tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/radiation-321/articlesRadiation – The Conversation2024-03-18T13:44:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256932024-03-18T13:44:27Z2024-03-18T13:44:27ZSpace tourists and crew suffer high radiation risks – regulation is needed to protect them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581725/original/file-20240313-18-7nh0go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=70%2C44%2C4210%2C2798&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Richard Branson, next to White Knight Spaceship 2.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/spaceport-america-new-mexico-october-17th-2008061687">Jared Ortega/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a decade or two, journeys into space could become as normal as transatlantic flights. In particular, the number of humans travelling into space with the help of commercial companies, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/virgin-galactic-space-tourism-takes-off-with-bransons-inaugural-flight-164142">Virgin Galactic</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/virgin-galactic-and-blue-origin-can-they-be-more-than-space-joyrides-for-millionaires-164513">Blue Origin</a>, will increase significantly. </p>
<p>But such travel comes with huge radiation risks. Sudden changes in space weather, such as solar flares, for example, could have significant health implications for crew and passengers. Now <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265964624000043">our recent paper</a>, from the University of Surrey, Foot Anstey LLP Space and Satellite Team, has found that current legislation and regulation don’t do enough to protect space tourists and crew.</p>
<p>Changes in space weather could expose space tourists to radiation doses in excess <a href="https://www.icrp.org/publication.asp?id=ICRP%20Publication%20103">of the recommended maximum</a> 1 millisievert (mSv) yearly uptake for a member of the public and 20mSv yearly for those working with radiation. Research at the University of Surrey shows that during an extreme space weather event, flight participants could receive doses in excess of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468896723000289">100mSv</a>.</p>
<p>Current <a href="https://www.caa.co.uk/uk-regulations/aviation-safety/civil-aviation-act-1982-the-ano-2016-the-rules-of-the-air-2015-and-the-dg-regulations-2002/the-civil-aviation-air-navigation-order-2016/">legislation and regulation</a> focusing on potential radiation exposure for space tourists is limited and largely untested. There is a heavy focus on conventional non-radiation risk and wider safety, with guidance stemming from regulation of normal commercial flights. However, these are significantly different to space tourism enterprises. </p>
<p>Similarly, the law around space flights and their associated risk liability <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-space-tourism-travelling-faster-than-space-law-43586">is complex</a>. Space law incorporates a mix of international law (such as international agreements, treaties and conventions), domestic legislation and guidance. </p>
<h2>Cancer risk</h2>
<p>Exposure to low levels of background natural radiation is part of everyday life. Most people are not aware of this exposure and the potential risks to our health. For example, an 0.08mSv effective dose from a commercial flight from the UK to the US.</p>
<p>However, exposure to elevated levels of ionising radiation, such as those possible during space weather events, can potentially cause damage to DNA. The risk of space travel therefore ranges from a minor increase in health defects to serious health implications such as cancers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Diagram illustrating the comparison of radiation doses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581729/original/file-20240313-26-4razll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581729/original/file-20240313-26-4razll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581729/original/file-20240313-26-4razll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581729/original/file-20240313-26-4razll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581729/original/file-20240313-26-4razll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581729/original/file-20240313-26-4razll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581729/original/file-20240313-26-4razll.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Comparison of radiation doses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There has been significant risk assessment of radiation exposure on Earth; for example in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2004.08.022">nuclear industry</a>. This is unlike the space tourism industry, which is still in its infancy. </p>
<p>Previous <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2010.08.035">research</a> has focused on the potential risk assessment for astronauts from radiation exposure and long duration missions outside low-Earth orbit. But this does not consider risks for those on short trips to space as tourists. Thus, there is still significant work to be done to assess the unique risk for space tourist flights and the supporting guidance and regulation.</p>
<p>Any existing regulation, such as the <a href="https://www.caa.co.uk/uk-regulations/aviation-safety/civil-aviation-act-1982-the-ano-2016-the-rules-of-the-air-2015-and-the-dg-regulations-2002/the-civil-aviation-air-navigation-order-2016/">UK Air Navigation Order</a> and <a href="https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-III/subchapter-C/part-460">Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) space flight regulations</a>, that is applicable to potential space flights focuses on crew, rather than paying passengers.</p>
<p>The space tourism industry is currently not fully aware of the radiation risks, we discovered. It is instead relying on incomplete “informed consent” for non-crew participants. The current regulation for the industry therefore places the risk burden firmly on the space tourist. We argue more legislation and regulation are needed.</p>
<h2>Our recommendations</h2>
<p>We made a series of recommendations in our report. But they are advisory. They are intended for the industry and regulators to consider as the space tourism sector continues to develop, particularly the FAA and the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). </p>
<p>We suggest these bodies collaborate with industry, including space tourism companies, spacecraft manufacturers and space research organisations, to understand the technical challenges and risks associated with new spaceflight activities.
Such collaboration would help ensure that regulations are practical, effective and reflective of the latest technological advances.</p>
<p>We also advise considering international standards. As the commercial space industry becomes more global, it will be important for the CAA and FAA to collaborate with international regulatory bodies elsewhere, such as the <a href="https://www.icao.int/Pages/default.aspx">International Civil Aviation Organization</a> (ICAO) and <a href="https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/copuos/index.html">the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (Uncopuos)</a>, to develop consistent regulations that apply across multiple jurisdictions.</p>
<p>Safety should be a critical consideration for any new regulations related to spaceflight. The CAA and FAA will need to ensure that new regulations adequately address risks associated with spaceflight. This is particularly exposure to radiation, but also the potential for accidents or system failures.</p>
<p>Finally, we encourage innovation. The commercial space industry is characterised by rapid innovation and technological advancement. Any new regulations must not stifle this innovation. The CAA and FAA will need to develop regulations that strike a balance between promoting safety, encouraging the development of new technologies and approaches, and enabling growth of the industry.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the CAA and the FAA will need to be flexible and adaptive. As the industry continues to evolve, they should review and update regulations to ensure they remain relevant and effective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225693/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Rees does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sudden changes in space weather, such as solar flares, for example, could have significant health implications for crew and passengers.Chris Rees, Postgraduate Researcher of Space Risk Engineering, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2199502024-02-21T13:18:35Z2024-02-21T13:18:35ZPotato plant radiation sensors could one day monitor radiation in areas surrounding power plants<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575459/original/file-20240213-24-b1fnxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C3642%2C2714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fields of genetically modified potato plants could detect radiation. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/f4df32b6c6354b5389fd59adaae707aa?ext=true">AP Photo/John Miller</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While expanding nuclear energy production would provide carbon-free power and can help countries around the world meet their <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement">climate goals</a>, nuclear energy could also come with some inherent risk. Radioactive pollution damages the environment, and it’s nearly impossible to detect without specialized equipment. But what if plants growing in the facility’s surrounding area could detect radiation pollution?</p>
<p>The mechanical radiation detectors currently used, <a href="https://remm.hhs.gov/civilian.htm">called dosimeters</a>, aren’t completely reliable – during previous nuclear <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx">accidents such as Chernobyl</a>, they’ve failed or been <a href="https://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatalog/Zhores_Medvedev.html">buried under rubble</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://utia.tennessee.edu/person/?id=11899">Our team</a> of <a href="https://plantsciences.tennessee.edu/racheff/">plant scientists</a> at the University of Tennessee wanted to figure out alternatives to these mechanical radiation sensors to help address their historic failures, so we decided to build a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14072">plant-based sensor for gamma radiation</a>. The sensor, called a phytosensor, is a potato plant that glows fluorescent green when exposed to radiation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MaaZjoHDvMo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Dosimeters sense how large a dose of radiation something in an area exposed to radiation would absorb.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Historic sensor problems</h2>
<p>Current nuclear energy production is <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/safety-of-nuclear-power-reactors.aspx">considered safe by the World Nuclear Association</a>. But safety failures still happen, whether <a href="https://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatalog/Zhores_Medvedev.html">from human error</a> or <a href="https://shop.elsevier.com/books/fukushima-accident/povinec/978-0-12-408132-1">natural disasters</a> such as earthquakes bringing the mechanical sensors offline – and that’s where our plant sensors could come in.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571529/original/file-20240125-19-dnnjtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo showing a large explosion hole in a building, from an overhead view." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571529/original/file-20240125-19-dnnjtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571529/original/file-20240125-19-dnnjtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571529/original/file-20240125-19-dnnjtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571529/original/file-20240125-19-dnnjtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571529/original/file-20240125-19-dnnjtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571529/original/file-20240125-19-dnnjtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571529/original/file-20240125-19-dnnjtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Radiation sensors can help inform responses to nuclear accidents. Pictured is damage from the 1986 Chernobyl accident.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Volodymyr Repik</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mechanical radiation detection equipment needs electrical power and regular maintenance, both of which make them less reliable during emergencies. A plant-based sensor wouldn’t require either of these.</p>
<p>The kinds of disasters that take mechanical sensors offline might damage the potato sensors but most likely wouldn’t kill an entire planted field of potatoes. As long as some plant cells are still alive, the plant could function as a radiation sensor. </p>
<p>Though potato plants are tough, some disasters, like a wildfire, would damage plant sensors more than mechanical sensors. While our sensors could supplement mechanical sensors, they wouldn’t completely replace their use. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568097/original/file-20240106-22-l84j8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two small potato plants in green and two in gray, shown from overhead, in a square pot filled with soil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568097/original/file-20240106-22-l84j8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568097/original/file-20240106-22-l84j8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568097/original/file-20240106-22-l84j8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568097/original/file-20240106-22-l84j8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568097/original/file-20240106-22-l84j8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568097/original/file-20240106-22-l84j8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568097/original/file-20240106-22-l84j8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Genetically modified potato plants acting as radiation sensors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stewart lab</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Plants as sensors</h2>
<p>Unlike mammals, plants can tolerate a lot of radiation before they die.
Potato plants, for example, can survive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14072">10 times the amount of radiation</a> that would kill a human. </p>
<p>We chose potato as our sensor organism because potato plants can tolerate high levels of radiation, they’re easy to grow using tubers and they can survive in a <a href="https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL/visualize">variety of environments across the globe</a>. </p>
<p>Radiation exposure <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/tx000020e">damages DNA inside an organism’s cells</a>. When this happens in plants, they enter a “red alert” scenario and activate many DNA repair genes to fix the problem. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I co-opted the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00885">DNA damage response pathway</a> in potato plants so that when exposed to radiation, the potato leaves made a green fluorescent protein. This fluorescent protein causes the sensor plants to emit a unique green fluorescent glow when exposed to gamma radiation. </p>
<p>While the human eye can’t see the green signature, drones used for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2023.107737">agricultural and environmental monitoring</a> can. The more green fluorescence produced by the plant, the higher the radiation intensity. So the sensors can tell you “yes, there’s radiation,” as well as roughly how much radiation there is. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14072">In our tests</a>, the plants reported radiation eight hours after exposure, but that was also the earliest our team was able to check them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571530/original/file-20240125-17-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A small drone flying over a crop field, with a house in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571530/original/file-20240125-17-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571530/original/file-20240125-17-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571530/original/file-20240125-17-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571530/original/file-20240125-17-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571530/original/file-20240125-17-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571530/original/file-20240125-17-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571530/original/file-20240125-17-ug1yul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drones, like the kinds used for agricultural monitoring, would be able to see whether the plants are lighting up, keeping humans out of the irradiated area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DronesAgriculture/ab91c96f7c134734a9f0fc41c003e93b/photo?Query=agricultural%20drone&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=130&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=17&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Alex Brandon</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on our testing, the current radiation phytosensor can report a minimum total dose of <a href="https://remm.hhs.gov/gray_definition.htm">10 gray of radiation</a> – a very lethal dose for a human. The sensors reported radiation eight hours after exposure to it, and they continued to do so for 10 or more days, depending on dose. </p>
<p>Mechanical sensors can detect far lower radiation levels in real time, rather than as a cumulative dose like the phytosensors detect. This makes mechanical sensors ideal for everyday monitoring of dangerous radiation within a power plant, while phytosensors are better suited to monitor the larger areas of land around a power plant.</p>
<p>The current sensor could monitor radiation levels for the general public in an emergency scenario where radioactive material could be anywhere within a large disaster area. Chernobyl contaminated an area <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/chernobyl/faqs">about the size of Nebraska</a>, while Fukushima contaminated an <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/2/1/39">area about the size of New Jersey</a>. Most of this area had low-level contamination, with some hot spots.</p>
<p>Compared with mechanical sensors, phytosensors are slower and less sensitive, so they wouldn’t save anyone working inside the power plant, even if they were grown indoors. The current sensor could tell first responders where the hottest areas are during a large-scale disaster. After a disaster, it could inform regulators where it is safe for workers, and eventually the public, to return to. </p>
<p>We tested the sensor using an in-lab laser and camera, which are low-power and low-resolution devices. Actual drones with specialized detection systems would likely be able to detect lower radiation thresholds.</p>
<p>In addition to functioning similarly to mechanical radiation sensors, the potato-based radiation phytosensor is a living and growing organism that gets its energy from sunlight. This means that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14072">the phytosensor is</a> self-repairing, self-propagating and self-powering, unlike mechanical sensors. Since potatoes grow from tubers, they don’t need to be replanted every year.</p>
<p>One obvious downside of the current sensor is that potato plants die in the winter, so during that season you’d lose the sensor. Our sensor gene potentially could be put into an evergreen species like a pine tree, but this sensor would need to be retested to understand its detection minimums and performance over time.</p>
<h2>Potential applications</h2>
<p>When used in combination with more sensitive mechanical sensors, the current radiation phytosensor could act as a fail-safe if a disaster <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/fukushima-daiichi-accident.aspx">similar to Fukushima Daiichi</a> were to occur. </p>
<p>While there are many possibilities for incorporating phytosensors into our current monitoring systems, our team still has hurdles to cross before the plants can be deployed in the field. </p>
<p>First, nuclear regulators would have to determine whether this technology is safe and useful, given their expectations for radiation monitoring equipment. Then, the plant sensor would undergo rigorous evaluation by the USDA to determine whether the phytosensors would negatively affect ecosystems if released. </p>
<p>Overcoming these hurdles will require more research, which could take months given the growth time for plants. Despite the work ahead, radiation phytosensors could help protect people and the environment in the future as countries continue producing nuclear energy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219950/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neal Stewart receives funding from federal organizations. This work was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Neal Stewart is an inventor in plant biotechnology, though none of the technologies described in the Conversation article are patented. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Sears does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What if plants in the area surrounding a nuclear reactor could act as radiation detectors, with the help of a drone?Robert Sears, Graduate Research Assistant in Plant Science, University of TennesseeNeal Stewart, Professor of Plant Sciences, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2102252024-01-03T13:45:04Z2024-01-03T13:45:04ZRadiation therapy takes advantage of cancer’s poor DNA repair abilities – an oncologist and physicist explain how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566710/original/file-20231219-27-fi64tu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Advances in radiotherapy involve combining new technologies with clinical expertise.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/damage-illustration-royalty-free-illustration/1148113477">Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/radiation-therapy/about/pac-20385162">Nearly half of all cancer patients</a> undergo radiation therapy as part of their care. Ionizing radiation, or the emission of high-energy waves or particles, works as a therapy by damaging a cancer cell’s DNA. It’s an effective tool for killing cancer cells because they are generally much <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffgene.2015.00157">less adept at DNA repair</a> compared to healthy cells. Damaging specific parts of DNA prevents cancer cells from reproducing, effectively killing them.</p>
<p>A major limitation of radiation therapy is the <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/treatment-types/radiation/effects-on-different-parts-of-body.html">damage it may cause as it passes through healthy organs</a> to get to tumors located deep in the body. The need to protect healthy organs limits the dose of radiation that can be delivered to cancerous tissue, thereby reducing the chance of successful treatment.</p>
<p>Overcoming this challenge has long been a mission for <a href="https://medphys.uchicago.edu/faculty/behzad-ebrahimi-phd">medical physicists</a> and <a href="https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/find-a-physician/physician/mark-korpics">radiation oncologists</a> like us. Improvements to radiotherapy will enable clinicians to not only better control tumors overall, but also open the door for more favorable outcomes in patients with cancers that are more resistant to radiation.</p>
<h2>Fundamentals of radiation therapy</h2>
<p>At the heart of radiation therapy lies the fundamental principle that cancer cells are more susceptible to radiation than healthy cells. However, there are exceptions. Sometimes <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5548591">resistance to radiation in cancer cells</a> may be comparable or even greater than that of their neighboring cells. </p>
<p>When tumors lie close to vital organs that are highly sensitive to radiation, such as the brain or the bowels, it significantly limits the amount of radiation that can be delivered. In cases where tumors are significantly less sensitive to radiation than the organs surrounding it, radiotherapy may not be the best choice. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8J_ILJOL7e4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Radiation therapy involves directing strong beams of energy to kill cancer cells.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Patient immobilization is another key aspect to reducing toxicity from radiation. Patients need to be <a href="https://www.oncolink.org/cancer-treatment/radiation/support/radiation-therapy-immobilization-devices">completely motionless</a> during treatments to ensure that the beam of radiation mainly targets tumors and not the healthy tissues surrounding them. If a patient moves during treatment, it can mean the radiation beam is partly or even entirely missing the cancer target. This scenario both underdoses the cancer and increases the risk of harming healthy tissue.</p>
<p>There are a few common types of radiotherapy that deliver radiation in different ways:</p>
<h2>External beam radiation therapy</h2>
<p>External beam radiation involves directing radiation from an outside source to a single part of the body.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/linac">Linear accelerators</a>, commonly referred to as LINACs, are currently the most common technology used in radiation treatments. These machines generate beams of high-energy electrons and X-rays that can be aimed at cancer tissue with precision. The high energy of these beams allows in-depth penetration into the body to reach tumors.</p>
<p>Another form of radiotherapy is <a href="https://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/how-cancer-treated/radiation-therapy/proton-therapy">proton beam therapy, or PBT</a>, which directs protons instead of X-rays at tumors. Currently, PBT is only available at a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pro6.1149">limited number of locations</a>. It is typically recommended for specific populations such as pediatric patients because, unlike X-rays, it has an adjustable range that minimizes the effects of radiation on organs beyond the target area, potentially reducing toxicity.</p>
<h2>Image-guided radiation therapy</h2>
<p>In the early 2000s, researchers <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4085117">incorporated CT scanners into LINACs</a>. This enabled real-time imaging of the patient’s anatomy just before or during treatment. By acting as the eyes of the care team, imaging reduced uncertainty about the location of tumors and improved the precision and accuracy of radiation therapy.</p>
