The Effects of Radiation on Life

Nuclear fusion is also the basis of modem nuclear weapons called hydrogen bombs. A modem hydrogen bomb has up to 1000 times the explosive force of the first atomic bombs. These bombs employ the following fusion reaction. 

With linear accelerators or cyclotrons, all sorts of nuclear transmutations can be achieved. In this way, scientists have made nuclides that don t normally exist in nature. For example, uranium-238 can be made to collide with carbon-12 to form an element with atomic number 98  

This element was named californium (Cf) because it was first produced (by a slightly different nuclear reaction) at the University of CaUfomia at Berkeley. Many other nuclides with atomic numbers larger than that of uranium have been synthesized since the 1940s. These synthetic elements—called transuranium elements— have been added to the periodic table. 

Califomium-252 is bombarded with a boron-10 nucleus to produce another nuclide and six neutrons. What nuclide forms  

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Types of Radioactivity Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Decay 615 Radioactivity to Measure the Age of Fossils and Other Artifacts 625 17.10 the Sun 631 The Effects of Radiation on Life 631... 

The effect of radiation on the biochemical processes of fresh fruits and vegetables is of considerable interest from the standpoint of its influence on shelf life. A number of studies on the effect of radiation on respiration have indicated a general stimulation of both oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide evolution during the irradiation period, subsiding to near-normal rates shortly following the cessation of treatment (21, 23, 24, 38). 

The effect of radiation on actinide containing materials and solutions can be altered by careful selection of the isotopes. For uranium, plutonium, americium, and curium, there are a number of different isotopes with varying half-lifes that can be used. In Table 2, the commonly available isotopes of the... 

Almost forty years passed between my first and last visits to Japan. By any measure, those four decades produced remarkable advances in our knowledge of the effects of radiation on children and the consequences of radiation for life on earth. I was fortunate to find myself at the very center of some of the work. 

During her undergraduate studies, Willcock undertook research with Hardy on the oxidation of iodoform, initiated by radiation from radium. Of more significance, on her own she published a paper on the effects of radium on animal life — probably one of the first studies that showed the damaging effects of exposure to radioactive elements. 

Radiation is regarded by many people with special fear. Of course, everyone encounters radiation from many sources throughout life and there is radiation in our own bodies, from outer space and from our surroundings, with which our bodies appear to cope extremely well. The background levels vary considerably from place to place, but the records do not show any correlation between the incidents of radiation-related diseases (cancer and leukaemia) and the level of background radiation. All nuclear plants involve some release of radioactive material, but the effect on the environment corresponds to a very small fraction of the normal background, even near the plant. The effect of radiation depends on its intensity, duration and type and the age, food and living habits of individuals. 

Show the complex iterations between government laws and regulations and the PSA response to not only comply but to protect the process industry. The real impact of the accident at the Three-Mile Island nuclear plant was not radiation, which was within regulations but financial losses to the utility and the acceptance of nuclear electrical f>ower in the United States. The effects of the Bhopal accident were in human life but it also had a profound effect on the chemical industry financially, and its acceptability and growth. Present the mathematics used in PSA in one chapter to be skipped, studied, or relerred to according to the readers needs. 

An allotrope of oxygen, ozone, 03 (8), is formed in the stratosphere by the effect of solar radiation on 02 molecules. Its total abundance in the atmosphere is equivalent to a layer that, at the ordinary conditions of 25°C and 1 bar, would cover the Earth to a thickness of only 3 mm, yet its presence in the stratosphere is vital to the maintenance of life on Earth (see Box 13.3). Ozone can be made in the laboratory by passing an electric discharge through oxygen. It is a blue gas that... 

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