Hazards and Blessings Associated with Radioactivity

One of the scientists working on the Manhattancoal-and oil-burning power plants are responsible
Project of the U.S. was Italian physicist Enricofor far more radioactive pollution in the United
Fermi (1901-1954), who used radium and berylliumStates.
powder to construct a neutron source for makingThis is not to say that nuclear energy poses no
new radioactive materials. Fermi and his associatesdangers, as the disaster at Chernobyl in the
succeeded in producing radioisotopes of sodium,former Soviet Union has shown. In April 1986, an
iron, copper, gold, and numerous other elements.accident at a nuclear reactor in what is now the
As a result of Fermi's work, for which he wonUkraine killed 31 workers immediately and
the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics, scientists haveultimately led to the deaths of some 10,000
been able to develop radioactive versions ofpeople subsequently and consequently. The fact
virtually all elements. Interestingly, the ideas ofthat the radiation was allowed to spread had
radioactivity, fission reactions, and fusion reactionsmuch to do with the secretive tactics of the
collectively represent the realization of a goalCommunist government, which attempted to
sought by the medieval alchemists: thecover up the problem rather than evacuate the
transformation of one element into another,area. Another danger associated with nuclear
particularly the baser metals into noble ones.power plants is radioactive waste. Spent fuel rods
The alchemists, forerunners of chemists, believedand other waste products from these plants have
they could transform ordinary metals into gold byto be dumped somewhere, but it cannot simply
using various potions, though an impossible dream.be buried in the ground because it will create a
Yet among the radioisotopes generated bycontinuing health hazard through the water supply.
Fermi's neutron source was gold. The "catch," ofNo fully fail-safe storage system has been
course, is that this gold was unstable;developed, and the problem of radioactive waste
furthermore, the amount of energy and humanposes a continuing threat due to the extremely
mental effort required to generate it farlong half-lives of some of the isotopes involved.
outweighed the monetary value of the gold itself.In addition to their uses in applications related to
Radioactivity is, in the modern imagination, typicallynuclear energy, isotopes play a significant role in
associated with fallout from nuclear war, or withdating techniques. The latter may sound like a
hazards resulting from nuclear power hazardssubject that has something to do with romance,
that, as it turns out, have been greatlybut it does not: dating techniques involve the use
exaggerated as radioactivity is not always harmfulof materials, including isotopes, to estimate the
to humans. For instance, with its applications inage of both organic and inorganic materials.
medicine, as a means of diagnosing and treatingUranium-238, for instance, has a half-life of 4.47
thyroid problems, or as a treatment for cancer· 109 years, which is nearly the age of Earth; in
patients, it can actually save lives.fact, uranium-dating techniques have been used to
It is a good thing that not only radiation but alsodetermine the planet's age, which is estimated at
even the harmful variety of radiation, known asabout 4.7 billion years. Potassium-argon dating,
ionizing radiation, is not fatal in small doses that iswhich involves the isotopes potassium-40 and
evident from the fact that every person on Earthargon-40, has been used to date volcanic layers in
is exposed to small quantities of radiation everyeast Africa. Because the half-life of potassium-40
now and then. About 82% of this comes fromis 1.3 billion years, this method is useful for dating
natural sources and only 18% from manmadeactivities that are distant in the human scale of
sources. Of course, some people are at muchtime, but fairly recent in geological terms.
greater risk of radiation exposure than others, forAnother dating technique is radiocarbon dating,
example, coal miners are exposed to higher levelsused for estimating the age of things that were
of the radon-222 isotope present underground,once alive. All living things contain carbon, both in
while cigarette smokers ingest much higher levelsthe form of the stable isotope carbon-12 and the
of radiation than ordinary people, due to theradioisotope carbon-14. While a plant or animal is
polonium-210, lead-210, and radon-222 isotopesliving, there is a certain proportion between the
present in the nitrogen fertilizers used to growamounts of these two isotopes in the organism's
tobacco.body, with carbon-12 being far more abundant.
Nuclear weapons, as most people know, produceWhen the organism dies, however, it ceases to
a great deal of radioactive pollution butacquire new carbon, and the carbon-14 present in
atmospheric testing of nuclear armaments hasthe body begins to decay into nitrogen-14. The
long been banned, and though the isotopesamount of nitrogen-14 that has been formed is
released in such tests are expected to remain inthus an indication of the amount of time that has
the atmosphere for about a century, they do notpassed since the organism was alive. Because it
constitute a significant health hazard to mosthas a half-life of 5,730 years, carbon-14 is useful
Americans. (It should be noted that nations notfor dating activities within the span of human
inclined to abide by international protocols mighthistory, though it is not without controversy.
still conduct atmospheric tests in defiance of theSome scientists contend, for instance, that
test bans.) Nuclear power plants, despite the greatsamples may be contaminated by carbon from
deal of attention they have received from thethe surrounding soils, thus affecting ratios and
media and environmentalist groups, do not poseleading to inaccurate dates.
the hazard that has often been claimed: in fact,