<p>Newer linear accelerators are now <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffonc.2023.1117874">incorporating MRIs</a>, which significantly improve visualization of patient anatomy and tumors, further advancing treatment precision and accuracy. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566399/original/file-20231218-23-22uqzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Patient laying on stomach in a radiotherapy machine, green lasers crisscrossed over their exposed back" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566399/original/file-20231218-23-22uqzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566399/original/file-20231218-23-22uqzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566399/original/file-20231218-23-22uqzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566399/original/file-20231218-23-22uqzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566399/original/file-20231218-23-22uqzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566399/original/file-20231218-23-22uqzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566399/original/file-20231218-23-22uqzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Patients need to stay still during radiotherapy to ensure the beam stays on course.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-receiving-radiation-therapy-radiotherapy-royalty-free-image/652842746">Mark Kostich/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.ctro.2021.04.003">adding positron emission tomography, or PET, scanners</a> that provide information about the metabolic function of tumors. This advance makes it possible to increase the radiation dose specifically at the most active areas of tumors.</p>
<h2>Adaptive therapy</h2>
<p>An emerging approach to radiation therapy called <a href="https://www.moffitt.org/treatments/radiation-therapy/adaptive-radiotherapy/">adaptive therapy</a> uses imaging to dynamically adjust treatment as the tumor or its positioning changes each day. </p>
<p>In conventional radiation therapy, patients receive the same treatment plan across multiple treatment sessions. However, adaptive therapy may apply several adjustments or lead to a completely new treatment plan in order to address changes to the tumor’s condition over the course of treatment. </p>
<p>Historically, the concept of adaptive therapy was more theoretical than practical. It <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2021.634507">faced many challenges</a>, including a lack of suitable imaging technologies. Additionally, creating a treatment plan involves heavy computational work and collaboration among various specialties within a care team. The fact that the process needs to be repeated multiple times renders adaptive therapy particularly resource-intensive and time-consuming. However, researchers are looking into ways to use artificial intelligence to automate some of these steps to make this approach more practical.</p>
<h2>Brachytherapy</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/brachytherapy/about/pac-20385159">Brachytherapy</a> – stemming from the Greek word “brachys,” meaning “short” – is another widely used method in radiation therapy. It involves placing a radioactive source called a seed near or directly inside a tumor or affected area, reducing the distance from the radiation source to its target.</p>
<p>In contrast to external beam radiation therapy, where radiation often must pass through healthy tissue to reach cancer cells, brachytherapy applies radiation directly to the tumor. This technique is particularly advantageous for certain cancer types that are accessible through noninvasive or minimally invasive procedures, such as skin cancers, gynecological tumors and genitourinary tumors.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566404/original/file-20231218-20-l1gzeq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram showing the insertion of high-dose radioactive wires to treat prostate cancer" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566404/original/file-20231218-20-l1gzeq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566404/original/file-20231218-20-l1gzeq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566404/original/file-20231218-20-l1gzeq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566404/original/file-20231218-20-l1gzeq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566404/original/file-20231218-20-l1gzeq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566404/original/file-20231218-20-l1gzeq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566404/original/file-20231218-20-l1gzeq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By placing the radioactive source inside the body, brachytherapy can target tumors more directly than external beam radiotherapy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diagram_showing_how_you_have_high_dose_brachytherapy_for_prostate_cancer_CRUK_419.svg">Cancer Research UK/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The conventional approach to brachytherapy involved using needles to place or inject radioactive seeds inside or adjacent to the cancerous tissue. These seeds would remain in the body either temporarily or permanently, with the goal of irradiating the area at a low dose over a long period of time. </p>
<p>An increasingly popular form of brachytherapy called <a href="https://hillman.upmc.com/cancer-care/radiation-oncology/treatment/internal/high-dose-rate-brachytherapy-hdr">high-dose rate brachytherapy</a> involves using a tube to guide a more highly radioactive seed directly to the affected tissue before removing it after a few minutes. The seed emits a high dose of radiation in a short period of time, which enables clinicians to treat patients quickly in an outpatient setting.</p>
<h2>Future of radiation therapy</h2>
<p>Radiation therapy is continually evolving to more effectively and precisely treat cancer. </p>
<p>For example, a technique that delivers radiation at an ultra-high rate <a href="https://www.mdanderson.org/cancerwise/is-flash-the-future-of-radiation-therapy.h00-159621801.html">called FLASH-RT</a> has shown promise in its ability to increase dosages without excessive toxicity. Researchers are also exploring treatments using <a href="https://www.particle.or.jp/hirtjapan/en/what/">ions heavier than protons</a> to more effectively damage DNA in cancer cells and enhance the efficacy of radiation therapy.</p>
<p>Advances in the field hint at a future of more personalized radiation therapy, highlighting the fusion of technology and medical expertise in the fight against cancer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Radiotherapy takes many forms: from directing powerful high-energy beams toward specific areas of the body to placing radioactive seeds right next to tumors.Behzad Ebrahimi, Assistant Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology, University of ChicagoMark Korpics, Assistant Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2149162023-12-04T22:27:20Z2023-12-04T22:27:20ZPublic health errors: Why it’s crucial to understand what they are before assessing COVID-19 responses<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/public-health-errors-why-its-crucial-to-understand-what-they-are-before-assessing-covid-19-responses" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Joe Vipond, a Canadian emergency room physician who was a strong supporter of masking during the pandemic, <a href="https://www.una.ca/1385/worlds-slow-recognition-of-airborne-transmission-of-covid-was-most-egregious-public-health-error-in-modern-history">said in a speech last year</a> that the slow recognition that COVID-19 is spread by airborne transmission resulted in what is likely “the most egregious public health error in modern history.”</p>
<p>The notion that governments can commit public health errors in response to a public health emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic — and that these errors can negatively impact a large number of people — has begun to receive attention from the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johndrake/2021/05/30/was-covid-19-a-failure-of-policy-or-a-failure-of-information/?sh=7e78786f457a">scientific community and the popular press</a>. Public health measures such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/briefing/masks-mandates-us-covid.html">mask mandates</a>, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/10/lockdowns-single-biggest-public-health-mistake-history-says/">lockdowns</a>, <a href="https://vinayprasadmdmph.substack.com/p/anthony-fauci-still-wont-admit-that">school closures</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-008684">vaccine mandates</a> are now widely discussed.</p>
<p>However, how can we investigate why governments err without understanding first what a public health error is, and is not? As a public health errors scholar, it strikes me how little research has been done <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0b013e3181bee698">on this topic</a>, and how much confusion exists around <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/PHH.0b013e3181e030d3">what constitutes a public health error</a>.</p>
<h2>What is a public health error?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/jme.2023.67">a new paper</a>, I clarify these issues, offer a new definition of the concept, and explain why studying errors contributes to our understanding of public health policy.</p>
<p>I suggest that a public health error occurs when, in retrospect, a policy choice worsens public health. This decision must either cause direct and significantly greater harm to the public or fail to effectively prevent harm, compared to other available options. Based on those criteria, there are two broad types of errors:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Error of action</strong>. Interventions that directly caused harm to population health and were worse than doing nothing at all.</li>
<li><strong>Error of omission</strong>. Failure to take action when measures were needed to protect the health of the population.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Errors of action</h2>
<p>Examples of the first type include public health interventions and campaigns. For instance, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-generation-of-canadian-children-was-given-radiation-treatment-and-never-warned-of-the-cancer-risks-116403">public health campaigns in the 1950s</a> using low-dose radiation to treat benign illnesses (that is, not for treating cancer), such as acne and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ringworm-and-irradiation-9780197568965?cc=ca&lang=en&">ringworm</a>. Children and young adults treated with radiation showed an alarming tendency to develop <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304763">brain tumours, thyroid cancer and other ailments</a> as adults.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-generation-of-canadian-children-was-given-radiation-treatment-and-never-warned-of-the-cancer-risks-116403">A generation of Canadian children was given radiation treatment and never warned of the cancer risks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Other examples include the approval of a faulty drug, like the drug <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfr088">Thalidomide</a> prescribed to pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s for the treatment of nausea. The drug caused irreversible fetal damage, <a href="https://thalidomide.ca/en/">resulting in thousands of children being born with severe congenital malformations</a>. The painkiller <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.045206">Vioxx</a> that caused heart attacks and strokes is a more recent example of an error of action.</p>
<p>Erroneous guidelines provide yet another example of this type of error. For example, a recommendation in the United States <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMms2206281">to give increased radiation doses to Black people</a> compared to other populations during X-ray procedures (a practice called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMms2004740">race correction</a>”).</p>
<h2>Errors of omission</h2>
<p>The second category of errors includes instances of inaction or cases when public health officials were not doing enough to protect the public. For example, the failure to act against <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Cigarette_Century.html?id=yybaN6j4IpEC&redir_esc=y">the harmful effects of tobacco</a>; the delayed action to reduce <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144215623954">child poisoning caused by lead paint inside U.S. homes</a>; or the time it took for government officials to respond to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.5942/jawwa.2016.108.0195">elevated levels of lead</a> found in the drinking water of residences in Flint, Mich. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phaa031">Health Canada’s delayed and inadequate response to evidence of addiction and misuse associated with the opioid OxyContin</a> is another example of an error of omission.</p>
<h2>The question of blame</h2>
<p>Naturally, when the public is harmed, people want someone to blame, and culpability (such as acts of negligence or carelessness) often becomes our central focus. While understandable, this approach is misguided. Instead, I strongly suggest focusing on the consequences of public health choices — and the systematic factors leading to these outcomes — rather than on blame.</p>
<p>Doing so (removing blame) better aligns with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/1091">goal of public health</a>, which is to maintain and promote the health of populations. In this sense, public health errors of action or omission are contrary to this aim: causing or failing to prevent harm to the public, whether they are culpable or not.</p>
<p>That brings me to a possible definition of error. I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/jme.2023.67">define a public health error</a> as “an action or omission, by public health officials, whose consequences for population health were substantially worse than those of an alternative that could have been chosen, regardless of the causal processes involved in the consequences.”</p>
<h2>Back to COVID</h2>
<p>As the COVID-19 pandemic fades, but remains a prominent public health concern, I welcome the debate about whether public health responses could have been better. I suggest we follow four simple rules, rooted in my public health errors lens to better assess our actions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Stop focusing on blame (to err is human). Instead, assess the structural factors leading to negative outcomes, such as how science is interpreted, political pressure and decision-making procedures. After all, the goal is to improve and learn from mistakes rather than pointing out blameworthy actors. Allocating blame leads to unnecessary politicization of the process and findings.</p></li>
<li><p>Fight your biases and acknowledge that both the failure to act when measures were needed and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4074">the interventions in response to the virus</a> can either cause harm or fail to prevent harm to the public.</p></li>
<li><p>Be humble when interpreting the evidence. It is often difficult to compare different types of harms and benefits. Our actions (or inactions) can have both short-term and long-term effects on health and beyond.</p></li>
<li><p>Assess the impact of our public health measures on the most vulnerable, such as marginalized communities, the poor, disabled individuals and those struggling with addiction disorders. They might be the most susceptible to the consequences of our decisions.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Moving forward, it is time to set aside our political and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-covid-science-wars1/">scientific battles</a> so we can work together to examine our mistakes, preventing their recurrence in the future. This task is not easy and requires a thorough and transparent investigation. However, it is essential for protecting the public’s health and rebuilding trust in the medical profession.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214916/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Itai Bavli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the COVID-19 pandemic fades, we may debate whether public health responses could have been better. But first we need to understand what public health errors are — and are not.Itai Bavli, Postdoctoral research fellow, Applied Ethics, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2158362023-10-23T15:56:50Z2023-10-23T15:56:50ZDecontaminating Fukushima: have the billions spent been worth it?<p>The Chernobyl and (to a lesser extent) Fukushima nuclear accidents contaminated large areas of land with low-level radioactivity. After both accidents, huge efforts were taken to decontaminate the affected areas. </p>
<p>But a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301811120">recent study</a> at Fukushima raises doubts about whether these decontamination efforts were worthwhile. Less than one-third of the population has returned to the evacuated zones and extensive areas of forest in the region remain contaminated.</p>
<p>Following the accident at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011, approximately <a href="https://soil.copernicus.org/articles/5/333/2019/#section2">1,100 square kilometres</a> were evacuated, resulting in the relocation of more than 100,000 people from their homes. A contaminated area <a href="https://soil.copernicus.org/articles/5/333/2019/#section2">about eight times larger</a> remained inhabited, albeit subject to continuous radiation monitoring.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fukushima-ten-years-on-from-the-disaster-was-japans-response-right-156554">Fukushima: ten years on from the disaster, was Japan's response right?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The dominant source of radiation exposure for people stemmed from gamma rays emitted by contaminated soils, pavements, roads and buildings. The objective of the decontamination operation was to ensure that the general public received an annual dose from Fukushima’s radioactivity of less than 1,000 microsieverts (µSv) above the natural background level. The average natural radiation dose in Japan <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6498/ab73b1">stands at 2,200 µSv per year</a>.</p>
<p>Radiocaesium, which is the most important long-lived radioactive element emitted by the accident in terms of radiation dose, adheres to soil particles very strongly. Consequently, the decontamination of agricultural land primarily involved removing the top 5cm of soil. In urban areas, decontamination efforts entailed the removal of topsoil from sports fields, as well as sandblasting or pressure washing hard surfaces, and pressure washing drains and gutters. </p>
<p>These efforts <a href="https://www.pref.fukushima.lg.jp/uploaded/attachment/466744.pdf">reduced doses by about 60%</a> in residential areas and farmland, allowing people to return to their homes in a large part of the evacuated area. This is a far cry from Chernobyl, where extensive decontamination initiatives were ultimately abandoned, leaving huge evacuated areas that remain empty to this day. But was undertaking decontamination in Fukushima worthwhile? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554937/original/file-20231020-29-2lze65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map of the decontamination area in Fukushima." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554937/original/file-20231020-29-2lze65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554937/original/file-20231020-29-2lze65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554937/original/file-20231020-29-2lze65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554937/original/file-20231020-29-2lze65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554937/original/file-20231020-29-2lze65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554937/original/file-20231020-29-2lze65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554937/original/file-20231020-29-2lze65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map of the decontamination area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://josen.env.go.jp/en/decontamination/">Ministry of the Environment/Government of Japan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Costs and benefits</h2>
<p>Decontaminating the land in Fukushima has cost <a href="https://soil.copernicus.org/articles/5/333/2019/#section3">tens of billions of dollars</a>. The process has, unfortunately, also caused substantial radiation exposure for the workers involved, and has generated <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00223131.2021.1974596?casa_token=9FVbYrMA-pgAAAAA%3AyvolWXRGBfsBUuNpIZTwCKK1OW33uMRa8HXKZzPZHfXTWYG3q4lhyOK7cA2ybEhoy1JK26vToDQ">huge amounts</a> of radioactive soil waste. But the question of whether to decontaminate land is complex and only partially related to scientific evidence.</p>
<p>On the one hand, decontamination <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6498/acf504/meta">provides reassurance</a> that radiation is being “cleaned up” and that doses are being reduced. But it can also give the impression that low-level radiation is more dangerous than it actually is. </p>
<p>Dose rates were not dangerously high in many areas of Fukushima that were subject to decontamination. In fact, <a href="https://www.unscear.org/unscear/uploads/documents/unscear-reports/UNSCEAR_2020_21_Report_Vol.II-CORR.pdf">doses were relatively low</a> in the first year following the accident (less than 12,000 µSv), and these levels decreased significantly in subsequent years. </p>
<p>These levels fall within the <a href="https://www.unscear.org/docs/publications/2000/UNSCEAR_2000_Annex-B.pdf">natural range people are exposed to</a> from radioactivity in rocks, soils, building materials and cosmic radiation worldwide (typically between 1,000 µSv and 10,000 µSv per year, but sometimes higher). </p>
<p>On balance, I think the reassurance that contamination was being cleaned up was valuable in many areas where people remained living. Decontamination also allowed agricultural land to be returned to productive use more quickly. However, the process of removing topsoil had the side effect of <a href="https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=rn:48070955">damaging soil fertility</a>.</p>
<h2>Accidental rewilding</h2>
<p>In the evacuated zone where dose rates were around ten times higher, it’s less clear that decontamination was beneficial. Only 30% of people have returned to their homes in the decontaminated part of this area and much of the land in the most contaminated so-called “difficult to return zone” remains abandoned. </p>
<p>A better option may have been to declare most of this zone a nature reserve and allow managed rewilding of the area. Rewilding <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2149">is happening to a large extent anyway</a>, as it has <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(15)00988-4.pdf">at Chernobyl</a>. It would also have avoided decontamination workers being exposed to radiation and allowed more financial support to help people relocate. </p>
<p>But this is a complex decision that needs to consider the views of many stakeholders, not least the evacuated people themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554564/original/file-20231018-23-f1tv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A fox with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554564/original/file-20231018-23-f1tv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554564/original/file-20231018-23-f1tv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554564/original/file-20231018-23-f1tv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554564/original/file-20231018-23-f1tv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554564/original/file-20231018-23-f1tv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554564/original/file-20231018-23-f1tv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554564/original/file-20231018-23-f1tv9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A fox within the Chernobyl exclusion zone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/fox-goes-chernobyl-npp-on-background-1393369631">DL Community/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fukushima’s contaminated forests</h2>
<p>The land in and around the region’s towns and villages has generally been decontaminated effectively. However, much of the Fukushima Prefecture (71%) is <a href="https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/57048">covered by forest</a>. Most of this forest remains contaminated.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/35012139">persistence of radiocaesium in ecosystems</a>, particularly in forests, has been known for many decades. Globally, radiocaesium levels in wild foodstuffs such as mushrooms, edible plants, game animals and freshwater fish tend to be higher than those found in agricultural systems.</p>
<p>Wild boar in certain regions of Germany, for instance, still exhibit radicaesium levels <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.3c03565">exceeding consumption limits</a> as a consequence of both Chernobyl and historical nuclear weapons testing. Restrictions on the consumption of forest products have lasted for decades following the Chernobyl incident. And they are <a href="https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/57048">expected to persist</a> in many forested areas of Fukushima too. </p>
<p>Radiocaesium lingers in forests due to the prevalence of organic soils and the absence of fertiliser application. Low nutrient levels facilitate the absorption of radiocaesium by plants. This is mainly attributed to radiocaesium’s chemical similarity to potassium, a crucial plant nutrient.</p>
<p>Forests do pose a wildfire risk. There have been many forest fires in the vicinity of Chernobyl since the accident. But radiation doses from smoke inhalation <a href="https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ieam.4424">are extremely low</a>, even for firefighters, and the fires have not significantly redistributed radioactivity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A wild boar in a forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554847/original/file-20231019-23-qq48o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554847/original/file-20231019-23-qq48o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554847/original/file-20231019-23-qq48o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554847/original/file-20231019-23-qq48o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554847/original/file-20231019-23-qq48o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554847/original/file-20231019-23-qq48o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554847/original/file-20231019-23-qq48o7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wild boars roaming forests in Germany’s south contain high levels of radiocaesium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wildboar-natural-habitat-sus-scrofa-bavarian-1242323737">JaklZdenek/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are no easy answers regarding clean up after a nuclear accident. Japan has made huge and often successful efforts to reduce radiation doses and reassure people living in or returning to the affected areas. But low-level radiation remains everywhere, particularly in forests. </p>
<p>We need to remember, though, that the radiation doses are almost always very low. The biological effects of radiation from nuclear accidents – primarily DNA damage – are the same as those from the natural radiation we are all exposed to from the food we eat and in our surrounding environment. While the dose rates for workers during an accident can be extremely high, those from radiation in the environment are low in the longer term.</p>
<p>Millions of people worldwide receive higher annual natural radiation doses than the residents of the Fukushima zones without even worrying about it.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 20,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jim Smith is the founder and a Director of The Chernobyl Spirit Company, a social enterprise producing spirits from crops grown in areas affected by Chernobyl. Profits got to support Chernobyl affected areas in Ukraine.
