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Radiation—ionising and non-ionising
Published in Sue Reed, Dino Pisaniello, Geza Benke, Principles of Occupational Health & Hygiene, 2020
External monitoring. The intake of gamma ray-or x-ray-emitting radioisotopes can often be estimated directly on the basis of external monitoring of either the whole body, or specific organs or tissues. For example, when using iodine radioisotopes, the thyroid gland can be monitored with a sensitive scintillation detector to ascertain the dose of radioactive iodine. Whole-body monitoring is usually done only when someone suspects they have received a large dose of radioisotope internally. It is performed using a similar monitor to that used for thyroid monitoring, and detects only gamma and x-ray radiation. Only a few facilities in Australia operate instruments for whole-body monitoring. ARPANSA, ANSTO or a local health authority would be a useful first point of contact for locating such an instrument.
The politics of hypothesis
Published in Friedo Zölzer, Gaston Meskens, Environmental Health Risks, 2018
On 11 March 2011, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 hit Japan, followed by a tsunami which struck coastal Japan, including the northeastern coast. In addition to the great loss of life and devastation caused by the earthquake and the tsunami, the tsunami also led to the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, located at that northeastern coast. As a consequence of the accident, radionuclides were released from the plant into the atmosphere, and were deposited on land and into the ocean. There were also direct releases into the sea. Citizens within a radius of 20 km around the site and from other specific contaminated areas were evacuated, and those within a radius of 20–30 km were instructed to shelter before later being advised to voluntarily evacuate. Restrictions were placed on the distribution and consumption of food and the consumption of drinking water (IAEA 2015). As it is known, radioactive iodine (I-131) isotopes are part of a radioactive release from a damaged nuclear reactor, and it can be incorporated into the human body through inhalation or ingestion of contaminated food and milk (Dreger et al. 2015). Uptake of radioactive iodine may increase the risk of thyroid cancer, particularly in children. The younger the age at exposure, the higher the risk is for developing thyroid cancer (World Health Organisation 2011).
Health effects and the baby boomers — childhood
Published in J. Mangano Joseph, Low-Level Radiation and Immune System Damage, 2018
Another clue to the radiation-cancer link among Connecticut children is to look at trends for cancers known to be sensitive to radiation. Thyroid cancer is one of these; radioactive iodine seeks out the thyroid gland, and damages the glands’ ability to reproduce, thereby increasing the risk of developing this type of malignancy. For pre-Baby Boomers (bom between 1930 and 1944), the disease was almost unheard of before the age of 15; only 2 cases were recorded, for a rate of 0.35 per 1,000,000 population. The Baby Boomers’ total increased to 15 cases, with the rate nearly tripling, to 0.98. Moreover, Generation X (bom between 1965 and 1979) had 23 cases, a rate of 2.29. The Boomers again did worse than their predecessors, but better than the children of Generation X, even though nobody in Generation X underwent head and neck X-rays as infants, which were found in the 1950s to carry a risk of thyroid cancer.
Influence of chemical speciation in reactor cooling system on pH of suppression pool during BWR severe accident
Published in Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 2018
Hiroyuki Shiotsu, Jun Ishikawa, Tomoyuki Sugiyama, Yu Maruyama
Radioactive iodine (I) is one of important fission products (FPs) for the source term evaluation because of high inventory in the core, volatility and health effects to the public in a severe accident of nuclear power station (NPS). In the reactor cooling systems (RCS) of NPS, I released from fuels is transported as cesium iodide (CsI), silver iodide (AgI), indium iodide (InI), cadmium iodide (CdI2) or other chemical forms [1]. These I species deposit onto structure surfaces or are trapped into water pools in the containment vessel (CV). Complex chemical behaviors could occur in aqueous phase under a radiation field, resulting in the transformation of dissolved I as ion into highly volatile I species such as I2 and methyl iodide (CH3I). Source term analysis considering this reaction indicated that generation of high volatile I species from aqueous phase resulted in increase of I release into the environment while the operation of the CV venting through suppression chamber (S/C) of a boiling water reactor (BWR) [2].