get superpowers, this place could double as a pretty awesome lair.

Super-Kamiokande, Hida Japan

Rogue cosmic rays can be hard to come by on Earth, but there are many facilities that are trying to capture those particles. Japan's Super-Kamiokande is a massive underground chamber where scientists are attempting to capture and observe neutrinos, also known as "ghost particles." Gamma radiation created the Hulk, but what about ghost particles? You could become able to phase through solid matter and possibly become permanently intangible, living the rest of your days in a non-corporeal existence neither seen or heard by anybody, similarly to Ant-man's Ghost.

Super-Kamiokande, Hida, Japan

The Ability to Phase In and Out of Matter

In one of the more recent Marvel movies, Ant-man and the Wasp, a new anti-hero, Ghost, has the ability to phase in and out of matter. This allows her to walk through walls, disappear and reappear, etc. When phasing in and out of solid matter, nobody would be able to see or hear you either. This superpowers may sound impossible, but is actually more plausible than you'd think. The inspiration for this character most likely came from ghost particles or neutrinos. There are currently many facilities trying to capture cosmic rays and ghost particles, which if they were to hit your cells would perhaps give you this superhuman ability. They wouldn't have to hit all of your cells either for you to get this superpower. If only some of your cells were hit, you'd still have this power. It would probably be very painful. Other than that, there would really be no downside to being able to phase in and out of solid matter.

Super Strength

It is possible that gamma radiation could give you superpowers like superhuman strength. One example of this is the variety of Hulks, including Hulk and She-Hulk. In the movies, Hulk is exposed to a large amount of gamma radiation, which changes the makeup of his cells, making him far stronger. It would take a lot of radiation to do this, as there are around 75 trillion cells in the body and the gamma radiation would have to alter the makeup of every single one in order for you to get a full-body power like the Hulk. But with enough radiation this would be possible. This power may also come with some unpleasant side effects though. In the comic books, Hulk's transformation to the Hulk varies a little. In one case he is exposed to a gamma bomb explosion. This is far less likely to give you superpowers, as it is less controlled and more likely to kill you. There is one more possibility for how you can get superpowers like super strength, but unfortunately, it is the least likely of all. In more recent comic books, Amadeus Cho creates nanites, which would remove the parts of the Hulk that allow him to transform and put them into Amadeus' body.

Spider-man

There are many spider men, women, and even pigs in the Marvel Universe, so why can't you have spider-like abilities too? To gain these abilities, Spider-man is originally bitten by a genetically enhanced radioactive spider. The spider is exposed to a particle beam. When he is first bitten, Peter Parker feels ill because his body and cells are transforming, but after falling unconscious, he is able to save himself using his arachnid abilities. This would most likely involve the spider's DNA now being in Peter Parker's body too because, otherwise, he would most likely only get sick from the radiation.

Enhanced Senses

Daredevil, also known as Matt Murdock, was a regular person like you and me. However, he got superpowers in a freak accident pushing a bystander out of the way of an oncoming vehicle carrying radioactive materials. A container fell off and spilled the liquids into his eyes, blinding him but enhancing his other senses. This superpower is far more likely, as it is not a full-body superpower, making it far more likely.

Energy Blasts

Another possible superpower is energy blasts. This superpower is one that Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers, gets. One of the ways she gets her powers is through an alien device that mutates her DNA using radiation and cosmic rays. This, however, is a power that you are far less likely to get unless you are somewhere with an extremely large amount of radiation. As well, all of your cells would need to be mutated in order to get this power, and it is even more unlikely that you'd get this specific power.

Human Evolution

In Ant-man and the Wasp, Janet Van Dyne returns from the Quantum Realm. Over her years there, it appears she has evolved. In the Quantum Realm, Janet absorbed a huge amount of atomic energy, turning her into some kind of superhuman. She can now suck the energy out of people, grounding their cells and bringing them into a single reality. So the Quantum Realm would have more radiation than that on our world, not enough to kill you, but enough that your cells would evolve over a period of time. This would allow you to have more nuclear radiation, and therefore have superpowers such as being able to control things on a cellular level, balance the atomic reality of objects, and heal people. This power could be obtained on Earth if you were to gradually introduce radiation to all of your cells although it may just give you a mutation, not superpowers.

Things like this happen when radiation messes with the structure of your DNA. Radiation can knock bits of it away or even break one or both strands of its double helix. That isn't really too damaging though, because cells are built to fix the damage. Unfortunately, a problem arises when the cells make mistakes, reach a point of no return, and then commit suicide in a process called apoptosis, causing genetic disorders.

So nuclear radiation definitely won't give you superpowers. It only has these three effects on living things: nothing, tissue damage, or chromosome damage. When it comes to radiation only the third one is really concerning. Nuclear Radiation will cause mutations, but most of those are actually harmless. And chances are nothing will happen to you if you come in contact with nuclear radiation, so you really have nothing to worry about.