More than 5 years ago Jim did small consultancy contracts on behalf of his University for various organisations including the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. He has previously had a grant from the UK Natural Environment Research Council, part funded by Radioactive Waste Management Limited. He currently has no relevant external funding and does not do external consultancy. </span></em></p>Japan has undertaken extensive efforts to decontaminate land in Fukushima – whether they were they right to do so is a complex question.Jim Smith, Professor of Environmental Science, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088592023-10-02T19:11:50Z2023-10-02T19:11:50ZWhat has the Nobel Prize in Physics ever done for me?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551265/original/file-20230930-15-nkkytb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/luminous-white-led-bulb-on-wooden-2096282497">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each October, physics is in the news with the awarding of the Nobel Prize. The work acknowledged through this most prestigious award often seems far removed from our everyday lives, with prizes given for things like “<a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1966/">optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms</a>” and “<a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1999/">elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions</a>”.</p>
<p>However, these lauded advances in our basic understanding of the world often have very real, practical consequences for society.</p>
<p>To take just a few examples, Nobel-winning physics has given us portable computers, efficient LED lighting, climate modelling and radiation treatment of cancer. </p>
<h2>Thin magnets and portable computers</h2>
<p>In 2007, the physics Nobel was awarded jointly to Peter Grünberg and Albert Fert for the discovery of “<a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2007/press-release/">giant magnetoresistance</a>”. </p>
<p>In the late 1980s, Grünberg and Fert (and their research groups) were independently studying very thin layers of magnets. They both noticed that electricity flowed through the layers differently depending on the direction of the magnetic fields.</p>
<p>These teams were looking to understand fundamental properties of very thin magnets. However, their findings led to something we now take for granted: portable computers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo of an opened hard drive on a yellow background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551266/original/file-20230930-27-sxcuty.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551266/original/file-20230930-27-sxcuty.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551266/original/file-20230930-27-sxcuty.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551266/original/file-20230930-27-sxcuty.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551266/original/file-20230930-27-sxcuty.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551266/original/file-20230930-27-sxcuty.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551266/original/file-20230930-27-sxcuty.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘giant magnetoresistance’ effect won its discoverers the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics – and made portable hard drives possible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hard-disk-drive-open-cover-computer-2115380288">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the time, most computers stored information on a hard disk drive made of a magnetic material. To read the information from the drive, a very small and very accurate magnetic field sensor is needed. </p>
<p>The discovery of giant magnetoresistance allowed for the development of far more sensitive sensors, which in turn made hard disk drives and computers smaller. (Today, magnetic hard disk drives are being overtaken by even smaller <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive">solid state drives</a>.)</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-store-data-on-magnets-the-size-of-a-single-atom-82601">How to store data on magnets the size of a single atom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In short, we would not have laptops without the discovery that won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics. </p>
<p>The effect of this research – like that of so much fundamental research – was completely unanticipated.</p>
<h2>A light bulb moment</h2>
<p>Sometimes, however, physics research does have a practical goal all along. One such example is the quest for energy-efficient lighting.</p>
<p>Old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs are highly inefficient. Because they work by heating a wire until it glows, they waste a lot of energy as heat. In fact, less than 10% of the energy they consume goes to producing light. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, scientists realised light emitting diodes, or LEDs – small electronic components that emit light of a specific colour – would make more efficient light sources. But there was a problem. Although red and green LEDs had been developed in the middle of the twentieth century, nobody knew how to make a blue LED.</p>
<p>LEDs are thin sandwiches of materials that respond to electricity in a very particular way. When an electron moves from one energy level to another inside the material, it emits light of a specific colour. </p>
<p>All three colours of light (red, green and blue) would be needed to produce the kind of white light people want in their homes and workplaces. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo of a strip of blue LED lights against a dark background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551274/original/file-20231001-19-qlom3i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551274/original/file-20231001-19-qlom3i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551274/original/file-20231001-19-qlom3i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551274/original/file-20231001-19-qlom3i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551274/original/file-20231001-19-qlom3i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551274/original/file-20231001-19-qlom3i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551274/original/file-20231001-19-qlom3i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The invention of blue LEDs made it possible to create white light far more efficiently than with incandescent bulbs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vertical-shot-blue-led-tape-glowing-2101501642">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early 1990s, in the culmination of almost 30 years of work by many groups, the missing blue LEDs were found. In 2014, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2014/press-release/">received the physics Nobel</a> for the discovery. </p>
<p>The layers of material chosen to make up the sandwich, plus the quality of each layer, had to be refined in order to make the first blue LED. Since the initial discovery, materials scientists have continued to improve the design and manufacture to make blue LEDs more efficient.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/your-phone-screen-just-won-the-nobel-prize-in-physics-32456">Your phone screen just won the Nobel Prize in physics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Lighting accounts for up to 20% of total electricity consumption. LEDs use roughly <a href="https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/energy-efficiency-and-reducing-emissions/save-energy-in-the-home/lighting/choose-the-right-led-lighting">one sixth as much energy</a> as incandescent light bulbs. They also last much longer, with a lifetime of around 25,000 hours. </p>
<h2>Climate models, radiation and beyond</h2>
<p>Environmental endeavours are probably not what springs to mind when you think of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Yet another example also comes to mind, the study of a chaotic and complex system with great importance to us all: Earth’s climate.</p>
<p>Half of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics was given to Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann, scientists who developed <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2021/summary/">early models for Earth’s weather and climate</a>. Their work also linked global warming to human activity.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white photograph portrait of a woman." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551275/original/file-20231001-17-ef6emp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551275/original/file-20231001-17-ef6emp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551275/original/file-20231001-17-ef6emp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551275/original/file-20231001-17-ef6emp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551275/original/file-20231001-17-ef6emp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551275/original/file-20231001-17-ef6emp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551275/original/file-20231001-17-ef6emp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for her work on radioactivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie#/media/File:Marie_Curie_c._1920s.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of the 222 people awarded the physics Nobel since 1901, <a href="https://theconversation.com/and-then-there-were-three-finally-another-woman-awarded-a-nobel-prize-in-physics-104323">only three have been women</a>. The most famous of those three is perhaps Marie Curie, who took home one quarter of the prize in 1903. </p>
<p>Curie’s work on understanding how atoms can decay into other kinds of atoms, producing nuclear radiation, profoundly changed life in the twentieth century.</p>
<p>The study of nuclear radiation led to the development of nuclear weapons, but also to radiation treatment for cancer. And further, it has led to carbon dating to determine the age of artefacts, allowing us to better understand <a href="https://www.ansto.gov.au/news/radiocarbon-dating-supports-aboriginal-occupation-of-south-australia-for-29000-years">ancient civilisations</a>. </p>
<p>So when we find out who is awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, no matter what it’s for – and prospects include research on quantum computing, “slow light” and “self-assembling matter” – we can be sure of one thing. The awarded research will likely end up affecting our lives in extraordinary ways that may not at first be apparent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Livesey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The science that wins the Nobel Prize in Physics each year can be hard to get your head around – but it often has real everyday implications.Karen Livesey, Senior Lecturer of Physics, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2107612023-09-19T12:20:32Z2023-09-19T12:20:32ZSpending time in space can harm the human body − but scientists are working to mitigate these risks before sending people to Mars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545125/original/file-20230828-27-8wodoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3649%2C2434&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With NASA planning more missions to space in the future, scientists are studying how to mitigate health hazards that come with space flight. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RocketLaunch/45d363b2268349d4a85f5c9f112757e1/photo?Query=space%20launch&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=732&currentItemNo=12&vs=true">AP Photo/John Raoux</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When <a href="https://www.space.com/record-17-people-in-earth-orbit-at-once">17 people</a> were in orbit around the Earth all at the same time on May 30, 2023, it set a record. With NASA and other federal space agencies planning more manned missions and commercial companies bringing people to space, opportunities for human space travel are rapidly expanding. </p>
<p>However, traveling to space poses risks to the human body. Since NASA wants to send a manned <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars">mission to Mars</a> in the 2030s, scientists need to find solutions for these hazards sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>As a kinesiologist who works with astronauts, I’ve spent years <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KaVh79oAAAAJ&hl=en">studying the effects</a> space can have on the body and brain. I’m also involved in a NASA project that aims to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/5-hazards-of-human-spaceflight">mitigate the health hazards</a> that participants of a future mission to Mars might face.</p>
<h2>Space radiation</h2>
<p>The Earth has a protective shield called a <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics/focus-areas/magnetosphere-ionosphere">magnetosphere</a>, which is the area of space around a planet that is <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics/focus-areas/magnetosphere-ionosphere">controlled by its magnetic field</a>. This shield filters out <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/cosmic-radiation.html">cosmic radiation</a>. However, astronauts traveling farther than the International Space Station will face continuous exposure to this radiation – equivalent to between <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/analogs/nsrl/why-space-radiation-matters">150 and 6,000 chest X-rays</a>.</p>
<p>This radiation can harm the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/26896583.2021.1891825">nervous and cardiovascular systems</a> including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/26896583.2021.1891825">heart and arteries</a>, leading to cardiovascular disease. In addition, it can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/26896583.2021.1885283">make the blood-brain barrier leak</a>. This can expose the brain to chemicals and proteins that are harmful to it – compounds that are safe in the blood but toxic to the brain.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9sN9gOEdG4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The blood-brain barrier keeps compounds flowing through your circulatory system out of your brain.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>NASA is developing technology that can shield travelers on a Mars mission from radiation by building deflecting materials such as Kevlar and polyethylene into <a href="https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/astrorad---what-you-wear-in-space-could-save-your-life.html">space vehicles and spacesuits</a>. Certain diets and supplements <a href="https://enterade.com/">such as enterade</a> may also minimize the effects of radiation. Supplements like this, also used in cancer patients on Earth during radiation therapy, can alleviate gastrointestinal side effects of radiation exposure.</p>
<h2>Gravitational changes</h2>
<p>Astronauts have to exercise in space to minimize the muscle loss they’ll face after a long mission. Missions that go as far as Mars will have to make sure <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/benefits/bone_loss.html">astronauts have supplements</a> such as <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/24753-bisphosphonates">bisphosphonate</a>, which is used to prevent bone breakdown in osteoporosis. These supplements should keep their muscles and bones in good condition over long periods of time spent without the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-021-00158-4">effects of Earth’s gravity</a>. </p>
<p>Microgravity also affects the nervous and circulatory systems. On Earth, your heart pumps blood upward, and specialized valves in your circulatory system keep bodily fluids from pooling at your feet. In the absence of gravity, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/life4040621">fluids shift</a> toward the head.</p>
<p>My work and that of others has shown that this results in an expansion of fluid-filled spaces in the middle of the brain. Having extra fluid in the skull and no gravity to “hold the brain down” causes the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.11.017">brain to sit higher in the skull</a>, compressing the top of the brain against the inside of the skull.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545092/original/file-20230828-26-2dggpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a white headset and a suit which has many wires coming out of it and a plastic panel connected to a laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545092/original/file-20230828-26-2dggpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545092/original/file-20230828-26-2dggpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545092/original/file-20230828-26-2dggpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545092/original/file-20230828-26-2dggpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545092/original/file-20230828-26-2dggpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545092/original/file-20230828-26-2dggpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545092/original/file-20230828-26-2dggpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, pictured here, is wearing the Chibis lower body negative pressure suit, which may help counteract the negative effects of gravity-caused fluid shifts in the body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/b4h-3rd/hh-dressing-astronauts-for-return">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These fluid shifts may contribute to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-020-0097-9">spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome</a>, a condition experienced by many astronauts that affects the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bjo-2022-322892">structure and function of the eyes</a>. The back of the eye can become flattened, and the nerves that carry visual information from the eye to the brain swell and bend. Astronauts can still see, though visual function may worsen for some. Though it hasn’t been well studied yet, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-020-0097-9">case studies suggest</a> this condition may persist even a few years after returning to Earth. </p>
<p>Scientists may be able to shift the fluids back toward the lower body using <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/b4h-3rd/hh-dressing-astronauts-for-return">specialized “pants</a>” that pull fluids back down toward the lower body like a vacuum. These pants could be used to redistribute the body’s fluids in a way that is more similar to what occurs on Earth.</p>
<h2>Mental health and isolation</h2>
<p>While space travel can damage the body, the isolating nature of space travel can also have <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.36131/cnfioritieditore20210502">profound effects on the mind</a>. </p>
<p>Imagine having to live and work with the same small group of people, without being able to see your family or friends for months on end. To learn to manage extreme environments and maintain communication and leadership dynamics, astronauts first undergo team training on Earth. </p>
<p>They spend weeks in either <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/index.html">NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations</a> at the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/facilities.html">Aquarius Research Station</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-nine-days-underwater-helps-scientists-understand-what-life-on-a-moon-base-will-be-like-121079">found underwater</a> off the Florida Keys, or mapping and exploring caves with the European Space Agency’s <a href="https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/CAVES_and_Pangaea/What_is_CAVES">CAVES program</a>. These programs help astronauts build camaraderie with their teammates and learn how to manage stress and loneliness in a hostile, faraway environment.</p>
<p>Researchers are studying how to best monitor and support <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/conquering-the-challenge-of-isolation-in-space-nasa-s-human-research-program-director">behavioral mental health</a> under these extreme and isolating conditions. </p>
<p>While space travel comes with stressors and the potential for loneliness, astronauts describe experiencing an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000086">overview effect</a>: a sense of awe and connectedness with all humankind. This often happens when viewing Earth from the International Space Station. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545093/original/file-20230828-123419-a7cdj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Earth, half-obscured by shadow, as seen hanging in darkness, from the Moon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545093/original/file-20230828-123419-a7cdj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545093/original/file-20230828-123419-a7cdj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545093/original/file-20230828-123419-a7cdj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545093/original/file-20230828-123419-a7cdj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545093/original/file-20230828-123419-a7cdj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545093/original/file-20230828-123419-a7cdj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545093/original/file-20230828-123419-a7cdj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Earthrise, a famous image taken during an Apollo mission, shows the Earth from space. While seeing the Earth from afar, many astronauts report feeling an awed ‘overview effect.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthrise#/media/File:NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Learning how to support human health and physiology in space also has numerous <a href="https://technology.nasa.gov/">benefits for life on Earth</a>. For example, products that shield astronauts from space radiation and counter its harmful effects on our body can also treat cancer patients receiving radiation treatments. </p>
<p>Understanding how to protect our bones and muscles in microgravity could improve how doctors treat the frailty that often accompanies aging. And space exploration has led to many technological achievements advancing <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/benefits/water_purification.html">water purification</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/landsat-turns-50-how-satellites-revolutionized-the-way-we-see-and-protect-the-natural-world-186986">satellite systems</a>. </p>
