Radon

Radon

    Sounds almost like an old monster movie, a creature that is rarely or never seen but big like Godzilla or Gorgo (one of my favorite animal-monster films and the only one that I am aware of where both mother and baby monster return to the ocean and their formerly peaceful existence, unharmed).  But in truth, radon is the one of the highest killers in our state (one out of every three homes tests high for radon), and overall, the second highest producer of lung cancer (for non-smokers) in the U.S....it is truly called the "invisible" killer.  It's a gas, a radioactive one, and it lurks in the ground.  So what exactly is radon and indeed, radiation in general?  Why can't we see it and why is it everywhere?  And how can it be so destructive (think nuclear bombs) and yet so beneficial (think chemotherapy); and if it's indeed everywhere, how the heck are we able to harness it as in nuclear reactors and pellet-size inserts in treating prostate cancers?

    To start, we never really "control" radiation; we can temporarily contain it and cool it and limit it.  But we never really control it.  And it is indeed all around us, the radiation from our sun blasting our planet constantly and able to kill all life were it not for our earth's magnetic fields deflecting the majority of those rays (it is one theory of a once-vibrant Mars losing its magnetic field and succumbing to the solar radiation); it is something future travelers in space will have to deal with, the constant blasts of both solar and cosmic radiation.  Indeed, just flying in today's jets exposes us to such radiation (while a bit scary if you're a regular flyer, the dosage is minimal when compared to a CT scan which blasts you with about 100x more radiation than a chest Xray and about 3x more than a mammogram...you can compare radiation levels at the Information is Beautiful site).  And you've likely heard of Madame Curie co-discovering that field of Xrays, which resulted in her becoming irradiated herself and dying shortly after.  Then there's Japan's Fukushima reactors, some of their containment pools broken from the earthquake and tidal wave and still --five years later-- spewing radiated cooling water into the ocean (although the majority of the 1200+ storage tanks have been fixed, the World Nuclear Association said this: Early in 2013 Tepco started to test and commission this Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), developed by EnergySolutions and Toshiba.  Each of six trains is capable of processing 250 m³/day to remove 62 remaining radioisotopes.  By the end of 2014, an Advanced ALPS of 500 m³/d had been added, making total capacity 2000 m³/d...The ALPS is a chemical system which will remove radionuclides to below legal limits for release.  However, because tritium is contained in water molecules, ALPS cannot remove it, which gives rise to questions about the discharge of treated water to the sea.  Tritium is a weak beta-emitter which does not bio-accumulate (half-life 12 years), and its concentration has levelled off at about 1 MBq/L in the stored water, with dilution from groundwater balancing further release from the fuel debris...The clean tritiated water was the focus of attention in 2014.  A September 2013 report from the Atomic Energy Society of Japan recommended diluting the ALPS-treated water with seawater and releasing it to the sea at the legal discharge concentration of 0.06 MBq/L, with monitoring to ensure that normal background tritium levels of 10 Bq/L are not exceeded. (WHO drinking water guideline is 0.01 MBq/L tritium) The IAEA is reported to support release of tritiated water to the ocean...).  Blah, blah, blah science speak...but the general idea is there.  We can measure the stuff and well, we find that radiation is just about everywhere (even just walking in the sun exposes us).  So what's up...how come we're still alive?

    Well, it's not quite as innocent as that.  Take radon, which started this entire discussion.  In my state, because homes here have basements, it is usually recommended to have a simple radon test, a small packet you leave in one of your rooms for a few days, then mail it back to a lab for testing to see exactly what the charcoal combination inside has picked up (the test is about $10).  Too much radon and you'll have to have to give the gas a way to get out (usually some sort of piping and small air pump is installed).  Or...face the risk of lung cancer.  And where does this radon come from?  Would you believe granite...or more specifically, "the decomposition of uranium-bearing granite in our soil," says Eleanor Divvey who is one of the workers with our state's Indoor Radon Program.  And if your home is energy-efficient, as in pretty much air-tight, you might also be trapping the radon.  And as another worker, Jan Poulsen told the Cottonwood Journal, because radon has no smell, "...Radon-induced lung cancer is quite high and unrecognizable until it is too late...there are no routine screenings for lung cancer, and many times there are no symptoms.  So by the time it is detected, it is at stage 3 or 4 and has already spread...lung cancer is the deadliest of all cancers and kills more people annually then the next four cancers combined.

    Some of this was summarized by physicist Derek Muller who hosted the PBS show, Uranium -- Twisting the Dragon's Tale.  In an interview with Discover, he told the magazine: We go back more than 5 billion years to this rock’s source, an exploding supernova.  The rock contains that trapped energy.  So when you detonate a nuclear weapon, for example, you’re releasing energy that’s been trapped for billions of years...With its discovery, our understanding of matter shifted.  Things we thought were inert rocks were really powerful energy sources.  It’s mind-blowing to think of how one element has shaped the modern world.  More simpler summary comes from the Health Physics Society: Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through space and may be able to penetrate various materials.  Light, radio, and microwaves are types of radiation that are called nonionizing.  The kind of radiation discussed in this document is called ionizing radiation because it can produce charged particles (ions) in matter...Ionizing radiation is produced by unstable atoms.  Unstable atoms differ from stable atoms because unstable atoms have an excess of energy or mass or both.  Radiation can also be produced by high-voltage devices (e.g., x-ray machines).  Atoms with unstable nuclei are said to be radioactive.  In order to reach stability, these atoms give off, or emit, the excess energy or mass.  These emissions are called radiation.  The kinds of radiation are electromagnetic (like light) and particulate (i.e., mass given off with the energy of motion). Gamma radiation and x rays are examples of electromagnetic radiation.  Gamma radiation originates in the nucleus while x rays come from the electronic part of the atom.  Beta and alpha radiation are examples of particulate radiation...Interestingly, there is a "background" of natural radiation everywhere (ubiquitous) in our environment. Ubiquitous background radiation comes from space (i.e., cosmic rays) and from naturally occurring radioactive materials contained in the earth and in living things.

   Graph from World Nuclear Association

 

 

 

     Still, when one thinks of radiation one tends to lean back to uranium and processed uranium and nuclear, both nuclear power and nuclear bombs.  The meltdown at Chernobyl, the damage at Fukushima, the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki...and the mines in the Grand Canyon.  Wait...what?  As you'll discover, there is much more to uranium and radiation that you first thought...and in the next post, you'll also find that included in the hidden discoveries are bombs, unexploded bombs still buried and still waiting to be found (a nuclear bomb fell in the middle of the U.S. during transport...and fortunately, did not explode).  Yikes...all of this coming in the next post.