Radiation protective suits, commonly called radiation suits, are protective gear made from multiple layers of material to protect the human body from radiation—especially alpha, beta, and gamma rays.
In short, they are clothing that blocks contact with radioactive material and prevents radiation from penetrating into the human body.
Generally speaking, among types of radiation, alpha particles are very large particles, so they disappear after traveling only a few centimeters through the air. Thick cloth or rubber materials are enough to block them.
Beta particles, however, are smaller and faster, making them trickier to block than alpha particles. Only by making a special radiation suit using plastic, rubber, or thin metals such as aluminum can beta particles be blocked.
Gamma rays, however, are powerful electromagnetic waves that easily penetrate matter, so they are difficult to block with a radiation suit alone. To block gamma rays, a composite shielding system made of high-density materials such as lead, concrete, or thick metal plates is needed.
Because real-world radiation suits had such clear limits, Suho first devoted himself to producing a dedicated radiation suit in order to keep his promise to each nation.
On Earth, there was no material that was thin and low-volume while still able to block radiation effectively, but looking at the universe as a whole, the story was different.
An incredible variety of things existed.
First, kryptonium fiber.
This fiber could absorb energy when gamma rays entered it, converting or storing it in a harmless form.
And quantum shielding film.
This film formed a barrier that operated on a quantum level, scattering gamma rays and dispersing their energy by changing the frequency of light.
This film was applied to the innermost layer of the radiation suit, serving as the final line of defense if any gamma rays managed to pierce the outer layers.
Lastly, hypersilica gel.
A special gel-like substance based on high-density silica gel, capable of blocking even neutron radiation. This material was soft and flexible, making it comfortable to wear as well.
Suho used these three materials, layering them one over another, and created a radiation suit with a composite defensive structure.
A radiation suit that could block alpha and beta particles, of course, but also gamma rays and neutron radiation from every direction.
It was a radiation suit with a crude appearance, but in truth, it was light in weight and comfortable inside.
In fact, even without wearing equipment like this, Suho’s body itself was no different from a line of defense.
After all, radiation could never kill an indestructible, infinitely regenerating body—an immortal body.
Still, there was nothing good about being exposed. Radiation could affect the people around him too.
This special suit was shaped like a spacesuit that completely covered him from head to toe, so to see ahead, he had to use cameras attached all around the radiation suit. The high-resolution cameras filmed the outside from multiple angles and clearly displayed the images on the visor screen inside the suit.
He had not made it with the particular intention of creating an item, but seeing that the radiation suit had been appraised as SS-rank, he could not help but let out a faint laugh.
“Good grief... A radiation suit is a radiation suit, so what does it matter if it’s SS-rank? These damned high-grade items only pop up when they’re useless...”
Grumbling, Suho tried on the radiation suit and left the house to test it.
* * *
Nuclear waste is broadly divided into three categories.
Among them, 90% is low-level radioactive waste. Tools used in nuclear facilities and most items contaminated with low levels of radiation fall under this category.
And 7% is intermediate-level radioactive waste—things that have accumulated dangerous levels of radioactivity over a long period near the reactor core.
These are properly processed and safely buried underground, or melted down and mixed with glass and concrete before being stored underground.
This 97% is similar to treating hazardous waste from other industries, but the real problem is the remaining 3%.
This 3% of high-level radioactive waste is uranium fuel left over after nuclear fission, highly enriched fuel removed from the core after use.
What had originally been uranium had now become a substance made up of various dangerous, highly radioactive elements. On top of that, it was tremendously hot as well, making it far from easy to handle.
The process of packaging it in special containers capable of shielding radiation, transporting it in reinforced dedicated vehicles to a specially selected and constructed radioactive waste disposal facility,
and beyond that, constructing a nuclear waste disposal site hundreds of meters underground and permanently burying it there.
Every single step was costly, dangerous, and difficult.
Even if the burial succeeded, it did not end there. Radioactive waste weakens over thousands of years, so disposal facilities must be managed and monitored over the long term, with various technologies and equipment applied to prevent potential leaks.
Most countries still had no fundamental alternative for high-level nuclear waste and were simply continuing to pile it up in temporary storage facilities.
As of 2039, more than 500 active reactors around the world produce over 12,500 tons of nuclear waste every year.
