Hey what’s going on guys, I’m Mike, and this is a Nuka-Cola.
In Fallout, Nuka-Cola is a unique soft drink that gained widespread popularity sometime
before the Great War.
It comes in a few flavors like Original Nuka-Cola, Nuka-cherry, and Quantum.
Nuka-Cola Quantum was advertised as having twice the calories, carbohydrates, and caffeine
of the original with an extra kick being a mild radioactive Strontium-90 isotope.
It sounds… to die for...
So, what if Nuka-Cola Quantum was real?
To better understand what’s in Nuka-Cola Quantum, let’s first take a look at the
base ingredients found in the Original Nuka-Cola.
Taking a look at the label, it’s pretty clear that the original Nuka-Cola has the
same basic nutritional makeup of something like Coke or Pepsi.
This trend continues down into the basic ingredients as well.
So so far, the base nutrition and flavor would be similar to that of cola drinks found in
the real world.
But to go from Original Nuka-Cola to Quantum, it reportedly contains a mildly radioactive
strontium solution.
Strontium-90 is a synthetically derived radioactive element present in radioactive fallout.
Nuclear reactors do glow and the reason is pretty cool.
The speed of light through water is only about 75% that of light through air.
Charged particles, most commonly electrons, from the reactor actually travel faster than
light in water.
This alters the electromagnetic field causing excitation in electrons in the water which
emit a photon as they release this energy to maintain equilibrium.
These photons are of higher frequencies resulting in shorter wavelengths and blue light.
Unfortunately, there’s no indication Strontium-90 cause similar results.
Not only that, non-radioactive Strontium is very poisonous, let alone the radioactive
isotope Strontium-90.
This metal is incredibly toxic, as it displaces calcium and primarily targets bone health.
This only intensifies as the strontium you’re replacing the calcium with is also radioactive.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), food is tested for radiation levels,
especially if it originates from a region with a recent radioactive incident.
However, the FDA has approved food irradiation techniques to kill bacteria in foods with
the use of GAMMA and X-Rays.
What if Nuka-Cola Quantum didn’t include radioactive isotopes at all?
What if it was a marketing tool during the nuclear revolution?
They may have used the FDA approved irradiation techniques to ensure sterilization, but they
probably didn’t intentionally pollute the beverage.
It’s a better guess to say the soft blue glow comes from an alternate method than to
assume humans could consume a strontium-90 laced soft drink.
Unfortunately, the only Nuka-Cola Quantum that can be tested in Fallout 4 is about 200
years old.
After that amount of time, less than 1% of the original Strontium 90 would be left due
to its 28 year half life.
Still, with that said, Nuka-Cola and Nuka-Cola Quantum both deliver the same amount of radiation
to the consumer, 5 RADS.
Therefore, there is no indication that Quantum ever contained Strontium-90.
Assuming the body absorbed the energy evenly, one bottle of Nuka-Cola is enough to put you
over your yearly recommended dosage, drastically increasing your chance of cancer and infection.
Without care and within rapid succession, you’d only need to consume between 40 or
50 bottles to effectively destroy your DNA at the atomic level.
Basically, you’re going to die.
For more on radiation, check out this video, there’s a lot of good info on the effects
of radioactive fallout.
If it isn’t Strontium-90 that makes Quantum glow, then what else could it be?
A big indicator is the color.
Most bioluminescent plants and animals glow blue light, just like Nuka-Cola Quantum.
Though most bioluminescent organisms are at least minimally toxic to humans, not all are.
In Seattle, sea food lovers began to report that their imitation crab and shrimp were
glowing in the refrigerator and it was attributed to one of many bioluminescent sea bound bacteria.
When questioned the FDA reported that no scientific studies on the consumption of bioluminescent
bacteria was done in almost two decades.
Nobody reportedly got ill from eating the glowing sea food, but some reported nausea
that may have been derived from the glowing bacteria.
There’s a pretty good rule of thumb out there, if your food is glowing, you shouldn’t
eat it.
Put simply, there are less edible glowing objects than there are edible ones.
Whether it be living bacteria, poisonous mushrooms, or toxic chemicals there are better ways to
get a glowing beverage.
Drink tonic water under a blacklight or buy a glow in the dark cup.
Or better yet, crack open a glow stick and pour it into your Sprite.
According to the American Association of Poison Control, glow sticks are only mildly toxic
and if a little gets in your mouth it will just make your tongue glow and cause some
irritation.
Just don’t swallow any of the plastic or glass.
A much better solution than to replace the calcium in your bones with an element that
will supply your body with a constant stream of radiation right?