<p>Researchers like me who study ways to preserve astronaut health expect our work will benefit people both in space and here at home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Seidler receives funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Translational Research Institue for Space Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Office of Naval Research.</span></em></p>Space can damage everything from your cardiovascular and nervous systems to your mental health – long voyages can feel isolating for many.Rachael Seidler, Professor of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2102622023-08-01T12:26:50Z2023-08-01T12:26:50ZThe nuclear arms race’s legacy at home: Toxic contamination, staggering cleanup costs and a culture of government secrecy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540032/original/file-20230729-63311-ud8ybo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C7%2C4716%2C3151&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Packaging excavated radioactive materials at the Hanford site in Washington state.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/cpEWtw">USDOE</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Christopher Nolan’s film “<a href="https://www.oppenheimermovie.com/">Oppenheimer</a>” has focused new attention on the legacies of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Manhattan-Project">Manhattan Project</a> – the World War II program to develop nuclear weapons. As the anniversaries of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/atomic-bombings-of-Hiroshima-and-Nagasaki">bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki</a> on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, approach, it’s a timely moment to look further at dilemmas wrought by the creation of the atomic bomb.</p>
<p>The Manhattan Project spawned a trinity of interconnected legacies. It initiated a <a href="https://theconversation.com/hiroshima-attack-marks-its-78th-anniversary-its-lessons-of-unnecessary-mass-destruction-could-help-guide-future-nuclear-arms-talks-210115">global arms race</a> that threatens the survival of humanity and the planet as we know it. It also led to widespread public health and environmental damage from nuclear weapons production and testing. And it generated a culture of governmental secrecy with troubling political consequences.</p>
<p><a href="https://chass.ncsu.edu/people/wjkinsel/">As a researcher</a> examining communication in science, technology, energy and environmental contexts, I’ve studied these <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739119044/Nuclear-Legacies-Communication-Controversy-and-the-U.S.-Nuclear-Weapons-Complex">legacies of nuclear weapons production</a>. From 2000 to 2005, I also served on a <a href="http://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/hab">citizen advisory board</a> that provides input to federal and state officials on a massive environmental cleanup program at the <a href="https://www.hanford.gov/">Hanford nuclear site</a> in Washington state that continues today.</p>
<p>Hanford is less well known than Los Alamos, New Mexico, where scientists designed the first atomic weapons, but it was also crucial to the Manhattan Project. There, an enormous, secret industrial facility produced the plutonium fuel for the <a href="https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/trinity-test-1945/">Trinity test</a> on July 16, 1945, and the bomb that incinerated Nagasaki a few weeks later. (The Hiroshima bomb was fueled by uranium produced in <a href="https://www.energy.gov/em/oak-ridge">Oak Ridge, Tennessee,</a> at another of the principal Manhattan Project sites.) </p>
<p>Later, workers at Hanford <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/doe/pu50yc.html">made most of the plutonium</a> used in the U.S. nuclear arsenal throughout the Cold War. In the process, Hanford became one of the most contaminated places on Earth. Total cleanup costs are projected to reach <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-105809.pdf">up to US$640 billion</a>, and the job won’t be completed for decades, if ever.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/66dALYGDySo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Hanford nuclear site in eastern Washington state is the most toxic site in the U.S.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Victims of nuclear tests</h2>
<p>Nuclear weapons production and testing have harmed public health and the environment in multiple ways. For example, a new study released in preprint form in July 2023 while awaiting scientific peer review finds that fallout from the Trinity nuclear test <a href="https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2307/2307.11040.pdf">reached 46 U.S. states and parts of Canada and Mexico</a>. </p>
<p>Dozens of families who lived near the site – many of them Hispanic or Indigenous – were unknowingly exposed to radioactive contamination. So far, they <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/07/oppenheimer-christopher-nolan-manhattan-project-nuclear-testing-los-alamos-trinity-victims.html">have not been included</a> in the federal program to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/civil/common/reca">compensate uranium miners and “downwinders</a>” who developed radiation-linked illnesses after exposure to later atmospheric nuclear tests. </p>
<p>On July 27, 2023, however, the U.S. Senate voted to extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and <a href="https://www.currentargus.com/story/news/2023/08/01/radiation-nuclear-exposed-new-mexicans-trinity-site-compensated-us-senate-vote-oppenheimer/70484797007/">expand it to communities near the Trinity test site</a> in New Mexico. A companion bill is under consideration in the House of Representatives. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/location/marshall-islands/">largest above-ground U.S. tests</a>, along with tests conducted underwater, took place in the Pacific islands. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and other nations conducted their own testing programs. <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/nucleartesttally">Globally through 2017</a>, nuclear-armed nations exploded 528 weapons above ground or underwater, and an additional 1,528 underground. </p>
<p>Estimating <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-014-0491-1">how many people have suffered health effects</a> from these tests is notoriously difficult. So is accounting for <a href="https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/location/marshall-islands/">disruptions to communities</a> that were displaced by these experiments.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1682786369179992066"}"></div></p>
<h2>Polluted soil and water</h2>
<p>Nuclear weapons production has also exposed many people, communities and ecosystems to radiological and toxic chemical pollution. Here, Hanford offers troubling lessons.</p>
<p>Starting in 1944, workers at the remote site in eastern Washington state irradiated uranium fuel in reactors and then dissolved it in acid to extract its plutonium content. Hanford’s nine reactors, located along the Columbia River to provide a source of cooling water, discharged water <a href="https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=1001114">contaminated with radioactive and hazardous chemicals</a> into the river through <a href="https://ecology.wa.gov/waste-toxics/nuclear-waste/hanford-cleanup/hanford-overview">1987, when the last operating reactor was shut down</a>.</p>
<p>Extracting plutonium from the irradiated fuel, an activity called reprocessing, generated 56 million gallons of liquid waste laced with radioactive and chemical poisons. The wastes were stored in <a href="https://ecology.wa.gov/Waste-Toxics/Nuclear-waste/Hanford-cleanup/Tank-waste-management/Tank-monitoring-closure">underground tanks</a> designed to last 25 years, based on an assumption that a disposal solution would be developed later. </p>
<p>Seventy-eight years after the first tank was built, that solution remains elusive. A project to vitrify, or <a href="https://ecology.wa.gov/Waste-Toxics/Nuclear-waste/Hanford-cleanup/Tank-waste-management/Tank-waste-treatment">embed tank wastes in glass</a> for permanent disposal, has been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/us/nuclear-waste-cleanup.html">mired in technical, managerial and political difficulties</a>, and repeatedly threatened with cancellation. </p>
<p>Now, officials are considering mixing some radioactive sludges <a href="https://crosscut.com/environment/2022/12/hanford-considers-quicker-way-clean-radioactive-waste">with concrete grout</a> and shipping them elsewhere for disposal – or perhaps leaving them in the tanks. Critics regard those proposals as <a href="https://www.hanfordchallenge.org/inheriting-hanford/2023/3/17/should-we-grout-tank-waste-at-hanford">risky compromises</a>. Meanwhile, an <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/energy/safety-resiliency/Pages/Hanford-Tank-Waste.aspx">estimated 1 million gallons</a> of liquid waste have leaked from some tanks into the ground, threatening the Columbia River, a backbone of the Pacific Northwest’s economy and ecology.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540033/original/file-20230729-24848-e523wv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graphic showing cutaways of Hanford radioactive waste tanks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540033/original/file-20230729-24848-e523wv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540033/original/file-20230729-24848-e523wv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540033/original/file-20230729-24848-e523wv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540033/original/file-20230729-24848-e523wv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540033/original/file-20230729-24848-e523wv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540033/original/file-20230729-24848-e523wv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540033/original/file-20230729-24848-e523wv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Underground waste tanks at the Hanford site, many of which are operating decades past their original design life. In total, they hold about 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous wastes. The Department of Energy has removed liquid wastes from all single-shell tanks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-73.pdf">USGAO</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Radioactive trash still litters parts of Hanford. Irradiated bodies of laboratory animals were <a href="https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Workers-uncover-carcasses-of-Hanford-test-animals-1225341.php">buried there</a>. The site houses radioactive debris ranging from medical waste to <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/energy/safety-resiliency/Pages/Naval-Nuclear-Transport.aspx">propulsion reactors from decommissioned submarines</a> and <a href="https://pdw.hanford.gov/document/E0025397?">parts of the reactor</a> that partially melted down at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979. Advocates for a full Hanford cleanup warn that without such a commitment, the site will become a “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Tainted-Desert-Environmental-and-Social-Ruin-in-the-American-West/Kuletz/p/book/9780415917711">national sacrifice zone</a>,” a place abandoned in the name of national security.</p>
<h2>A culture of secrecy</h2>
<p>As the movie “Oppenheimer” shows, government secrecy has shrouded nuclear weapons activities from their inception. Clearly, the science and technology of those weapons have dangerous potential and require careful safeguarding. But <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09505430120052284">as I’ve argued previously</a>, the principle of secrecy quickly expanded more broadly. Here again, Hanford provides an example.</p>
<p>Hanford’s reactor fuel was sometimes reprocessed before its most-highly radioactive isotopes had time to decay. In the 1940s and 1950s, managers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/24/us/northwest-plutonium-plant-had-big-radioactive-emissions-in-40-s-and-50-s.html">knowingly released toxic gases into the air</a>, contaminating farmlands and pastures downwind. Some releases supported an <a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/199602/backpage.cfm">effort to monitor Soviet nuclear progress</a>. By tracking deliberate emissions from Hanford, scientists learned better how to spot and evaluate Soviet nuclear tests.</p>
<p>In the mid-1980s, local residents grew suspicious about an apparent excess of illnesses and deaths in their community. Initially, strict secrecy – reinforced by the region’s economic dependence on the Hanford site – made it hard for concerned citizens to get information.</p>
<p>Once the curtain of secrecy was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09505430120052284">partially lifted</a> under pressure from area residents and journalists, public outrage prompted <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/hanford/background.pdf">two major health effects studies</a> that engendered fierce controversy. By the close of the decade, more than 3,500 “downwinders” had filed lawsuits related to illnesses they attributed to Hanford. A judge finally <a href="http://www.tricityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article57866938.html">dismissed the case</a> in 2016 after awarding limited compensation to a handful of plaintiffs, leaving a bitter legacy of legal disputes and personal anguish.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Au5tjNh87Ec?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Plaintiff Trisha Pritikin and attorney Tom Foulds reflect on 25 years of litigation over illnesses that ‘downwinders’ developed as a result of exposure to Hanford’s radiation releases.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cautionary legacies</h2>
<p>Currently active atomic weapons facilities also have seen their share of nuclear and toxic chemical contamination. Among them, <a href="https://www.lanl.gov/">Los Alamos National Laboratory</a> – home to Oppenheimer’s original compound, and now a site for both military and civilian research – has contended with <a href="https://www.newmexicopbs.org/productions/groundwater-war/2021/02/24/forever-chemicals-found-in-los-alamos-waters/">groundwater pollution</a>, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/federal-watchdog-identifies-new-workplace-safety-problems-at-los-alamos-lab">workplace hazards</a> related to the toxic metal beryllium, and gaps in emergency planning and <a href="https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2023/07/17/safety-lapses-at-los-alamos-national-laboratory/">worker safety procedures</a>. </p>
<p>As Nolan’s film recounts, J. Robert Oppenheimer and many other Manhattan Project scientists had <a href="https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2021-05/features/once-more-into-breach-physicists-mobilize-again-counter-nuclear-threat">deep concerns</a> about how their work might create unprecedented dangers. Looking at the legacies of the Trinity test, I wonder whether any of them imagined the scale and scope of those outcomes.</p>
<p><em>This is an update of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cold-wars-toxic-legacy-costly-dangerous-cleanups-at-atomic-bomb-production-sites-90378">article</a> originally published March 5, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210262/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Kinsella served with the citizen advisory board for the Hanford site cleanup from 2000-2005, representing the public interest group Hanford Watch. </span></em></p>Nuclear weapons production and testing contaminated many sites across the US and exposed people unknowingly to radiation and toxic materials. Some have gone uncompensated for decades.William J. Kinsella, Professor Emeritus of Communication, North Carolina State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2092432023-07-18T20:01:59Z2023-07-18T20:01:59Z‘This is the way the world ends’: Nevil Shute’s On the Beach warned us of nuclear annihilation. It’s still a hot-button issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537941/original/file-20230718-17-afp9e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C3%2C1179%2C622&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 1946 nuclear weapon test by the US military at Bikini Atoll, Micronesia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">rawpixel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most haunting poems of the 20th century, <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/t-s-eliot">T.S. Eliot</a>’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hollow_Men">The Hollow Men</a> (1925), concludes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is the way the world ends<br>
Not with a bang but a whimper.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1958, on his 70th birthday, Eliot was asked whether he would consider writing these lines, probably his most quoted, again. His answer was both noteworthy and categorical. </p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780203197479-81/henry-hewes-eliot-seventy-interview-eliot-saturday-review-13-september-1958-vol-xli-30%E2%80%932-michael-grant">admitted</a> he would not. He said that “while the association of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermonuclear_weapon">H-bomb</a> is irrelevant to it, it would today come to everyone’s mind”. (And he was “not sure that the world will end with either”.)</p>
<p>Indeed, Nevil Shute’s classic novel of nuclear annihilation, On the Beach, published in June 1957, used Eliot’s famous lines as an epigraph. And the nuclear threat is still very much at the top of our collective mind.</p>
<p>The Sydney Theatre Company is <a href="https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2023/on-the-beach">staging</a> the very first stage adaptation of Shute’s novel. And <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Oppenheimer</a>, one of 2023’s two most-hyped films, tells the story of the man referred to as “the father of the atomic bomb”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537743/original/file-20230717-243937-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537743/original/file-20230717-243937-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537743/original/file-20230717-243937-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537743/original/file-20230717-243937-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537743/original/file-20230717-243937-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537743/original/file-20230717-243937-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537743/original/file-20230717-243937-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537743/original/file-20230717-243937-93bviy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sydney Theatre Company is staging the first stage adaptation of On the Beach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sydney Theatre Company</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Australia’s most important novel’</h2>
<p>Journalist <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2007/june/1268876839/gideon-haigh/shute-messenger#mtr">Gideon Haigh</a> calls On the Beach “arguably Australia’s most important novel – important in the sense of confronting a mass international audience with the defining issue of the age”. </p>
<p>British-born Shute emigrated in 1950 to Australia, where he lived outside Melbourne. As well as writing novels, he worked as an aeronautical engineer. </p>
<p>The title of On the Beach – which started life as a four-part story called The Last Days on Earth – ostensibly referred to a Royal Navy expression for reassignment. (Shute spent time in the Royal Naval Reserve during the second world war.) However, as readers of Eliot’s poetry will know, the phrase also appears late in The Hollow Men: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In this last of meeting places<br>
We grope together<br>
And avoid speech<br>
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>As in Eliot’s poem, the characters that cluster together in the pages of Shute’s novel, set in and around Melbourne between 1962 and 1963, tend on occasion to avoid speech. </p>
<p>This comes to the fore in the following passage, which focuses on a dinner party hosted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Holmes of the Royal Australian Navy. The atmosphere is both claustrophobic and delirious: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For three hours they danced and drank together, sedulously avoiding any serious topic of conversation. In the warm night the room grew hotter and hotter, coats and ties were jettisoned at an early stage, and the gramophone went on working through an enormous pile of records, half of which Peter had borrowed for the evening. In spite of the wide-open windows behind the fly wire, the room grew full of cigarette smoke.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The reason why the guests at Peter’s party are so keen to avoid serious talk is both simple and depressing. They are trying very hard to forget that they are all going to be dead from radiation poisoning in a matter of months. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537750/original/file-20230717-234969-hkfcq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537750/original/file-20230717-234969-hkfcq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537750/original/file-20230717-234969-hkfcq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537750/original/file-20230717-234969-hkfcq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537750/original/file-20230717-234969-hkfcq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537750/original/file-20230717-234969-hkfcq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537750/original/file-20230717-234969-hkfcq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537750/original/file-20230717-234969-hkfcq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Original cover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AbeBooks</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shute brings the reader up to speed after the dinner party wraps up. A massive nuclear war has devastated the entire northern hemisphere, wiping out all forms of life there. And the radioactive fallout generated during the conflict is now creeping – slowly but surely – into the southern hemisphere. </p>
