Nuclear Plant Epidemic: Effect Of Fukushima Radiation On Matter

All kinds of ionizing radiation that used in health care centers in medical diagnosis and therapy processes, as well the radiation used in diagnostic radiology is the field of medicine that uses radiation to make an imaging exams and procedures to diagnose a patient. In another hand it’s used to treatment for many kind of disease especially to cure from cancer. In any form of medical care, diagnostic radiology plays a significant role in the diagnosis and treatment of disease or injury. The exams often use radiation, at many levels that have been determined and adjusted to be safe as possible, to create detailed anatomical images. (Bekas M, et al, 2016)

Radiation exposure during pregnancy has been debated by health practitioners for a while now. According to the researches carried out it can be concluded that radiation exposure especially to pregnant females poses a threat to the fetus in the formation stage and also later in life. Although pregnant women are advised not to expose themselves to radiation, it may be difficult due to background radiation in the environment that comes from radioactive substances in water, food, air, construction materials and soil.

The Beta travels faster and penetrates further than any other. Gamma rays are the most dangerous from all since the can travel further and damage tissues and organs. Radiation can be measured in doses such as the Roentgens and the Rem. Radiation in our planet can come from cosmic radiation, terrestrial sources, the body, or man-made sources such as diagnostic radiology and therapeutic radiology. When a person is exposed to radiation he/she can suffer from acute effects also known as effects that occur quickly or chronic effects which are known as long term effects. People can handle chronic exposure to radiation better than a large amount of radiation within a short period of time. People who have a been exposed to large amounts of radiation within a short period of time can become ill quickly such as in acute radiation sickness or could potentially die from such exposure. Exposure to radiation can cause illnesses such as cancer, cataracts, and could ultimately cause a reduction in life. America uses emergency managers to handle aspect of all emergencies posed to communities across the country. Emergency managers use The Radiological Protection System trains and aids communities when radiological emergencies occur. In the United

Recently, the deserted Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been emanating an alarming amount of radiation. Kyodo of Japan Times reported that the radiation reading has reached its highest level since its emergence in March 2011 (Kyodo, 2017). As a result, there is a greater presence of air and water pollution in Fukushima that could easily spread to surrounding areas. Therefore, it seems appropriate that in an interview with the Washington Post, radio-ecology expert Tom Hinton stated Fukushima is “an area that is among the most radioactively contaminated in the world” (as cited in Andrews, 2016). This resurgence has generated conspiracy theories, false maps and, interestingly, little news coverage. While many across different continents

The government of Japan has taken lots of measurements to solve the contamination issues. Workers and public were evacuated from the contamination areas. Food and water usage was restricted. Fishing was banned at the coast of Fukushima. Ten tons of seawater is being poured upon the melted cores

“When we speak of dangerous radiation exposure, are we speaking of alpha radiation, beta radiation, or gamma radiation?”

One of the many deadly radioisotopes released includes Iodine-131. Iodine-131 has a half life of 8 days (the radioisotope functions for 8 days). Iodine-131 contaminates the water supply and the air (that we breathe). If one were to ingest this radioisotope, it would incorporate into the thyroid and damage the tissue with beta and gamma radiation. This will lead to the full decay of the thyroid gland and surrounding tissue. This causes thyroid cancer (increases chance of cancerous cells forming by more than 70 percent), especially in children (those who are still growing). Strontium-90 is also released during a nuclear meltdown. Strontium-90 is released into the atmosphere, water supply, and surrounding plants and animals. Strontium-90 has a half life of 28 years but has a biological

The maximum permissible exposure for a person under 18 working with radiation is one-tenth the adult limit or not to exceed 500 millirems per year above the 300+ millirems of natural sources, plus medical radiation. This was established in 1957 and reviewed as recently as 1990. Like alcohol intoxication levels, levels of exposure to radioactivity (due to radioactivity deposited in the body) depend on a person's weight. A diagnostic tracer of one microcurie of radioactive calcium 45, given orally, would result in an exposure of 3.7 millirems for a 100-pound person, and half of that, 1.85 millirems, for a 200-pound person.

