Nuclear Radiation Why Is It Dangerous

When we think of radiation we may immediately think of only dangerous and harmful things.

What are nuclear power plants used for. Even though nuclear power plants supply 11 percent of the worlds electricity from 449 operating nuclear reactors 5 there are no safe long term waste storage repositories. Radiation is a process wherein energy travels in wave patterns or high speed particles. But some experts say the outcome from radiation.

Non ionizing radiation does not pose as large a threat as ionizing radiation that can be emitted by nuclear fallout which has no limited range. The effects of nuclear radiation on different areas of a human body. Some examples of radiation include sunlight radio waves x rays heat alpha beta gamma ionizing radiation and infrared just to name a few.

Radiation comes in two forms which are ionizing radiation and non ionizing radiation. There are times when the brain can be damaged but this happens only at an exposure that is higher than 5000 remsexposure this high may cause damage to the nerves and blood vessels. Why is nuclear waste so dangerous.

Non ionizing radiation is generally only dangerous when produced in massive amounts during the beginning of nuclear explosions and the range of this radiation would be within sight of the explosion. Nuclear accidents the work environment and some medical treatment can all be sources of radiation poisoning. Depending on the dose the effects of radiation can be mild or life threatening.

There is no long term storage solution. Not all of these types of radiation are harmful in fact in. In reality the word radiation refers to any transfer of energy through space from a source.

Its thought that only emergency workers at the plant are at risk of harmful doses of radiation but its likely they are only being exposed for. Note that the radiation weighting factor for alpha radiation is equal to 20. In addition to the immense short term loss of life a nuclear war could cause long term damage to our planet.

It was discovered biological effects of any radiation increases with the linear energy transfer let. Our primary way of dealing with radioactive waste at the moment is to simply store it somewhere and try to figure out what to do with it later. Ionizing radiation functions with a large amount of energy that can change the charge of an atom.

Why is radiation dangerous. The amount of radioactive material being released from the defective nuclear reactors in japan after the japan earthquake are still unclear. When inhaled or ingested alpha radiation is much more dangerous than other types of radiation.