<p>Shute makes it clear there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about this. In tonally dispassionate prose, he reveals that vast swathes of Australia have already been rendered uninhabitable due to radiation poisoning. The only thing the characters who remain can do is wait. </p>
<p>As Moira Davidson says to the American submarine captain, Dwight Towers: “It’s like waiting to be hung.” Hence the desperate need for moments of temporary respite and distraction.</p>
<p>Different characters deal with the situation in different ways. Those who still have jobs go to work. Those who don’t, stay at home or go shopping. Some, like Moira, take to drink and rail uselessly against the unfairness of it all:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>‘I won’t take it,’ she said vehemently. ‘It’s not fair. No one in the Southern Hemisphere ever dropped a bomb, a hydrogen bomb or a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_bomb">cobalt bomb</a> or any other sort of bomb. We had nothing to do with it. Why should we have to die because other countries nine or ten thousand miles away from us wanted to have a war? It’s so bloody unfair.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Moira’s anger eventually gives way to something approaching resignation. “A tear trickled down beside her nose and she wiped it away irritably; self-pity was a stupid thing, or was it the brandy?” She comes to accept this is “the end of it, the very, very end.” </p>
<p>Moments after this, Moira, who is already gravely ill with radiation poisoning, ends her life. She takes a couple of suicide tablets, puts them in her mouth, and washes them down “with a mouthful of brandy, sitting behind the wheel of her big car”.</p>
<p>This is the way Shute’s novel of nuclear extinction ends: not with a bang but with a whimper. Released at the height of <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-a-cold-war-a-historian-explains-how-rivals-us-and-soviet-union-competed-off-the-battlefield-192238">the Cold War</a>, On the Beach struck a chord with millions of concerned readers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-a-limited-nuclear-war-would-starve-millions-of-people-new-study-reveals-188602">Even a 'limited' nuclear war would starve millions of people, new study reveals</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Usefully entertaining</h2>
<p>By the September of 1957, Shute’s novel – which sold over 100,000 copies within six weeks of initial publication – had been serialised by dozens of American newspapers. A copy had found its way to the desk of John F. Kennedy, the next president of the United States. And Hollywood was about to call. </p>
<p>Directed by Stanley Kramer, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(1959_film)">cinematic adaptation</a> of On the Beach – which was filmed on location in Victoria and showcased the talents of Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire – hit the big screen in December 1959. </p>
<p>Shute famously detested the movie, which received decidedly mixed reviews. In a sense, Shute’s response is surprising, as the novelist clearly wanted to get his message about the perils of nuclear war across to as wide an audience as possible. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537722/original/file-20230717-228160-61j6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537722/original/file-20230717-228160-61j6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537722/original/file-20230717-228160-61j6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537722/original/file-20230717-228160-61j6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537722/original/file-20230717-228160-61j6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537722/original/file-20230717-228160-61j6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537722/original/file-20230717-228160-61j6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537722/original/file-20230717-228160-61j6oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gregory Peck (left) and Ava Gardner (right) in Stanley Kramer’s film of On the Beach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shute’s didactic inclinations are evident towards the end of the novel. “Peter,” the character Mary asks, “why did this all this happen to us?” Even at this late stage, Mary, whose radiation-racked body is spasming uncontrollably, wants to know whether things might have panned out differently. Her husband’s reply is revealing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>‘I don’t know […] Some kinds of silliness you just can’t stop,’ he said. ‘I mean, if a couple of hundred million people all decide that their national honour requires them to drop cobalt bombs upon their neighbour, well, there’s not much that you or I can do about it. The only possible hope would have been to educate them out of their silliness.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Shute makes a similar point in a letter he wrote in 1960. He holds that a popular writer </p>
<blockquote>
<p>can often play the part of the <em>enfant terrible</em> in raising for the first time subjects which ought to be discussed in public and which no statesman cares to approach. In this way, an entertainer may serve a useful purpose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Knowing this, it seems likely Shute would have been delighted to read <a href="https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine-1958-03/page/n119/mode/2up?view=theater">reviews</a> that praised the book’s “emotional wallop” while simultaneously demanding it “be made mandatory reading for all professional diplomats and politicians”. </p>
<p>While the science in the novel was somewhat flawed, Shute’s cautionary tale undoubtedly spoke to the collective zeitgeist. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537755/original/file-20230717-129345-bsbbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537755/original/file-20230717-129345-bsbbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537755/original/file-20230717-129345-bsbbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537755/original/file-20230717-129345-bsbbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537755/original/file-20230717-129345-bsbbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537755/original/file-20230717-129345-bsbbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537755/original/file-20230717-129345-bsbbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537755/original/file-20230717-129345-bsbbnu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shute’s tale spoke to the collective zeitgeist of its time. Pictured: an old Soviet missile in Cuba.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ismael Franciscol/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-if-growing-us-china-rivalry-leads-to-the-worst-war-ever-what-should-australia-do-185294">Friday essay: if growing US-China rivalry leads to 'the worst war ever', what should Australia do?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Enduring influence</h2>
<p>On the Beach was released mere months after the creation of the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/national-committee-sane-nuclear-policy-sane">National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy</a> in the United States, and just before the founding of the <a href="https://cnduk.org/">Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament</a> in the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>Though it seems fair to say Nevil Shute’s general literary standing has diminished in recent years, On the Beach continues to exert a pull on the popular cultural imagination. </p>
<p>The influence of Shute’s novel, which was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(2000_film)">remade</a> in 2000 as a film for Australian television, can be observed in various post-apocalyptic works, including George Miller’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max">Mad Max</a> franchise and the late Cormac McCarthy’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6288.The_Road">The Road</a>. (If anything, the ending of On the Beach is even bleaker than in McCarthy’s masterpiece.) </p>
<p>Shute’s vision of humanity’s self-inflicted destruction is eerily resonant in our time of climate emergency. The nuclear threat remains, too, in our perilous historical moment of <a href="https://theconversation.com/many-once-democratic-countries-continue-to-backslide-becoming-less-free-but-their-leaders-continue-to-enjoy-popular-support-206919">democratic backsliding</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/10/russia-risks-becoming-a-failed-state-in-next-10-years-analysts-say.html">failing nuclear states</a>.</p>
<p>It seems increasingly likely the world as we know it is coming to an end – if it hasn’t already. The question remains: will it be with a bang or a whimper?</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2023/on-the-beach">On The Beach</a> runs at the Sydney Theatre Company 24 July to 12 August 2023, with previews 18–21 July.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Howard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the 1957 worldwide bestseller, Australia is – briefly – the last habitable place on earth, following a nuclear world war. One character asks, as they wait to die: ‘Why did all this happen to us?’Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2076992023-06-16T12:37:28Z2023-06-16T12:37:28ZThe US will send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine – a health physicist explains their military, health and environmental effects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532028/original/file-20230614-21396-ritl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5760%2C3811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Depleted uranium shells will equip M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, also from the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/wEMMNV">Lance Cpl. Julio McGraw, USMC/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Biden administration has agreed to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-set-to-approve-depleted-uranium-tank-rounds-for-ukraine-f6d98dcf">provide Ukraine with depleted uranium shells</a> to equip M1A1 Abrams tanks that the U.S. is sending there. Britain has already delivered tanks to Ukraine equipped with depleted-uranium shells.</em></p>
<p><em>DU munitions, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radtown/depleted-uranium">developed in the 1970s</a>, are not nuclear weapons and do not produce a nuclear explosion. But soldiers or civilians can be exposed to the uranium, either in combat or afterward. Health physicist <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kathryn-Higley">Kathryn Higley</a> explains what depleted uranium is and what’s known about potential health and environmental risks.</em></p>
<h2>What is depleted uranium?</h2>
<p>Uranium, symbolized by the letter U, is a naturally occurring element that is radioactive. Natural uranium is composed primarily of three isotopes: U-234, U-235 and U-238. </p>
<p>These isotopes are all uranium and have the same chemical characteristics, but they have slightly different masses, as indicated by the numbers 234, 235 and 238. Depleted uranium is mainly U-238, with small amounts of other isotopes, including U-235. </p>
<p>The isotope U-235 <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/fissile-material.html">is fissile</a>, which means that it can be split in a reaction that releases a lot of energy. U-235 in fairly low concentrations is used as fuel in commercial nuclear reactors; in high concentrations, it can power nuclear weapons. </p>
<p>Engineers use <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/ur-enrichment.html">a process called enrichment</a> to extract U-235 from natural uranium ore. What’s left over after this process removes some of the U-235 is called depleted uranium. </p>
<p>All uranium is radioactive, and each isotope <a href="https://www.iaea.org/topics/spent-fuel-management/depleted-uranium">has its own unique half-life</a>. U-238, the most abundant naturally occurring isotope, constitutes about 99.27% of all natural uranium. It takes approximately 4.5 billion years – roughly the life of the Earth – for half of a given quantity of uranium-238 to decay into other elements. U-235 has a half life of about 700 million years and represents about 0.72% of natural uranium. </p>
<p>Depleted uranium is <a href="https://www.iaea.org/topics/spent-fuel-management/depleted-uranium">about 40% less radioactive than natural uranium</a>. All isotopes of uranium decay over time, emitting both radiation and energetic particles and transforming into different chemical elements. In this process, they produce specific isotopes of other radioactive elements such as thorium, protactinium and radium.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KiJQSIrIIio?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Depleted uranium tank shells are extremely hard and dense and can penetrate the walls of Russian tanks.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why is depleted uranium used in munitions?</h2>
<p>Depleted uranium can be manufactured into a very dense material – <a href="https://hps.org/documents/dufactsheet.pdf">about 1.7 times more dense than lead</a>. This gives it some desirable characteristics in munitions.</p>
<p>Because DU is a byproduct of the nuclear fuel cycle, plenty of it is readily available. Formed into a projectile, such as a bullet or shell, its high density helps the munition penetrate into a target. Advanced tanks use DU in their armor to protect against armor-piercing munitions.</p>
<p>DU’s density also gives the munition a higher momentum, which enables it to push through materials. Once the munition penetrates a target, it may fragment into smaller pieces and ignite, <a href="https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/consumer/depleted-uranium/penetrators.html">causing further damage</a>. </p>
<h2>Where have depleted uranium munitions been used?</h2>
<p>Depleted uranium munitions have been used in the Gulf War in 1990-1991, the Kosovo conflict in the Balkans in 1998-1999 and in U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to the U.S. and the U.K., Russia, France and China are known to have DU munitions in their arsenals, and other <a href="https://www.icbuw.eu/depleted-uranium-weapons-state-of-affairs-2022/">countries may be importing them</a>. </p>
<p>DU also has nonmilitary applications. Its high density makes it useful for stopping radiation in medical, research and nuclear facilities. It can also be used as ballast to balance weight and provide stability in ships and aircraft. </p>
<p>The alpha radiation that DU emits is not strong enough to penetrate human skin, so <a href="https://www.webmd.com/health-insurance/what-to-know-depleted-uranium-exposure-veterans">just being near depleted uranium is not a health risk</a>. But it may become a health hazard if it is <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radtown/depleted-uranium">ingested or inhaled</a>, or shrapnel fragments are <a href="https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/toxic_fragments/index.asp">retained in the body</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A row of munitions with pointed tips" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532030/original/file-20230614-23-o4fbdf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Army 25 mm rounds of depleted uranium ammunition, photographed Feb. 11, 2004, in Tikrit, Iraq.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/row-of-us-army-25mm-rounds-of-depleted-uranium-ammunition-news-photo/2973518">Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Will these munitions create health or environmental risks on Ukrainian soil?</h2>
<p>Numerous studies have investigated the <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/66930/W?sequence=1">potential health effects</a> of <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1106087.pdf">exposure to depleted uranium</a>. They include health studies of soldiers hit by DU shrapnel, and biomonitoring – collecting samples of urine, feces, fingernail clippings and hair from exposed individuals. Investigations have included reviews of military personnel exposed <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11979/review-of-the-toxicologic-and-radiologic-risks-to-military-personnel-from-exposures-to-depleted-uranium-during-and-after-combat">during and after combat</a>.</p>
<p>Some studies have observed uranium above natural concentrations in samples collected from soldiers serving in the Gulf War, Bosnia and Afghanistan who had embedded DU fragments in their bodies. In other instances, researchers studying <a href="https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/medically-unexplained-illness.asp">Gulf War Illness</a> in veterans did not find a difference in uranium concentrations in urine between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82535-3">exposed and unexposed groups</a>. </p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Defense and Veterans Administration started monitoring service members for DU exposure during the Gulf War, and this program is still running. So far, the agencies have not observed adverse clinical effects <a href="https://www.health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Health-Readiness/Environmental-Exposures/Depleted-Uranium/Effects-and-Exposures/Health-Effects">related to documented exposures</a>.</p>
<p>Fragments and much smaller particles from exploded DU munitions can remain in soil long after conflicts end. This has raised concerns about possible radiation or toxic threats to people who come across these materials, such as local residents or peacekeeping forces. In general, studies of people who were inadvertently exposed to battlefield remnants of depleted uranium munitions show <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.03.024">low radiation doses</a> and <a href="https://www-pub.iaea.org/mtcd/publications/pdf/pub1164_web.pdf">low levels of chemical exposure</a> that were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jes.7500551">generally indistinguishable from background level</a>. </p>
<p>In terms of environmental impacts, the scientific literature is largely silent on the extent to which plants or animals can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.106077">absorb DU from munition fragments</a>, although laboratory studies indicate that this is possible. Researchers and health professionals agree that very high levels of uranium, depleted or otherwise, may cause chemical toxicity in plants – but if this were to happen, it would likely be in the immediate vicinity <a href="https://doi.org/10.2172/4296157">where the munitions exploded</a>. Scientists continue to examine how DU particles behave in the environment, in order to improve our ability to predict <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.106077">long-term environmental effects</a>.</p>
<p>It’s already clear that large areas of Ukraine’s territory will contain the residues of conflict, including <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230221-the-toxic-legacy-of-the-ukraine-war">weapon fragments, spilled fuels and explosive residues</a>, long after the fighting there ends. The U.S. and U.K. governments clearly believe that providing DU munitions will improve Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russian tanks and bring this conflict to an end.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Higley receives / has received funding from U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the International Atomic Energy Agency, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Vanderbilt University. She is affiliated with the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, the International Commission on Radiological Protection, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the Nuclear Energy Agency. </span></em></p>Depleted uranium munitions are bad news for enemy tanks, but are not nuclear weapons, and studies have shown that they pose low risks of radiation or chemical exposure.Kathryn Higley, Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Oregon State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071332023-06-07T18:36:02Z2023-06-07T18:36:02ZBrightest cosmic explosion of all time: how we may have solved the mystery of its puzzling persistence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530418/original/file-20230606-17-8pwe5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C38%2C2101%2C2117&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An x-ray of the brightest ever gamma ray burst reflected off dust layers, creating extended 'light echoes' of the initial blast. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nasa</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>First <a href="https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/vela">detected accidentally</a> by US military satellites in the late 1960s, cosmic explosions known as gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have come to be understood as the brightest explosions in the universe.</p>
<p>Typically, they <a href="https://www.space.com/gamma-ray-burst.html">are the result</a> of the cataclysmic birth of a black hole in a distant galaxy. One way this can happen is through the collapse of a single, massive star.</p>
<p>Astronomers such as myself working in the field are well aware of the massive energy scales involved in GRBs. We know they can release as much energy in gamma rays as the Sun does throughout its lifetime. But every once in a while, an event is observed that still gives us pause.</p>
<p>In October 2022, gamma-ray detectors on the orbital satellites Fermi and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/grb-221009a">noted a burst</a> known as GRB 221009A (the date of detection). </p>
<p>This quickly turned out to be a record-setter. It was dubbed the Brightest Of All Time, or the “Boat”, as convenient shorthand among astronomers studying and observing the event. Not only did the Boat start out bright, it refused to fade away like other bursts.</p>
<p>We still do not fully know why the burst was so exceptionally bright, but our new study, <a href="http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi1405">published in Science Advances</a>, provides an answer for its stubborn persistence. </p>
<p>The burst originated from a distance of 2.4 billion light years – relatively nearby for a GRB. But even when accounting for relative distance, the energy of the event and the radiation produced by its aftermath were off the charts. It is decidedly not normal for a cosmically distant event to deposit about a gigawatt of power into the Earth’s upper atmosphere.</p>
<h2>Observing narrow cosmic jets of gas</h2>