The human body is made up of approximately 80% water (H2O) molecules. When radiation strikes a water molecule it causes radiolysis. Radiolysis is the disassociation of water into an ion pair (H+ and OH-) and two free radicals (H* and OH*). Free radicals are highly reactive, unstable and capable of disrupting bonds and causing deoxyribonucleic (DNA) damage. DNA is the molecule that holds the genetic information needed for cell duplication and is considered the target molecule for radiobiology. Ionization is the removal of an orbiting electron from an atom. There are two effects of ionizing radiation on a cell: indirect and direct. Direct action occurs when DNA is hit by ionizing radiation. Indirect action occurs when free radicals transfer

Radiation is one of the main forms of energy (Pettigrew 1). In today’s environment we are only familiar with the basic types of radiation. These types are in the form of

The samples were observed and tested after waiting 24 hours from when the exposure was stopped. The results showed that Cell-cycle control and DNA repair was damaged due to the radiation. It was also observed that early stages of cancer had formed in the tissue, and there is a high percentage that there could be cardiovascular dysfunction if the tissue was inside of a human. When to the samples exposed to X-rays, the Radon-exposed samples showed more irregularities. Table 1. Illustrates the viability (“ability of a thing (a living organism, an artificial system, an idea, etc.) to maintain itself or recover its potentialities.” (Google Search,

However, any damage, being external or internal to the spleen, can comprise its functions and may affect the human body overall. For instance, the spleen is the most radiosensitive organ in the human body(13); a factor that may suppress the spleen’s function can be radiation, an energy that is in the form of particles or rays. Though exposure to radiation can cause acute, almost immediate effects such as killing cells or directly damaging tissue, radiation can also have negative effects that occur from chronic exposure, such as cancer by causing mutations in the DNA of living cells (10). There are various sources that talk about the effect of radiation on humans and the detrimental results. For instance, in 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan during World War II, it carried devastating effects due to devices containing large amounts of radiation brought upon the populations of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When they detonated, these bombs released a large amount of extremely harmful gamma radiation, which lessened in adverseness over the span of weeks. Regardless, the amount of radiation that lingered in the environment from the bomb was immense, so much so that it was extremely harmful to the body and led to diseases and

It has been three years since Japan experienced its worst ever earthquake, causing serious damage to Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The 9 magnitude quake and its resulting tsunami sent three of Japan's reactors into meltdown. This led to reactors being exposed to the environment and radiation waste able to seep into the ground as runoff and affect more areas. Could the government have done more in the early stages of this disaster to prevent any more horrible damage to the environment? Perhaps even lowering or dramatically reducing the cost and how much more Japan has to pay in order to clean up this mess? In this essay, I hope to explain my research of the disaster in Fukushima, Japan and hope to give a thorough explanation on the effects of radiation on the environment and how it affects life across the region.

For this week’s discussion board, I chose to focus on selection number two, ionizing radiation effects on cells and tissues. “Ionizing radiation is radiation that produces immediate chemical effects on human tissue” (Perez 2013). Ionizing radiation exposure can be the result of industrial accidents, medical treatment, and radiological warfare. Alpha radiation (emitted from substances such as polonium-210) kills cells, “having the most effect on those that regenerate the most rapidly” (Huddersfield Examiner 2008). According to the CDC’s physician factsheet, the primary cause of Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) is the depletion of immature stem cells in tissues, which is caused by a minimum radiation exposure of thirty to seventy rads (2005, 1). It should be noted, however, that ARS is typically the result of medical treatment, industrial accidents, and nuclear exposure; ARS is not equivalent to radiation sickness, which can be caused in numerous ways to include ingestion.

Nuclear medicine procedures utilize very small doses of short-lived isotopes (ones that only stay radioactive for a few hours or days), the amount of radiation received is generally less than or equal to that of an x-ray. Whole body and healthy tissue doses can be minimized while the radioisotope is targeted toward the affected tissue or organ. The isotope is then eliminated by the body through the urine or fecal matter.