Radiation: eight controversial dogmas about ionizing radiation

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Radiation, or rather ionizing radiation, is invisible and dangerous. Accidents associated with this - at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Three Mile Island or Fukushima - have repeatedly led to the death of people, and in history there have been completely egregious cases like the ingestion of radium salts and large-scale dumping of nuclear waste into the sea. However, along with real dangers, there are imaginary ones, like the old office legend about radiation from a monitor or that a cactus helps from radiation. "Attic" figured out which of them is true and which is not.

1. The accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima was worse than the accident at Chernobyl

Not true from any point of view

The total activity of emissions was less, and much less long-lived isotopes got into the environment, which can pollute the area for many decades. The main contribution was made by the short-lived iodine-131, and even that one scattered over the Pacific Ocean and safely disintegrated in a deserted area.

If only two employees died at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, after injuries, then only when extinguishing a fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the acute phase of the disaster, more than thirty firefighters received a lethal dose. Estimates of the number of victims of radionuclide leaks often differ by orders of magnitude, but Chernobyl undoubtedly takes the dubious first place in the top 5 radiation disasters.

See also: Radiation: 30 Years Later. Should you be afraid of "radioactive smoke" from a fire in the Chernobyl area?

It is only true that both the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and Fukushima received the maximum result on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) - seven points. They were classified as global accidents of the maximum level.

2. Iodine and alcohol help with radiation

This advice should be categorized as outright sabotage

Iodine is used only in one case - if there was a release of iodine-131, a short-lived isotope that is produced in nuclear reactors. Then, in order not to let the radioactive isotope into the body, doctors can give preparations of ordinary iodine, after which its dangerous isotope begins to be absorbed more slowly.

As with any emergency recommendation for counteracting various kinds of poison, this one has its negative sides. People with a malfunctioning thyroid gland can be harmed by excess iodine, but when preventing thyroid cancer, this is neglected, guided by the logic "ten poisonings per 1000 people are better than 1 cancer in the same thousand." When there is no iodine-131 in the environment (its half-life is just over a week), problems remain, and any protective effect disappears altogether.

As for alcohol, it is not mentioned at all in the protocols we found for the prevention of radiation injuries. Of course, if you listen to army tales, alcohol works as a cure for everything in general. But sometimes crocodiles fly in them, so we suggest not to interfere with folklore studies with biochemistry and radiobiology.

There are drugs that promote the elimination of radionuclides, but they have so many side effects and limitations that we will not specifically talk about them.

3. All radiation was created by man

Radiation scientists call many different things, among which the same man-made and deadly radiation is not so noticeable. In the most general sense of the word, radiation is any radiation, including harmless (if not looking with an unprotected eye, of course) sunlight - for example, meteorologists use the term "solar radiation" to estimate the amount of heat that the surface of our planet receives.

Also, radiation is often identified with ionizing radiation, that is, rays or particles that are capable of tearing individual electrons from atoms and molecules. It is ionizing radiation that damages molecules in living cells, causes DNA breakdowns and other bad things: this is the same radiation, but it is not always man-made either.

The largest source of radiation (hereinafter in the text it will be synonymous with "ionizing radiation") is again the Sun, a giant thermonuclear reactor of natural origin. Outside of Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, solar radiation includes not only light and heat, but also X-rays, hard ultraviolet light and - most dangerous for those in deep space - protons flying at impressive speeds. In unfavorable conditions, in a year of increased solar activity, falling under the beam of protons ejected by the Sun promises a lethal dose of radiation in a matter of minutes, this roughly corresponds to the background near the destroyed reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Our planet is also radioactive. Rocks, including granite and coal, contain uranium and thorium, and they also emit a radioactive gas called radon. Living in poorly ventilated areas near ground level on rock because of radon is fraught with an increased risk of lung cancer; part of the harm from smoking is associated with the content of polonium-210 in the smoke, an extremely active and therefore dangerous isotope. Why is there tobacco - an ordinary banana will treat you with about 15 becquerels of potassium-40: the eaten fruit will give so many atoms of radioactive potassium that every second our body will face 15 reactions of radioactive decay! Which, however, are lost against the background of other natural sources: the total dose of radiation from a banana eaten is one hundred times less than that received per day from all other natural sources.

Of course, life in this radioactive world has learned to cope with such troubles, and the same DNA has powerful mechanisms for self-repair. Uranium in granite, radon in the air, potassium and radiocarbon in food, cosmic rays are all part of the natural background.

4. Microwave oven and cell phone can be a source of radiation

As we have already said, the broad interpretation of the term "radiation" allows this. But ionizing radiation and what is denoted by the well-known symbol in the form of a trefoil have nothing to do with microwaves. The energy of their quanta is not enough to detach electrons, but it is quite enough to heat everything that contains dipole (having two opposite electric charges inside) molecules. The microwave is great for heating water, fat, but not porcelain or plastic (but the food inside can heat it up).

Since there are many dipole molecules in our body, microwave radiation can heat it up too. This, frankly, is fraught with unpleasant consequences, although doctors know how to use such electromagnetic waves for good. Physicians and biologists argue about how microwave radiation in small doses can affect the human body, but so far the results are rather encouraging: a comparison of a number of different large-scale studies indicates that there is no connection between telephones and malignant tumors.

Please do not stick your head directly into the oven or radar antenna when it is on. A homemade microwave gun made from a microwave oven (popular video on the net; no, there will be no links) is already dangerous and it would be better not to play with it.