<p>GRBs such as the Boat launch a stream of gas moving at very close to light speed into space. How exactly the jet is launched remains something of a puzzle – but most likely, it involves magnetic fields near where the black hole is being formed. </p>
<p>It is the early emission from this jet that we see as the burst. Later, the jet slows down and produces additional radiation, a fading afterglow of light – from radio waves up to (in exceptional cases) gamma rays.</p>
<p>We do not observe jets directly. Instead, like distant stars, we see GRBs as points in the sky. Nevertheless, we have good reason to believe that GRBs do not explode in all directions equally. For GRB 221009A, this would certainly be unreasonable, as it would involve multiplying the amount of energy detected on Earth by all other directions – amounting to much more energy than any star would have available.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nwZSO6ULI2o?wmode=transparent&start=2" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Another indication that GRBs come from jets pointing roughly at us is due to special relativity theory. Relativity teaches us that the speed of light is constant, no matter how fast a source moves at us. But that still allows for the <em>direction</em> of light to become distorted. Thanks to this fun-house mirror effect, light emitted in all directions from the surface of a fast-moving jet will end up focused strongly along its direction of motion. </p>
<p>That said, the edges of a jet heading in our direction will be very slightly curved away, meaning their light is focused away from our direction. Only later, when the jet slows down, do the edges normally come into view and does the afterglow start to fade faster.</p>
<p>But here again, GRB 221009A broke the rules. Its edges never showed, and it joined a select group of very bright bursts that refuse to fade normally. Rather than starting to fade slowly and then disappearing quickly, it is steadily fading over time. </p>
<p>In our work, we demonstrate how the appearance of the jet edges can be obscured in a way that matches the observations of the Boat. The key idea is as follows: yes, a narrow jet was launched, but it had a difficult time escaping the collapsing star, leading to a lot of mixing with stellar gas along the sides of the jet.</p>
<h2>From simulation to observation</h2>
<p>To test whether this was indeed the case, we took <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/500/3/3511/5974546">a computer simulation result</a> showing this mixing and implemented it in a model that could actually be compared to the Boat data directly. And it showed that what would normally be a quick turnover to a strongly fading signal, now became a drawn-out affair. </p>
<p>Radiation from the dying star’s shock-heated gas kept appearing in our line of sight, explaining why it stayed so bright. This kept happening all the way up to the point that any characteristic jet signature was lost in the overall emission. </p>
<p>This way, GRB 221009A not only confirms expectations from simulation, but also provides a clue to similarly bright events seen in the past, where people had to keep <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/462/1/1111/2589937">revising the energy estimate upwards</a> while waiting for a jet edge to show. </p>
<p>We calculated that the likelihood of seeing a burst this bright is about one in a thousand years, so we are lucky to have spotted one. But questions remain. What role do magnetic fields play, for example?</p>
<p>Theorists and numerical modellers will be exploring these matters for years, scouring the Boat data while we stay on the lookout for the next big event to arrive</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hendrik Van Eerten receives funding from the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and from the European Research Council (ERC).</span></em></p>Radiation from the brightest cosmic explosion ever seen may have been mixing with gas and dust around its dying star – making the signal last longer.Hendrik Van Eerten, Reader in Astrophysics, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071922023-06-07T12:27:04Z2023-06-07T12:27:04ZKakhovka dam breach raises risk for Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – receding waters narrow options for cooling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530452/original/file-20230606-15-9gusbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5270%2C3502&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant seen across the Dnieper River, which was receding after a downstream dam was destroyed.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-europes-largest-nuclear-news-photo/1244319572">Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A blast on June 6, 2023, destroyed the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River in eastern Ukraine. The rupture lowered water levels in a reservoir upriver at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar. The reservoir supplies water necessary for cooling the plant’s shutdown reactors and spent fuel, which is uranium that has been largely but not completely depleted by the fission reaction that drives nuclear power plants.</em></p>
<p><em>The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has inspectors on-site to monitor effects of the war at the plant, issued a statement saying that there was <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/iaea-director-general-statement-to-the-iaea-board-of-governors">no imminent danger</a>. Nevertheless, the destruction of the dam increases the risk of a disaster at the plant, a risk already heightened by ongoing combat in the area.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://sites.usc.edu/meshkati/">Najmedin Meshkati</a>, a professor and <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/thirty-three-years-catastrophe-chernobyl-universal-lesson-global-nuclear-power-industry">nuclear safety expert</a> at the University of Southern California, to explain what the dropping water level means for the safety of the nuclear power plant and the ongoing risks to the plant’s spent fuel.</em> </p>
<h2>Why are dropping water levels a threat to the power plant?</h2>
<p>The immediate situation is becoming very precarious. The dam is downstream from the plant, meaning that the flooding will not jeopardize the plant. But the plant draws water from a major reservoir on the river for its cooling system. This reservoir is draining because the downstream dam has been damaged.</p>
<p>The plant doesn’t need the massive amount of water it otherwise would because its six reactors are in cold shutdown. But the plant still needs water for three purposes: to reduce the residual heat from the shutdown reactors, to cool the spent fuel, and to cool the emergency diesel generators if the plant loses off-site power.</p>
<p>The plant’s operators pumped water from the reservoir into a cooling pond, which is why the IAEA said the plant <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zaporizhzhia-cooling-pond-is-full-has-enough-water-months-iaea-2023-06-06/">has enough water for several months</a>. But that’s the last resort, which is why the agency also said that it’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/after-dam-bursts-iaea-says-zaporizhzhias-cooling-pond-must-be-protected-2023-06-06/">vital that the cooling pond remains intact</a>. If the plant loses the cooling pond, the only hope would be to try something like they did at the Fukushima nuclear power plant after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011. They brought in huge water pumps to pump saltwater from the Pacific Ocean into the reactors to cool them down. The plant operators may need to try to pump water from the Dnieper River.</p>
<p>The two lifelines of any nuclear plant, whether operational or closed down, are water and electricity. The newly launched Ukrainian counteroffensive puts these two lifelines in further jeopardy. Since the Russian occupation, the plant has <a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/ukraines-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-the-looming-specter-of-europes-most-serious-risk/">suffered a lot and lost off-site power seven times</a>. My immediate concern is that if the plant loses its last remaining power line, which powers the cooling pumps, then it needs to rely on emergency diesel generators. There are 20 generators with on-site storage of only 10 to 15 days of fuel supply. Getting fuel while the counteroffensive is going on is another major challenge.</p>
<h2>What does it mean to have a nuclear reactor in cold shutdown?</h2>
<p>The fission reaction that generates heat in a nuclear power plant is produced by positioning a number of uranium fuel rods in close proximity. Shutting down a nuclear reactor involves inserting control rods between the fuel rods to stop the fission reaction. </p>
<p>The reactor is then in cooldown mode as the temperature decreases. <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/full-text.html">According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission</a>, once the temperature is below 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93 Celsius) and the reactor coolant system is at atmospheric pressure, the reactor is in cold shutdown.</p>
<p>When the reactor is operating, it requires cooling to absorb the heat and keep the fuel rods from melting together, which would set off a catastrophic chain reaction. When a reactor is in cold shutdown, it no longer needs the same level of circulation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qthg5xE196w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant uses pressurized water reactors.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How does being in cold shutdown improve the plant’s safety?</h2>
<p>The shutdown has removed a huge element of risk. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is a <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/pwrs.html">pressurized water reactor</a>. These reactors need constant cooling, and the cooling pumps are gigantic, powerful electricity-guzzling machines. </p>
<p>Cold shutdown is the state in which you do not need to constantly run the primary cooling pumps at the same level to circulate the cooling water in the primary cooling loop. Now, at least if the plant loses offsite power, the operators won’t have to worry about trying to cool an operating reactor with cranky diesel generators.</p>
<p>And by shutting down all the reactors, the plant operators have been relieved of a considerable amount of their workload monitoring the reactors amid the ongoing uncertainties around the site. This substantially reduced the potential for human error.</p>
<p>The operators’ jobs are likely to be much less demanding and stressful now than before. However, they still need to constantly monitor the status of the shutdown reactors and the spent fuel pools.</p>
<h2>What are the risks from the spent fuel at the plant?</h2>
<p>The plant still needs a reliable source of electricity to cool the six huge spent fuel pools that are inside the containment structures and to remove residual heat from the shutdown reactors. The cooling pumps for the spent fuel pools need much less electricity than the cooling pumps on the reactor’s primary and secondary loops, and the spent fuel cooling system could tolerate a brief electricity outage.</p>
<p>One more important factor is that the spent fuel storage racks in the spent fuel pools at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant were compacted to increase capacity, according to a <a href="https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/national_report_of_ukraine_for_the_6th_review_meeting_-_english.pdf">2017 Ukrainian government report to the IAEA</a>. The greater number and more compacted the stored spent fuel rods, the more heat they generate and so more power is needed to cool them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four large concrete cylinders on a concrete slab" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These massive concrete cylinders store spent nuclear fuel rods. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant stores much of its spent fuel outdoors in casks like these.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrcgov/6946374745">U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also a dry spent fuel storage facility at the plant. <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/dry-cask-storage.html">Dry spent fuel storage</a> involves packing spent fuel rods into massive cylinders, or casks, which require no water or other coolants. The casks are designed to keep the fuel rods contained for at least 50 years. However, the casks are not under the containment structures at the plant, and though they were designed to withstand being crashed into by an airliner, it’s not clear whether artillery shelling and aerial bombardment, particularly repeated attacks, could crack open the casks and release radiation into the grounds of the plant. </p>
<p>The closest analogy to this scenario could be a <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11263/safety-and-security-of-commercial-spent-nuclear-fuel-storage-public">terrorist attack</a> that, according to a seminal study by the National Research Council, could breach a dry cask and potentially result in the release of radioactive material from the spent fuel. This could happen through the dispersion of fuel particles or fragments or the dispersion of radioactive aerosols. This would be similar to the detonation of a “dirty bomb,” which, depending on wind direction and dispersion radius, could result in radioactive contamination. This in turn could cause serious problems for access to and work in the plant.</p>
<h2>Next steps from the IAEA and UN</h2>
<p>Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the IAEA, <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15300.doc.htm">briefed the U.N. Security Council</a> on May 30, 2023, about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant. He called on Russia and Ukraine to ensure that the conflict <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15300.doc.htm">does not put the plant at risk</a>. Grossi has been to the Security Council several times. A week before the dam failed, he said it was the most important briefing that he had given to the council. To date, there has been no draft resolution from the Security Council.</p>
<p>This situation is rapidly evolving. And if something happens and there is a radiation release, it’s going to spread around the world.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cold-shutdown-reduces-risk-of-disaster-at-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-but-combat-around-spent-fuel-still-poses-a-threat-190516">an article</a> originally published on Sept. 13, 2022. The article has been updated to include news of the destruction of a dam downriver from the nuclear power plant and the IAEA’s report to the U.N. Security Council about reducing the risk that combat poses to the plant.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207192/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Najmedin Meshkati received research funding from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the mid-1990s.</span></em></p>The International Atomic Energy Agency says the plant has enough water to last for several months. What happens afterward or if the remaining water is lost to the war could lead to a disaster.Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2033822023-04-07T15:56:02Z2023-04-07T15:56:02ZOn April 8, 2024, parts of Ontario, Québec, the Maritimes and Newfoundland will see a total eclipse of the sun. Here’s how to get ready for it.<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519687/original/file-20230405-22-8wx57z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C11%2C1862%2C1212&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Watching a solar eclipse is always fascinating. During the phase when the moon completely obstructs the sun, daylight gives way to a deep twilight sky.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You might not know exactly what you will be doing a year from now, on April 8, 2024. It’s pretty hard to predict a year in advance. However, on that date, <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/2024/apr-8-total/where-when/">a total solar eclipse will occur in parts of Mexico, the United States and Canada — including parts of southern Ontario and Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland</a> — a rare phenomenon. </p>
<p>The total solar eclipse will be visible in locations including: Niagara Falls and Hamilton, Ont.; Montréal; Fredericton, N.B.; western P.E.I.; the northern tip of Cape Breton, N.S.; and Gander, Nfld.</p>
<p>Cities like Toronto and Ottawa will be just beyond the path of the total solar eclipse. </p>
<p>While partial solar eclipses happen quite frequently, the total disappearance of the sun behind the moon only occurs <a href="https://espacepourlavie.ca/en/total-or-annular-solar-eclipse">when the moon is closer to our planet or the sun is at its furthest point from it</a>. It is a question of the size of the moon compared to the sun. When the two are perfectly aligned, it creates a shadow cone that allows people on Earth who are within this narrow band to enjoy the unique spectacle of a total eclipse. </p>
<p>On average, this alignment only occurs <a href="https://espacepourlavie.ca/en/frequency-solar-eclipses">once every 375 years</a>, but it can vary. For example, the last total eclipse visible in Montréal occurred on Aug. 31, 1932. Other regions in Canada have not been as lucky. In St. John’s, Nfld., the last total eclipse was on Feb. 3, 1440, and locals will have to wait a total of 765 years for the next one, which will happen on July 17, 2205! The record belongs to Regina, Sask., which had a total eclipse in 54 BC, but will not see another one until Oct. 17, 2153 — or a total of 2207 years! </p>
<p>So try not to miss the total eclipse in places like Montréal in 2024. If you do, you’ll have to go to a location like <a href="https://espacepourlavie.ca/en/frequency-solar-eclipses">Calgary for the next one, in 20 years</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the phenomenon does pose significant risks to eye health. As an optometrist, I am very concerned about eye health issues. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to go blind after watching a solar eclipse without properly protecting their eyes.</p>
<h2>Watch it, but protect yourself</h2>
<p>Watching a total solar eclipse is always fascinating. During the phase when the moon completely obstructs the sun, daylight is transformed into a deep twilight sky. The sun’s outer atmosphere (known as the sun’s corona) gradually appears, <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/2024/apr-8-total/overview/">shining like a halo around the moon</a>. The bright stars and planets become more visible in the sky.</p>
<p>In daylight, the sun usually emits visible light that is so intense we cannot look directly at it for very long. If our eye ever looks directly at the sun, we have the reflex of turning away from it immediately, after <a href="https://ehs.lbl.gov/resource/documents/radiation-protection/non-ionizing-radiation/light-and-infrared-radiation/#:%7E:text=Prolonged%20exposure%20to%20IR%20radiation,eye%2C%20swelling%2C%20or%20hemorrhaging">an average of only 0.25 seconds</a>. This reflex provides natural protection for eyes against the harmful rays of the sun, some of which — notably ultraviolet and infrared radiation — are not visible. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519350/original/file-20230404-18-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="total solar eclipse" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519350/original/file-20230404-18-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519350/original/file-20230404-18-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519350/original/file-20230404-18-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519350/original/file-20230404-18-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519350/original/file-20230404-18-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519350/original/file-20230404-18-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519350/original/file-20230404-18-rpgn0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During a total solar eclipse, the sun’s outer atmosphere (called the solar corona) gradually appears, shining like a halo around the moon that faces it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ultraviolet radiation (UV)</h2>
<p>UVs accounts for <a href="https://ehs.lbl.gov/resource/documents/radiation-protection/non-ionizing-radiation/light-and-infrared-radiation/#:%7E:text=Prolonged%20exposure%20to%20IR%20radiation,eye%2C%20swelling%2C%20or%20hemorrhaging.">seven per cent of solar radiation</a>. They are partly absorbed by the cornea (the clear part at the front of the eye) and the crystalline lens (the natural lens inside the eye), without causing any damage, unless the exposure is too great. </p>
<p>In such cases, depending on the amount of UV radiation it absorbs, the cornea may develop inflammation, known as keratitis. The lens, in turn, loses its transparency — this is called a cataract. Other impacts can be expected, such as the development of <a href="https://www.nei.nih.gov/about/news-and-events/news/protecting-your-eyes-suns-uv-light#:%7E:text=Prolonged%20exposure%20to%20UV%20rays,are%20linked%20to%20UV%20exposure">small cysts (pinguecula) on the conjunctiva (white of the eye) or a membrane invading the cornea (pterygium)</a>.</p>
