Level 289

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Radiation: 5/5
Radioactive Exclusion Zone
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== Description ==
Level 289 is a timeless research facility generally shrouded in darkness. There are not many sources of illumination due to radiation damaging the light fixture electronics, though some remain functional. The main source of illumination is instead the high quantities of ionised air and Cherenkov radiationCherenkov Radiation is the result of particles exceeding the speed of light in the medium they travel through, and decay-heat light produced by the contamination and contained isotopes found in Level 289. 
Various aged ceramics and glass materials have been observed to have their colors alter or be restored to their original colors as a result of the overwhelming amounts of radiation present in Level 289.
The majority of Level 289 resembles a laboratory environment intended to experiment with chemical products, namely chemical products that would classify as a part of nuclear chemistry. There are various glove boxes, countertops, showers, and fume hoods to help the average scientist with their handling of such chemical products. Some flasks and containers are damaged and have produced spillage, increasing further contamination present throughout the level. Most of the level's walls are lined with thick layers of lead, fibreglass insulation, and depleted uraniumDepleted uranium can block incoming radiation, but produce its own.Depleted uranium, reducing exposure to radiation sourced from other rooms. Depleted uranium is known to block other sources of radiation at the cost of emitting its own radiation. Many gamma rays still tend to penetrate through the radiation shielding, though not all get through the walls.
Computers and similar devices have been found to utilise various Windows-like operating systems and their branding, but have been found to have differently assigned names, versions, and filesystems. These computers have been found to have internet drivers but have had no history of connecting to any networks, despite clear evidence that they once obtained files from a network. The majority of these computers have been used as forms of telemetry and measurement of lab equipment found in Level 289.
A few wanderers have managed to successfully use a digital spectrometer to analyse the average isotope contaminants found per standard room of Level 289: 
Contained isotopes have been found in elemental form hemispheres, spheres, and sometimes as solutions or pure chemicals in vials and other storage mediums. Such isotopes include rare research-grade and military-grade isotopes such as:
A notable anomaly is that there would most surely be isotopes that are known to be decay products of these listed isotopes, and it is true. But the notable anomaly is how many of the short-lived isotopes remain intact despite the process of rapid decay. It's as if the contaminants self-replenish with another anomaly that gradually removes stray radiation.
===Choice of Name===
Level 289 has been called RadiophobiaThe fear of radiation. for the exact nature it has; it is filled to the brim with extreme amounts of radiation, which, with insufficient measures taken, can cause acute radiation poisoning, which would lead to a painful and agonising fate in most cases. The trillions of ionising particles shredding your DNA down to an atomic level can truly be something to fear, knowing the amount of pain it will cause.
===Safety Precautions===
Always bring a Geiger counter, dosimeter, and protective gear to reduce the amount of radiation you are exposed to and to keep track of your exposure. Tampering with any equipment found in Level 289 is exceptionally dangerous. Playing with the wrong equipment has a chance of triggering super-criticality in various isotope samples found in Level 289, where immense waves of neutron radiation can be fatal in mere seconds.
===Utility of Level 289===
While it is essentially impossible to achieve industrial levels of processing, the various isotopes of Level 289 can be used as a power source for a long-living radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) or an entire fission reactor. For the average wanderer, the elements in Level 289 serve no purpose but as a hazard or poisonous and radioactive weapon.
== Variations ==
Level 289 does not consist solely of a lab environment and can, on occasion, include spent fuel pools, uranium enrichment, reactors, or cyclotrons.
Spent Fuel Pools
Uranium Enrichment
Reactors
Cyclotrons
These pools, unlike the pools of sublimity, are very hazardous, being filled with depleted fuel rods. They are incredibly radioactive, especially if you are in the pools they are contained in. Most of the lighting comes from the Cherenkov radiation emitted by the decaying isotopes found within the depleted fuel rods, originating from reactor fuel rods found in Level 289's fuel rods. These rooms are usually adjacent to reactor rooms and very large in size, with their ends often obscured by fog.
The uranium enrichment rooms are the rarest type of alternate room found in Level 289 out of all others. They are incredibly large chambers consisting of tread plates with extremely large cascades of gas centrifuges.A device utilising centrifugal force to separate isotopes. With the large size of rooms comes high amounts of high-pressure 235UF6 which can pose a significant hazardUranium Hexafluoride is radioactive and corrosive. should a pipe breach.
Level 289's main power source for its functional machinery seems to come from advanced research fission reactors with compact high-pressure steam turbines. Software logs and radiation activity indicate its use of commonly used, highly enriched 235Uranium. Its process of restarting its fuel cycle also happens to be completely independent from the needs of any engineer, as some wanderers report machinery refuelling the reactor when it reached the end of its fuel cycle, transporting them to adjacent spent fuel pools.
Most of these reactors are submerged in either two liquids: water and heavy waterCompound 2H2O, or D2O, utilising an isotope of hydrogen known as Deuterium.. Because of this, most neutron radiation is absorbed by the water, and instead, non-lethal Cherenkov radiation can be observed.
The Cyclotrons of Level 289 have always been ahead of the technological achievements achieved by the ones we have made in the Frontrooms. Various superheavy isotopes previously known and new ones unknown to mankind have been found in various software and driver logs that record the activity of these cyclotrons, reporting discoveries ranging from atomic numbers of 119 (logs have mainly shown various isotopes of Element 126 with a placeholder name of Unbihexium) up to the next noble gas, element 172. Such a power would be incredible, if only it were so easy to integrate the technology with an impossible industrialization of the Backrooms.
== Entities ==
Level 289 seems to be devoid of entities, given that many of the biological ones die of radiation poisoning. Carcasses of biological entities found here happen to be heavily deformed and mutated, some resembling certain entities contaminated by the Nuclear Infection. Certain wanderers have noticed a consistency in the rooms where these carcasses are found; software logs found in the room's machinery mention names and tracers that have been associated with the Nuclear Infection, even going as far as its hypothetical creation by synthetic means (where it is currently known that the Nucleigo is the source of all natural infections). Despite the level's own intentions to synthesise batches of Nuclear Infection, no key signs of the level becoming progressively infected have been spotted except for these occasional entity carcasses.
At one point, a fully complete and elaborate recipe for the synthesis of Nuclear Infection in one of the computer devices was found. However, due to byte corruption caused by constant exposure to radiation and by remote deletion, the recipe was observed to be redacted. The networking system of the devices happens to use a completely different way of storing internet protocol addresses, not resembling IPV4 or IPV6 addresses at all, making it impossible to investigate any further.
== Entrances & Exits ==
===Entrances===
*While in low elevations of Level -6's landscape, certain hills may have a wall with a door in it lined with lead and various solid mediums that resist radiation leading you here.
*Certain doors labelled "Research" in Level 120 and Level 598 have been known to lead one here.
*Many levels wanderers find to be contaminated with Nuclear Infection, especially the first few reported to be plagued by it, have had unusually higher probabilities of leading to Level 289 through various means, including physical entrances.
===Exits===
*Maintenance tunnels have been known to consist of bricks, eventually transitioning and leading to Level 290 or Level 2.
*Anything depicting a periodic table has a pattern where wanderers noclipping in rooms containing these depictions will have a significantly higher chance of sending one to Level 302.
*Certain people have reported exits to Level 28, whose entrances have been generally hidden from the public. No details are able to be provided to validate this exit.
*Noclipping through an oddly colored uranium enrichment centrifuge sends one to Level 427.
Category:Cluster I
Category:Levels
Category:Environmental Hazards
Category:Unconfirmed Levels
Category:Dangerous