And from 1954 until now, more than 500,000 tons of dangerous nuclear waste had accumulated in temporary storage facilities across the world.
Nuclear power had been convenient to use, but nuclear waste remained nothing more than a headache left to future generations without any proper alternative.
Given these circumstances, Suho’s statement that he would isolate nuclear waste in another dimension and permanently resolve the problem was extremely welcome.
Countries competed with one another to lobby for nuclear waste treatment services.
Because Suho had promised to carry out “nuclear waste treatment at a special discounted price” for countries that had decided to make a full transition to ether power generation, he agreed to resolve this work for only 20% of the existing cost.
In truth, it had merits that could not simply be calculated in money.
The nuclear waste Suho treated did not need to be transported anywhere or buried in the ground, so it carried no additional risk whatsoever.
* * *
Needless to say, the number one beneficiary was the Republic of Korea.
Scientists and related technicians from all over the world flocked to Korea to witness the unprecedented nuclear waste treatment process known as “other-dimensional isolation.”
Korean nuclear power experts and power plant officials took their time explaining precautions and the target materials to be isolated to Suho through specially prepared video materials.
Nuclear fuel used in a reactor is removed from the reactor in the form of fuel rods.
Because these fuel rods are extremely hot and highly radioactive, they are moved to a “spent fuel pool” filled with water near the reactor.
While submerged in the water, the water cools the fuel rods to prevent overheating, and at the same time, it absorbs radiation and blocks it from spreading outside.
Fuel rods are stored in this way in the pool for years. As time passes and the radiation and heat emitted by the fuel rods decrease, they are then moved to an interim storage facility for additional processing or subjected to work for permanent disposal.
In other words, this was the starting point for handling the most dangerous nuclear waste.
From the beginning, it was not work a person could enter and perform, but a task carried out with precision using specially designed remote-control systems, cranes, robots, and special equipment.
Tired of the long, drawn-out explanation, Suho clearly confirmed exactly what he needed to put away and donned the dedicated radiation suit he had made himself.
“Okay, I understand. You’re saying I just have to put all of that, that, and those things over there away, right?”
“... That is true, but the fuel rods still undergoing the cooling process right now are extremely dangerous and difficult to approach. We brought you here merely to explain, and now there are materials that have been cooled here for years and moved to an interim storage facility. If you go there and process those...”
“That’s what I came here to help you with. Why bother cooling them for years? I’m telling you, I can get rid of them right away. Let’s get rid of these first, then go to that interim storage facility or whatever.”
“Hah... It seems you don’t understand...”
The one who did not understand was not Suho, but them.
Suho tapped his dedicated radiation suit with his finger.
“This is what you won’t understand. Just how incredible this thing is. It’s an otherworldly radiation suit. Now, please tell me where I need to go in.”
Suho passed through the shielded zone leading to the “spent fuel pool” and strode inside.
The officials were in an uproar, aghast at the sight of Suho walking in so boldly.
The officials went pale and tried to take various measures for Suho’s safety, but he waved his hand and skipped them all.
“It’s fine. I’m not joking—this radiation suit is enough.”
And what happened beside the reactor in a matter of mere seconds could only be described as a miracle.
“Uhhhhhh...!”
“Th-this, this can’t be...”
“Wh-where on earth...”
They thought he was entering a position where the fuel rods could be seen, and then the spent fuel rods undergoing cooling vanished cleanly without a trace in an instant.
At that astonishing sight, not only domestic officials but also overseas participants gaped with their mouths hanging open.
Thinking it would be convenient to mark a dimensional gate at this point, Suho entered the subspace warehouse there for a moment.
“Ravi.”
“Yes.”
“I put in a whole bunch of stuff. Did you see it come in?”
“I have not checked yet. I merely set the coordinates far away and moved it aside.”
“Oh, good job. That stuff is incredibly dangerous. Oh, right, Ravi. Are the Cheonyangwon goods I’ve materialized so far very far from Dream Village, the place we’ve set up as a residence?”
“Hmm... They are quite far apart, but... considering the total area of the subspace warehouse, not that far.”
“Oh, really? How far?”
“About the distance from Earth to the Moon.”