<p>Eyelids can also develop skin cancers. The upper eyelid, which is usually not exposed on the outside when our eyes are open, is particularly at risk when we lie on the beach with our eyes closed without protection. Finally, UV light predisposes us to <a href="https://theconversation.com/macular-degeneration-is-a-leading-cause-of-blindness-heres-how-to-prevent-it-160683">macular degeneration</a>, which is a damage to our best retinal cells and can result in varying degrees of vision loss.</p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/sun">diseases</a> all develop as a result of direct radiation, but can also come about when the sun’s rays are strongly reflected by surfaces such as snow (snow ophthalmia), sand or water. It is therefore recommended to wear protective eyewear that cuts out all UV rays (UV400 protection) when you plan to spend more than a few minutes in the sun. For both <a href="https://theconversation.com/summer-is-here-why-you-need-to-protect-your-childrens-eyes-116498">children</a> and adults, the frame should wrap around the eyes, so that no rays pass through the side or top.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519354/original/file-20230404-2216-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="child wears sunglasses at the beach" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519354/original/file-20230404-2216-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519354/original/file-20230404-2216-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519354/original/file-20230404-2216-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519354/original/file-20230404-2216-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519354/original/file-20230404-2216-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519354/original/file-20230404-2216-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519354/original/file-20230404-2216-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For both children and adults, the frame of sunglasses should wrap around the eyes, so that no rays pass through from the side or top.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Infrared radiation (IR)</h2>
<p>IRs make up the majority of the radiation emitted by the sun — <a href="https://ehs.lbl.gov/resource/documents/radiation-protection/non-ionizing-radiation/light-and-infrared-radiation/#:%7E:text=Prolonged%20exposure%20to%20IR%20radiation,eye%2C%20swelling%2C%20or%20hemorrhaging">54 per cent</a>. We feel the effects because it is thermal radiation, which is accompanied by heat. </p>
<p>While the cornea (burning) and lens (cataract) can also be affected by IR, it is more the retina that can suffer from inappropriate exposure to IR. Again, it is a question of intensity and duration. As with UV radiation, the more intense the radiation, the more permanent damage will occur in a short period of time.</p>
<p>IR damage to the retina destroys the cells that allow us to see and ultimately creates a scotoma, a permanent black spot in our field of vision. This is a cause of blindness. </p>
<h2>Eclipse and radiation</h2>
<p>When the Sun is only partially hidden (partial eclipse), the UV and IR radiation is as important as in full sunlight. However, because of the reduced luminosity, we no longer have the natural reflex of turning our eyes away. So it may seem more comfortable to observe the sun for several seconds or even minutes. Without protection, this type of exposure can lead to the pathologies described above and contribute to blindness if the central retina is affected. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2017/aug/21/donald-trump-look-directly-sun-eclipse-video">U.S. President Donald Trump was reminded of this in 2017</a>, when he watched a partial eclipse without protection, putting his vision at risk. </p>
<p>During a total eclipse, however, it is possible, during the short duration of the total obstruction of the sun (one minute 37 seconds), to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/eye-safety-during-a-total-solar-eclipse/#:%7E:text=During%20the%20short%20time%20when,put%20back%20on%20your%20glasses.">look at the solar corona without protection</a>. But you must be very vigilant and remember to put protection back in place as soon as the Moon starts to move and the radiation becomes present again, even though the ambient luminosity is still reduced. </p>
<p>The same precautions should be taken when viewing the eclipse directly through binoculars, a telescope, a camera or other optical means. For example, do not look at your phone screen with the naked eye when trying to take pictures of the eclipse. The rays are not blocked by these instruments and can cause significant eye damage. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519351/original/file-20230404-988-6obvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Trump points at the sun" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519351/original/file-20230404-988-6obvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519351/original/file-20230404-988-6obvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519351/original/file-20230404-988-6obvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519351/original/file-20230404-988-6obvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519351/original/file-20230404-988-6obvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519351/original/file-20230404-988-6obvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519351/original/file-20230404-988-6obvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Donald Trump points at the sun without protective glasses during the partial solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017, at the White House in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A question of protection</h2>
<p>So, what kind of eye protection are we talking about exactly? Sunscreens that can be mounted in glasses or in temporary glasses, made of cardboard, but that cover the entire surface of the eye perfectly. Once again, it is important to avoid leaving a gap between the eye and the protective screen through which harmful radiation can enter. Permitted filters <a href="https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/solar-eclipse-eye-safety">must meet ISO-12312-2</a>.</p>
<p>Before wearing such filters, be sure to follow the instructions provided with the equipment. It is very important for parents to ensure that children wear the filters properly and do not play with them. When the observation is over, do not remove the filters while you are still looking at the sun: look away, turn your back to the sun and remove the filters. Then don’t look at the sky anymore. </p>
<h2>If ever…</h2>
<p>Damage to the cornea and retina can occur within hours of exposure, but not always immediately. If you have ever been inadvertently or recklessly exposed, monitor your vision in the hours after the eclipse. If you notice any blurring or changes in your vision, you should consult an optometrist or ophthalmologist as soon as possible. </p>
<p>Many activities will be organized for the arrival of the total eclipse. To make the most of this unique event, watch for announcements from organizations such as <a href="https://espacepourlavie.ca/en">Space for Life</a>, institutions such as the Université de Montréal, or your local astronomy clubs. These organizations will provide information, may provide protective glasses/filters and, most importantly, will help you to better understand the phenomenon. </p>
<p>See you in a year’s time! But in the meantime, whether young and old, let’s all protect our eyes properly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203382/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Langis Michaud ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Some parts of North America will witness a total solar eclipse in April 2024. This may seem far away, but you should think about preparing for this rare and fascinating phenomenon.Langis Michaud, Professeur Titulaire. École d'optométrie. Expertise en santé oculaire et usage des lentilles cornéennes spécialisées, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987612023-01-30T05:34:36Z2023-01-30T05:34:36ZA tiny radioactive capsule is lost on a highway in Western Australia. Here’s what you need to know<p>On January 12 a truck pulled out of Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and drove 1,400km south to Perth, arriving on January 16. </p>
<p>Nine days later, on January 25, it was discovered the truck had lost a rather special piece of cargo somewhere along the way: a tiny capsule containing a highly radioactive substance, used in a radiation gauge on the mine site.</p>
<p>A bolt and screws in the package were also missing, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/29/new-technology-deployed-in-search-for-tiny-potentially-deadly-missing-radioactive-capsule">authorities suspect</a> the fixings shook loose during the trip and the capsule fell out of the hole left by the bolt.</p>
<p>Western Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services are now searching for the missing ceramic capsule, which at 8mm by 6mm is smaller than a ten-cent piece.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1618912394968981512"}"></div></p>
<h2>What is the capsule and what was it used for?</h2>
<p>The capsule contains caesium-137, a radioactive isotope which spits out electrons (or beta radiation) and high-energy photons (or gamma radiation). The beta radiation is blocked by the shell of the capsule, but the gamma radiation streams right through it.</p>
<p>The source has an activity of 19 gigabecquerels, which means it emits about 19 billion high-energy photons per second.</p>
<p>Caesium-137 is dangerous stuff, but the radiation it produces can also be very useful. It is used in some cancer treatments, for measuring the thickness of metal or the flow of liquids, and – as in this case, reportedly – for calibrating radiation gauges.</p>
<h2>Radioactive sources are common, but they rarely go missing</h2>
<p>Transporting radioactive sources is a commonplace activity. Each month, the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (ANSTO) ships some <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/nrwmf-infopack/nrwmf-transportation-of-radioactive-materials.pdf">2,000 packages</a> containing nuclear medicine around Australia. There are also several private companies who transport radioactive sources.</p>
<p>There are well-established procedures and strict regulations for making sure this happens safely. At the national level, this is overseen by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), while each state and territory also has <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/regulation-and-licensing/regulation/state-territory-regulators">its own regulator</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-bananas-really-radioactive-an-expert-clears-up-common-misunderstandings-about-radiation-193211">Are bananas really 'radioactive'? An expert clears up common misunderstandings about radiation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>You need a licence to own and use a radioactive source at a particular location. If you’re moving it, you need to follow <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/regulation-and-licensing/licensing/information-for-licence-holders/regulatory-guides/regulatory-guide-transport-radioactive">detailed rules</a> for safety, packaging and record-keeping. </p>
<p>Radioactive sources which are lost, stolen, or otherwise leave regulated control are known as “orphan sources”. Each year, the <a href="https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/overview-of-the-cns-global-incidents-and-trafficking-database/">CNS Global Incidents and Trafficking Database</a> records 150 or so such incidents around the world.</p>
<p>Most of these incidents are due to carelessness or disregard for proper procedures. </p>
<h2>What’s the risk?</h2>
<p>The source doesn’t pose much of a danger to casual passers-by. If you were standing a metre away from it for an hour, you would receive a radiation dose of around 1 millisievert. That’s about one-twentieth of the dose people who work with radiation are allowed to get in a year.</p>
<p>If you were much closer to the capsule, say 10cm or so, you’d be getting around 100 millisievert per hour, which could do you some real damage.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-difference-between-radiation-and-radioactivity-20014">Explainer: the difference between radiation and radioactivity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, the most danger would occur if the capsule were broken open. In an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident">infamous incident in Brazil in 1987</a>, a (much larger) caesium-137 capsule was stolen from an abandoned hospital and punctured. The glowing blue dust inside was a source of fascination to everyone who saw it, of whom 250 were contaminated with radiation and four died.</p>
<p>So if you see a small capsule anywhere along the Great Northern Highway, keep your distance. Don’t panic, but do notify the authorities.</p>
<h2>The long half-life of the missing capsule</h2>
<p>The search for the capsule will be a difficult one. Just as the source won’t be dangerous unless you’re close to it, it won’t be easily registered by gamma-ray detectors unless they are in close proximity.</p>
<p>Authorities say they now have vehicle-mounted detectors to aid their efforts, but scanning 1,400 km of road is a formidable task. Searchers have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jan/29/new-technology-deployed-in-search-for-tiny-potentially-deadly-missing-radioactive-capsule">conceded</a> “there is the potential that we may not find this”.</p>
<p>What then? Caesium-137 has a half-life of just over 30 years, which means the source’s radiation output will halve every 30 years, until it disappears completely. </p>
<p>It will still pose a risk for the next century or so. Will anyone remember? If you came across a tiny cylinder on the road today, you’d know to keep your distance – but what about if you found it in five years, or in 20 years?</p>
<p>Who remembers Australia’s last orphan source incident? It occurred in 2019, when a radioactive moisture detection gauge was <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/a-gauge-swiped-from-a-vehicle-in-qld-has-sparked-a-serious-health-warning/news-story/64061e1cc00c2e68836ac0fcaadf1f88">taken from a ute in Ipswich</a>. As far as I know, it has never been found.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Obbard is a senior lecturer and the program coordinator in nuclear engineering at UNSW Sydney. He has received funding from the Sir William Tyree Foundation for the Tyree Scholars in Nuclear Engineering Program, which sponsors Australian graduate students to undertake masters study and PhD research in nuclear engineering.</span></em></p>The lost radioactive source may never be found.Edward Obbard, Senior Lecturer in Nuclear Engineering, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981732023-01-23T06:06:21Z2023-01-23T06:06:21ZFukushima to release wastewater – an expert explains why this could be the best option<p>Over ten years ago, a tsunami <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/fukushima-daiichi-accident.aspx">triggered a disaster</a> at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on Japan’s east coast. After the accident, large amounts of radioactivity contaminated the ocean leading to the imposition of a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-3218-0_18">marine exclusion zone and huge reputational damage</a> to the regional fishing industry. </p>
<p>Huge volumes of contaminated water have accumulated on the site since. Water was needed to cool the damaged reactors and groundwater that became contaminated as it infiltrated the site had to be pumped out and stored. Over 1,000 tanks have been built on site to store <a href="https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommission/progress/watertreatment/alps01/index-e.html#amount">over a million tonnes</a> of radioactive water.</p>
<p>But the site is running out of storage space and the tanks could leak, particularly in the event of an earthquake or a typhoon. So the Japanese authorities have given the site permission to release the stored radioactive water through a pipeline to the Pacific Ocean.</p>
<p>As an environmental scientist, I have worked on the impacts of radioactive pollutants in the environment for more than 30 years. I think that releasing the wastewater is the best option.</p>
<h2>Contaminated water</h2>
<p>Before it is stored, the wastewater produced at Fukushima is treated to remove almost all of the radioactive elements. These include <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclide-basics-cobalt-60">cobalt 60</a>, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclide-basics-strontium-90">strontium 90</a> and <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclide-basics-cesium-137">caesium 137</a>. But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/tritium">tritium</a> – a radioactive form of hydrogen – is left behind.</p>
<p>When one of the hydrogen atoms in water is replaced by tritium, it forms radioactive tritiated water. Tritiated water is chemically identical to normal water, which makes separating it from wastewater expensive, energy intensive and time consuming. A <a href="https://www.meti.go.jp/english/earthquake/nuclear/decommissioning/pdf/20200210_alps.pdf">review</a> of tritium separation technologies in 2020 found that they are unable to process the huge volumes of water required.</p>
<p>But as radioactive elements go, tritium is relatively benign and its existence as tritiated water reduces its environmental impact. Chemically identical to normal water, tritiated water passes through organisms like water does and so does not strongly accumulate in the bodies of living things.</p>
<p>Tritiated water has a <a href="https://hal-normandie-univ.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02433412/file/Fi%C3%A9vet_2013_Transfer%20of%20tritium%20released%20into%20the%20marine%20environment%20by%20French%20nuclear%20facilities%20bordering%20the%20English%20Channel.pdf">bioaccumulation factor of about one</a>. This means exposed animals would have roughly the same concentration of tritium in their bodies as the surrounding water.</p>
<p>By comparison, radioactive caesium 137, released in large quantities after Fukushima and from the UK’s Sellafield nuclear site in the 1960s and 70s, has a bioaccumulation factor in marine environments of <a href="https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/TRS422_web.pdf">roughly 100</a>. Animals tend to have around 100 times more radiocaesium than in the surrounding water because caesium magnifies up the food chain. </p>
<h2>Low radiation dose</h2>
<p>When tritium decays, it gives off a beta particle (a fast-moving electron that can damage DNA if ingested). But tritium’s beta particle is not very energetic. A person would need to ingest a lot of it to be given a significant radiation dose.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization’s <a href="https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/wash-documents/water-safety-and-quality/dwq-guidelines-4/gdwq4-with-add1-chap9.pdf?sfvrsn=6fc78cae_3">drinking water standard</a> for tritium is 10,000 Becquerels (Bq) per litre. This is several times higher than the planned concentration of the discharge water at Fukushima.</p>
<p>The difficulty of separating tritium from wastewater and its limited environmental impact is the reason nuclear facilities around the world have been releasing it into the sea for decades. The Fukushima Daiichi site is planning to release about 1 Petabecquerel (PBq – 1 with 15 zeros after it) of tritium at a rate of <a href="https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/hd/newsroom/press/archives/2021/pdf/211117e0102.pdf">0.022 PBq per year</a>.</p>
<p>This sounds like a huge number but globally, <a href="https://www.irsn.fr/EN/Research/publications-documentation/radionuclides-sheets/environment/Pages/Tritium-environment.aspx">50-70 PBq of tritium</a> is produced naturally in our atmosphere by cosmic rays each year. While annually, the Cap de la Hague nuclear fuel reprocessing site in northern France releases roughly <a href="https://hal-normandie-univ.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02433412/file/Fi%C3%A9vet_2013_Transfer%20of%20tritium%20released%20into%20the%20marine%20environment%20by%20French%20nuclear%20facilities%20bordering%20the%20English%20Channel.pdf">10 PBq</a> of tritium into the English Channel.</p>
<p>Significantly higher rates of release from Cap de la Hague than planned at Fukushima have <a href="https://www.irsn.fr/EN/publications/technical-publications/Documents/IRSN_BR%202015-2017_V1_EN_web.pdf">shown no evidence</a> of significant environmental impacts and doses to people are low. </p>
<h2>Safe release</h2>
<p>But the release of radioactive water must be done properly.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/hd/newsroom/press/archives/2021/pdf/211117e0102.pdf">Japanese studies</a> estimate that the wastewater will be diluted from hundreds of thousands of Bq per litre of tritium in the storage tanks to 1,500 Bq per litre in discharge water. <a href="https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/report_1_review_mission_to_tepco_and_meti.pdf">Diluting the wastewater</a> before it is released will reduce the radiation dose to people. </p>
<p>The radiation dose to people is measured in sieverts, or millionths of sieverts (microsieverts), where a dose of 1,000 microsieverts represents a one in 25,000 chance of dying early from cancer. The <a href="https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/hd/newsroom/press/archives/2021/pdf/211117e0102.pdf">maximum estimated dose</a> from Fukushima’s discharged water will be 3.9 microsieverts per year. This is much lower than the 2,400 microsieverts people receive from natural radiation on average each year. </p>
<p>The Japanese authorities must also ensure that there are not significant amounts of “organically bound tritium” in the released water. This is where a tritium atom replaces ordinary hydrogen in an organic molecule. The organic molecules containing tritium can then be absorbed in to sediments and ingested by marine organisms</p>
<p>In the mid-1990s, organic molecules containing tritium were released from the Nycomed-Amersham pharmaceuticals plant in Cardiff Bay, Wales. The release led to bioaccumulation factors as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X0100039X?casa_token=rU1zVGEdYYMAAAAA:rO5YwPfC1BWdCjRSA2hjh38Vm0LPcBd79Gg42kaVhE76hroYTnj7zEaLPRyiXmn32TGX4yqK">high as 10,000</a>.</p>
<p>Treatment for other more dangerous radioactive elements also tends to <a href="https://www.meti.go.jp/earthquake/nuclear/pdf/140424/140424_02_008.pdf">leave small amounts</a> of these elements in the wastewater. The wastewater stored at Fukushima will be <a href="https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/decommission/progress/watertreatment/oceanrelease/index-e.html">re-treated</a> to make sure levels of these elements are low enough to be safe for discharge.</p>