5. Animals feel radiation

Ionizing radiation can - with sufficient power - break down oxygen molecules in the air. As a result, a specific smell of ozone appears. Some animals with a very sensitive sense of smell can pick up this smell. However, this is not a selective identification of a radiation threat, but simply a reaction to a strange and therefore potentially dangerous stimulus.

By the way, a little more about animals: there is a very old belief that has gone from the days of bulky cathode ray tubes and monitors, on the upper surface of which a cat could easily fit. It was he who got the ionizing radiation: it appeared when the electron beam was decelerated and exited mainly from behind, and not through the screen (which was rather thick). However, if you are not a cat and you did not have the habit of basking in the monitor, then the X-rays from the computer display could be neglected.

6. Items found in the dump may be radioactive

To avoid this, you just need not to drag objects of unknown purpose into the house and not to disassemble the equally incomprehensible scrap metal. After all, what can be found in the basement of a hospital that is so necessary for a household?

And if you consider yourself an experienced explorer of abandoned spaces, you probably heard that a decent stalker leaves behind an object in the same form in which he found it. Without fuse zalazov, destruction and collection of swag.;)

7. A satellite entering the atmosphere with a source of radioisotopes on board is fraught with global catastrophe

This myth is justified by the fact that the total activity of radionuclides on board, say, the Soviet Buk reconnaissance satellite is theoretically enough to lethally irradiate a large number of people. But, based on an equally dubious logic, a truck of apples turned over into a ditch poses a threat to a small town - due to cyanide in the seeds.

Satellites with radioactive materials on board have already entered the Earth's atmosphere, and no dire consequences have occurred after that. Firstly, some of the radionuclides fell in a compact block, and secondly, everything that was scattered in the atmosphere was distributed over a large area.

Of course, it would be better not to drop such satellites to Earth, we can do just fine without plutonium in the stratosphere, but space reactors do not pull the Doomsday machine either.

8. Cactus at the monitor saves from radiation

Even if we assume that the screen does emit ionizing radiation, how can a cactus, which does not even cover the entire display, help? Do you suck in X-rays like a vacuum cleaner?

The rationale in this ancient clerical myth is that any plant slightly improves the indoor climate and is simply pleasing to the eye. And keeping it next to you is more pleasant than on the closet.

In addition to imaginary - or not very, but certainly dubious facts - "Attic" picked up 10 statements about radiation, which are not subject to doubt. Here they are:

1. Ionizing radiation is of different types. These are gamma and X-rays (electromagnetic waves), beta particles (electrons and their antiparticles, positrons), alpha particles (nuclei of helium atoms), neutrons and just fragments of nuclei flying at an impressive speed sufficient to ionize matter.

2. Some types of radiation - alpha particles, for example - are trapped by foil or even paper. Others, neutrons, are absorbed by substances rich in hydrogen atoms - water or paraffin. And for protection from gamma rays and X-rays, lead is optimal. Therefore, nuclear reactors are protected by a multilayer shell, which is designed for different types of radiation.

3. The absorbed dose of radiation is measured in sieverts. From a physical point of view, this is the energy absorbed by the irradiated object. In addition to the dose, there is also activity - the number of decays of atomic nuclei per second inside the sample. One decay per second yields one becquerel. X-rays are off-system units of dose measurement, and curies are off-system units of activity. The volume of radionuclide emissions is measured not in kilograms, but in becquerels, in becquerels per kilogram or square meter, the specific activity is measured. For the correct calculation of the dose taken by the human body, rems, the biological equivalents of X-rays, are also used, but we will not go into these details.

4. The energy absorbed during irradiation is small, but it leads to the deterioration of important biomolecules. The energy of thermal radiation from the nearest light bulb can be greater than the energy of ionizing radiation that will cause radiation sickness - just as the energy of a bullet and the energy of a jump on the floor have different effects on our body.

5. Most of the known radionuclides have already been synthesized. The nuclei of their atoms decay too quickly to exist in nature in significant quantities. The exception is some astrophysical objects, extreme processes inside which sometimes lead to the synthesis of various exotics up to technetium and uranium.

6. Half-life - the time during which half of all nuclei of an element decay. After two half-lives, there will be not zero, but 1/4 (half of half) of the nuclei.

7. Most of the ionizing radiation arises from the decay of the nuclei of unstable (radioactive) atoms. The second source is no longer reactions of decay, but fusion of atoms, thermonuclear. They go into the bowels of stars, including the Sun. X-rays are generated when electrons move with acceleration, so unlike anything else, they can be turned on and off by directing a beam of electrons onto a metal plate or by causing the same beam to vibrate in an electromagnetic field.

8. If the radiation is non-ionizing, it can be harmful. As astronomers say, you can look at the Sun through a telescope without a filter only twice, with your right and left eyes. Heat radiation causes burns, and the harmful effects of microwave ovens are known to everyone who has incorrectly calculated the time that food will stay in the microwave.

9. Special devices are used to detect radiation. The most famous, but far from the only one, is a Geiger counter, a metal tube filled with gas. When the gas inside is ionized by radiation, it begins to conduct an electric current. It is registered by an electronic circuit, which then gives readings in an easy-to-read form. Moreover, not every such device can be called a dosimeter. For example, a device for measuring not the absorbed dose, but activity or radiation power is called a radiometer.