“That’s far... No, why did you put them that far away?”
“Because I do not know how much you will request. Since the items you requested could be truly massive in quantity, I simply placed them far away for now.”
“Whoa... Fine, well, as long as you find them properly when I need them, you can handle that yourself. There are things I’m putting in now called nuclear waste, including the things I just put in. I’ll be putting stuff like this in often from now on, so send these as far away as possible.”
“Understood. I will place them about the distance from Earth to Uranus.”
“...... Do as you see fit.”
After entering and leaving the subspace warehouse in an extremely brief, ten-million-to-one sliver of time, Suho removed the radioactive contamination in the dedicated decontamination room within the shielded area, washed off contaminants in the decontamination shower facility, and came outside. People swarmed toward him like a cloud.
“Wh-where did the fuel rods go? Did you send them into space?”
“Are they inside something like an inventory? We heard you had an inventory as an Item Collector...”
“The radiation suit certainly seemed special... May I ask what materials were layered together...?”
They were not reporters, yet questions poured in.
Suho wondered briefly how he should talk his way around this, then said,
“I have to treat hundreds of thousands of tons of high-level nuclear waste around the world. My inventory is too small.”
“Then... wh-where...”
Where had the vanished “spent nuclear fuel” gone? This was truly an important question, so everyone was on edge.
“The Tower. The Tower. I can place things in the dimension of a Tower that disappeared after its raid was completed. There are no people, no monsters, nothing there, so I can dump as much as I want. Besides, it’s unquestionably another dimension with no point of contact with Earth, so there’s no need to worry about additional contamination.”
“Huh... A Tower whose raid was completed...”
Everyone clicked their tongues at knowledge they could not begin to understand.
Afterward, Suho moved swiftly through nuclear power plants and took care of everything—not only the spent nuclear fuel undergoing cooling, but also what had been additionally processed and piled up in interim storage facilities, and even intermediate-level radioactive waste.
The officials, who kept following Suho around and watching that simple yet tremendous work process, muttered blankly.
“At this rate... radioactive waste treatment engineers and radiation safety managers are all going to starve to death...”
Is that so? What a shame.
Once everything is fully converted to ether power generation anyway, nuclear power will be shut down completely.
This is just waste treatment to wrap things up at the end.
Our Earth is precious, after all.
The times have changed in many ways.
If innovative technology has arrived, then people have to change to match it.
You can’t insist on using old-fashioned outhouses forever just because you’re worried the night-soil collectors might lose their jobs, can you?
* * *
Supporting Jiho and his father in decorating the island was more fun than expected.
Because the two of them did not have the patience to wait for proper construction, they decided to expand most of the necessary facilities with modular construction.
And when it came to modular, who else but Suho?
He had surrounded an entire village in his subspace warehouse with modular houses.
Suho, who had considerable knowledge in this area, excitedly took the lead.
The modules for each building were fabricated in advance at the factory, flown in by helicopter, then installed and combined on the pre-prepared foundation, and the house was completed in no time.
Stairs were also quickly installed here and there using precast concrete prefabricated stairways, with concrete block stair components manufactured in advance at the factory and connected and assembled on-site.
They also quickly built a simple dock by connecting several modules with pontoons, floating platforms that could be set on the water.
While installing simple facilities on the island, Suho carefully examined the island’s structure.
Areas that served as breakwaters, exposed places, protected places, places where beaches formed, areas with deep water, and so on...
He intended to take all those elements into account and use them when creating an artificial island.
Looking at the island’s facilities, which had been put together in less than a week, his father fell into happy imaginings.
“Suho, Jiho. I think I’ll live here from now on. In this vast sea, keeping company with wild nature untouched by human hands...”
“Really? If you want to enjoy nature untouched by human hands... Oops, I’ll hurry up and remove the modular house.”
“Wh-what? No, why would you remove that?!”
“You said you wanted pristine nature as your companion...”
“Hah, you little... It’s just a figure of speech. A figure of speech... Anyway, I’m going to live here with a bit more freedom from your mother’s nagging.”
At those words, Suho and Jiho looked at each other at the same time.
Then, half worried and half amused, Jiho said,
“If you do that, I think Mom might murder you...”
“......”
Mothers are the strongest everywhere.