Naturally Occurring Radiation
There are three groupings of naturally occurring radiation, mostly based on where the radiation comes from. First there is the radiation in the soils and rocks, called primordial or terrestrial. Then there is radiation that comes from space, called cosmic or cosmogenic.
Nuclear Power - Radiation Answers
Nevertheless, radiation monitors are placed on the fence line surrounding the site to directly measure any radiation exposure that might occur. Radioactive materials that could cause radiation exposure near nuclear power plants are generally monitored by sampling air, food, and water supplies for radioactivity content. Radioactive emissions may ...
Industrial Uses for Radiation
The radiation sources used for these processes include radiation-producing machines and sealed-source radioactive materials, to name two. In this section, we are going to describe a few of the uses that routinely improve our lives.
Nuclear Medicine - Radiation Answers
Nuclear Medicine. Nuclear medicine differs from general radiology in the following respects: you are not exposed to radiation from a machine outside the body, you are administered (intravenously or by mouth) a substance that is radioactive, you become radioactive for a short time, and with this radioactive substance in your body, we can actually determine if organs in …
Medical Uses for Radiation
A subspecialty in nuclear medicine is nuclear medicine therapy. A common example of nuclear medicine therapy is the use of radioactive iodine to treat thyroid problems, including thyroid cancer. A subspecialty of oncology (the study and treatment of cancer) is radiation oncology.
Sources & Uses of Radiation
Many uses of radiation help to ensure the high quality and safety of our daily lives. Smoke detectors to warn us of fire, x-ray machines to detect weapons or other devices in luggage and cargo, and certain types of imaging to look for diseases are all application of radiation for the benefit of society.
Chernobyl - Radiation Answers
The number of deaths due to acute radiation syndrome (ARS) during the first year following the Chernobyl accident is well documented. According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR 2000), …
Effects of Radiation
The human health effects that have been observed have been when individuals or groups have received larger doses of radiation (more than 500 mSv) from events like those due to military uses of nuclear weapons, accidents, and uses of radiation in medicine for therapy.
Common Radiation Myths
The amount of radiation to which we are exposed (0.00001 to 0.002 mSv per scan) is much lower than what we receive daily from natural background radiation (about 0.01 mSv). “The cow had two heads as a result of radiation releases from the local nuclear power plant.”
Social Aspects of Radiation Safety
Today we are still worrying about radiation as a weapon, but in the form of a dirty bomb or an improvised nuclear device rather than a whole-scale attack. Much of this worry continues to be promoted in the media when depictions of the “mushroom cloud” imply that all radiation is bad. And what about nuclear power and those medical x rays ...