<p>On the grand scale of the environmental problems we face, the release of wastewater from Fukushima is a relatively minor one. But it is likely to do more reputational damage to Fukushima’s beleaguered fishing industry. This will not be helped by the political and media furore that’s likely to surround new releases of radioactive water to the Pacific Ocean.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In 2008-2013, The University of Portsmouth was paid a total of about £25k for Jim Smith's consultancy for a range of clients including Horizon Nuclear Power and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency for risk assessment work. In 2012-17 he was awarded a grant from the UK Natural Environment Research Council, partly funded by Radioactive Waste Management, for research at Chernobyl. He currently has no relevant external funding and does not do paid external consultancy.</span></em></p>Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is set to release radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean – but the cause for concern is minimal.Jim Smith, Professor of Environmental Science, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1932112022-11-03T19:00:35Z2022-11-03T19:00:35ZAre bananas really ‘radioactive’? An expert clears up common misunderstandings about radiation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493156/original/file-20221102-12-cqkgdu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=144%2C216%2C5697%2C3627&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allexxandar/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The simple mention of the word “radiation” often evokes fear in people. For others, it’s fun to think a little exposure to radiation could turn you into the next superhero, just like <a href="https://www.marvel.com/characters/hulk-bruce-banner">the Hulk</a>.</p>
<p>But is it true basically everything around us is radioactive, even the food we eat? You may have heard bananas are mildly radioactive, but what does that actually mean? And despite us not being superheroes, are human bodies also radioactive?</p>
<h2>What is radiation?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/what-is-radiation">Radiation</a> is energy that travels from one point to another, either as waves or particles. We are exposed to radiation from various natural and artificial sources every day.</p>
<p>Cosmic radiation from the Sun and outer space, radiation from rocks and soil, as well as radioactivity in the air we breathe and in our food and water, are all sources of natural radiation.</p>
<p>Bananas are a common example of a natural radiation source. They contain high levels of potassium, and a small amount of this is radioactive. But there’s no need to give up your banana smoothie – the amount of radiation is extremely small, and far less than the natural “<a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/regulation-and-licensing/safety-security-and-transport/radioactive-waste-disposal-and-storage/what">background radiation</a>” we are exposed to every day.</p>
<p>Artificial sources of radiation include medical treatments and X-rays, mobile phones and power lines. There is a common misconception that artificial sources of radiation are more dangerous than naturally occurring radiation. However, this just isn’t true.</p>
<p>There are no physical properties that make artificial radiation different or more damaging than natural radiation. The harmful effects are related to dose, and not where the exposure comes from.</p>
<h2>What is the difference between radiation and radioactivity?</h2>
<p>The words “<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-difference-between-radiation-and-radioactivity-20014">radiation” and “radioactivity</a>” are often used interchangeably. Although the two are related, they are not quite the same thing.</p>
<p>Radioactivity refers to an unstable atom undergoing radioactive decay. Energy is released in the form of radiation as the atom tries to reach stability, or become non-radioactive.</p>
<p>The radioactivity of a material describes the rate at which it decays, and the process(es) by which it decays. So radioactivity can be thought of as the process by which elements and materials try to become stable, and radiation as the energy released as a result of this process.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-difference-between-radiation-and-radioactivity-20014">Explainer: the difference between radiation and radioactivity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ionising and non-ionising radiation</h2>
<p>Depending on the level of energy, radiation can be classified into two types.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/what-is-radiation/ionising-radiation">Ionising radiation</a> has enough energy to remove an electron from an atom, which can change the chemical composition of a material. Examples of ionising radiation include X-rays and radon (a radioactive gas found in rocks and soil).</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/what-radiation/what-non-ionising-radiation">Non-ionising radiation</a> has less energy but can still excite molecules and atoms, which causes them to vibrate faster. Common sources of non-ionising radiation include mobile phones, power lines, and ultraviolet rays (UV) from the Sun.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493164/original/file-20221102-22-tzzezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A chart showing waves from radio towers to radioactive sources" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493164/original/file-20221102-22-tzzezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493164/original/file-20221102-22-tzzezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493164/original/file-20221102-22-tzzezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493164/original/file-20221102-22-tzzezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493164/original/file-20221102-22-tzzezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493164/original/file-20221102-22-tzzezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493164/original/file-20221102-22-tzzezi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The electromagnetic spectrum includes all types of electromagnetic radiation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">brgfx/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-electromagnetic-spectrum-8046">Explainer: what is the electromagnetic spectrum?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Is all radiation dangerous? Not really</h2>
<p>Radiation is not always dangerous – it depends on the type, the strength, and how long you are exposed to it.</p>
<p>As a general rule, the higher the energy level of the radiation, the more likely it is to cause harm. For example, we know that overexposure to <em>ionising</em> radiation – say, from naturally occurring radon gas – <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ionizing-radiation-health-effects-and-protective-measures">can damage human tissues and DNA</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/have-you-tested-your-home-for-cancer-causing-radon-gas-87906">Have you tested your home for cancer-causing radon gas?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We also know that <em>non-ionising</em> radiation, such as the UV rays from the Sun, can be harmful <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6498/ac3bc3">if the person is exposed to sufficiently high intensity levels</a>, causing adverse health effects such as burns, cancer, or blindness.</p>
<p>Importantly, because these dangers are well known and understood, they can be protected against. <a href="https://www.icrp.org">International</a> and <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au">national</a> expert bodies provide guidelines to ensure the safety and radiation protection of people and the environment.</p>
<p>For ionising radiation, this means keeping doses above the natural background radiation as low as reasonably achievable – for example, only using medical imaging on the part of the body required, keeping the dose low, and retaining copies of images to avoid repeat exams.</p>
<p>For non-ionising radiation, it means keeping exposure below <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/regulation-and-licensing/regulatory-publications/radiation-protection-series/codes-and-standards/rpss-1">safety limits</a>. For example, telecommunications equipment uses radiofrequency non-ionising radiation and <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/media-communications-arts/spectrum/5g-and-eme/your-questions-answered/how-radiofrequency-eme-rf-eme-telecommunications-regulated-australia">must operate within these safety limits</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, in the case of UV radiation from the Sun, we know to <a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/radiation-sources/sun-radiation">protect against exposure</a> using sunscreen and clothing when levels reach 3 and above on the UV index.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-uv-index-an-expert-explains-what-it-means-and-how-its-calculated-173146">What is the UV index? An expert explains what it means and how it's calculated</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Radiation in medicine</h2>
<p>While there are clear risks involved when it comes to radiation exposure, it’s also important to recognise the benefits. One common example of this is the use of radiation in modern medicine.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arpansa.gov.au/sites/default/files/legacy/pubs/rpop/patienthandout.pdf">Medical imaging</a> uses ionising radiation techniques, such as X-rays and CT scans, as well as non-ionising radiation techniques, such as ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-medical-imaging-magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri-15030">The science of medical imaging: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These types of medical imaging techniques allow doctors to see what’s happening inside the body and often lead to earlier and less invasive diagnoses. Medical imaging can also help to rule out serious illness. </p>
<p>Radiation can also help treat certain conditions – it can <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/radiation-therapy">kill cancerous tissue</a>, shrink a tumour or even <a href="https://www.targetingcancer.com.au/treatment-by-cancer-type/palliative-treatment/">be used to reduce pain</a>.</p>
<p>So are our bodies also radioactive? The answer is yes, like everything around us, we are also a little bit radioactive. But this is not something we need to be worried about.</p>
<p>Our bodies were built to handle small amounts of radiation – that’s why there is no danger from the amounts we are exposed to in our normal daily lives. Just don’t expect this radiation to turn you into a superhero any time soon, because that definitely is science fiction.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-no-evidence-5g-is-going-to-harm-our-health-so-lets-stop-worrying-about-it-120501">There's no evidence 5G is going to harm our health, so let's stop worrying about it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Loughran receives funding from The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC). She is the Director of Radiation Research and Advice at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA). She is is also currently a member of the Scientific Expert Group at the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).</span></em></p>Radiation really is everywhere – and it’s not at all as spooky or dangerous as we often think.Sarah Loughran, Director Radiation Research and Advice (ARPANSA), and Adjunct Associate Professor (UOW), University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908772022-10-05T12:19:56Z2022-10-05T12:19:56ZBreast cancer awareness campaigns too often overlook those with metastatic breast cancer – here’s how they can do better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487963/original/file-20221004-26-x590oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C32%2C4217%2C2811&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many stage 4 breast cancer patients say that they don't relate with the pink ribbon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/pink-breast-cancer-awareness-ribbon-with-copy-space-royalty-free-image/183579195?adppopup=true">AnthiaCumming/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is there anyone who isn’t aware of breast cancer? </p>
<p>Since 1985, cancer-related nonprofits, along with pharmaceutical firms and other businesses, have sponsored an international campaign to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110716123431/http://www.nbcam.org/about_faq.cfm">observe October as “Breast Cancer Awareness Month</a>.” During these weeks, the public is bombarded with awareness and education messaging featuring the campaign’s symbol, a pink ribbon. </p>
<p>A wave of pink products typically appears, too, including clothing – think about <a href="https://greatnonprofits.org/org/save-the-ta-tas-foundation">the “Save the Ta-Tas” shirts</a> – as well as events like marches and walkathons. This onslaught has led some to term the <a href="https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2014/10/Pinktober-breast-cancer-awareness-month-patients.html">campaign “Pinktober</a>.” </p>
<p>These efforts often focus on encouraging women to get screened with mammograms to increase the possibility that the cancer will be detected early. Breast cancer patients are celebrated for “beating” cancer, “winning” the battle, having survived and being cured. But these messages overlook the experiences of millions of breast cancer patients. </p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://www.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/sociology/about/faculty-staff/krausrachel">sociology professor</a> who specializes in studying gender as well as how having a serious illness affects identity. These themes also hit close to home for me: In 2009, I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer – also referred to as stage 4 on a scale from 0 to 4 – which means a cancer that has spread beyond the breasts to other parts of the body. Since that time, I have participated in face-to-face and online support groups, joined retreats and met myriad health professionals who specialize in oncology while also continuing my research. </p>
<p>In 2019, I began a nationwide study to examine the experiences of women with stage 4 breast cancer. The first of my papers on religion’s role in coping with metastatic breast cancer <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jssr.12771">was recently published</a> in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. I am now working on research that examines metastatic breast cancer and a range of spiritual experiences. </p>
<p>The seriousness of metastatic breast cancer, which is the only breast cancer that kills, is rarely discussed. This leaves people with this diagnosis feeling ignored and angry – and largely invisible to most of the organizations focused on breast cancer. </p>
<h2>A need for inclusion</h2>
<p>Breast cancer is <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/breast-cancer/about/how-common-is-breast-cancer.html#">the second most common cancer in women</a> in the U.S. after skin cancer. <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/breast-cancer/about/how-common-is-breast-cancer.html#">One in 8 American women</a> will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life. </p>
<p>Although <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-030-20301-6_3">women of color</a> are less likely to get breast cancer, they are more likely to die from it. <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/patient/male-breast-treatment-pdq">Male breast cancer</a> makes up less than 1% of all cases of breast cancer. </p>
<p>Nearly <a href="https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/types/recur_metast">30% of people with early stages breast cancer</a> will see their cancer metastasize to stage 4, which kills <a href="https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/breast-cancer-facts-and-figures/breast-cancer-facts-and-figures-2017-2018.pdf">about 44,000 American women and men</a> each year. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Georgia Bulldogs football team displays the slogan 'Save The Ta-Tas!' on their backs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426994/original/file-20211018-13-bn7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426994/original/file-20211018-13-bn7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426994/original/file-20211018-13-bn7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426994/original/file-20211018-13-bn7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426994/original/file-20211018-13-bn7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426994/original/file-20211018-13-bn7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426994/original/file-20211018-13-bn7bpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Breast Cancer Awareness Month events, like this display by Georgia Bulldogs football fans, often aim to encourage women to get mammograms, which can detect the disease in its early stages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/georgia-bulldogs-fans-supper-breast-cancer-awareness-month-news-photo/184230633?adppopup=true">Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Sport via Getty Images North America</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To find participants with stage 4 breast cancer for my survey, in 2019 I sent out requests through online support groups, cancer organizations and societies, and word of mouth. Ultimately 310 women completed a questionnaire about their experiences with metastatic breast cancer, such as perceived support, feelings about breast cancer organizations and the pink ribbon, and ways of coping. </p>
<p>I selected 33 of those women to participate in in-depth interviews to provide additional information about some of their survey answers.</p>
<h2>Recognizing people with metastatic disease</h2>
<p>I’m a member of several metastatic breast cancer social media groups. For the purpose of this article, I asked people in these groups to share their thoughts about Breast Cancer Awareness Month and specifically the term “survivor.” Most people who responded aren’t overly excited about October: They don’t find terms like survivor and related language relevant. Nor do they feel the pink ribbon represents them. </p>
<p>Of the women who took my original survey, the majority – at least 70% – felt that pink-ribbon events tend to minimize the seriousness of metastatic breast cancer and tend to ignore stage 4 altogether. They also believe that pink-ribbon campaigns focus too much on breasts and selling products and services, <a href="https://www.bcaction.org/pink-ribbon-marketing-culture/what-is-pinkwashing">a practice known as “pinkwashing</a>.” </p>
<p>As one respondent in a social media group wrote, “I don’t like the term survivor. That and October are aimed at early stage cancer, not at supporting people who have Stage 4 cancer. We won’t survive. We aren’t going to be cured. Early detection didn’t save many of us. Removing boobs didn’t save us. All the pinkwashing does nothing to help us.” </p>
<p>Asking women to rate their preferences on a scale of 1 to 4, from “not at all” to “a great deal,” I found that far more metastatic people prefer “patient” and “a person who has cancer” over the term “survivor.”</p>
<p>On average, many participants also say there isn’t much recognition that those with metastatic disease have a different treatment plan. Often, stage 1 to 3 patients can look forward to a treatment end date after they finish radiation, surgery – mastectomy or lumpectomy – and what are called systemic therapies, such as chemotherapy. The vast majority of metastatic patients will be in treatment for the rest of their lives. </p>
<p>For stage 4 breast cancer, <a href="https://www.cochrane.org/CD011276/BREASTCA_breast-surgery-metastatic-breast-cancer">there is some debate</a> as to whether lumpectomy or mastectomy are effective options. The effectiveness of radiation treatment <a href="https://moffitt.org/cancers/metastatic-breast-cancer/radiation/#">is also debatable</a>. So metastatic patients more typically receive chemotherapy and – more recently – immunotherapy, with no surgery.</p>
<p>I also learned that many stage 4 breast cancer patients find it necessary to manage the diagnosis in ways that don’t apply to those with earlier stages. Metastatic patients must go into treatment simultaneously hoping the drugs will calm the cancer and confronting potential end-of-life issues. They may worry about leaving their families. Some may set milestones, such as seeing their children or grandchildren graduate from school or get married. </p>
<p>They may also be contending with issues like how many possible treatment options are left, or maximizing both quantity and quality of life amid a range of side effects. </p>
<h2>Overturning worn-out narratives</h2>
<p>I surveyed participants about the degree to which they feel excluded from breast cancer organizations, and why. They firmly indicated feeling a recognition gap among breast cancer organizations and awareness campaigns. So many seem to emphasize early detection and survivorship, and leave out the concerns and needs of metastatic patients.</p>
<p>One respondent talked about the “early detection mantra.” Another referred to the “ringing of the bell,” a common celebratory ritual when one is done with chemotherapy or radiation. I’ve been known to use the phrase “that damn bell” to express frustration that I will always be on treatment and won’t get to ring that bell. </p>
<p>People echoed these same sentiments when I posed my question in social media groups. One woman wrote, “I am not going to ever be a survivor. Feels like we are the under belly. … No ‘you got this.’ … There is no stage 4 fanfare.” </p>
<p>Many women with stage 4 breast cancer also feel like little is being done to showcase the less optimistic and more frightening aspects of metastatic disease. </p>
<p>Several organizations are starting to fill these gaps. Some are devoting themselves to funding research for breast cancer, while others are now paying more attention to stage 4 patients – or at least moving in that direction. <a href="https://www.metavivor.org/">Metavivor is one organization</a> focused exclusively on serving the metastatic breast cancer community. The Susan G. Komen organization has also begun offering resources and <a href="https://www.komen.org/breast-cancer/metastatic/">information about metastatic breast cancer</a>. </p>
<p>I see hopeful signs that some of these efforts are making a difference. Just the other day, I stopped by my cancer center’s gift shop to buy some mastectomy bras and saw that they were handing out pink-ribbon bracelets. So I asked the woman running the shop if they could get bracelets representing metastatic breast cancer. I was encouraged that – without hesitation – she said it shouldn’t be a problem. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/breast-cancer-awareness-campaigns-can-do-a-better-job-supporting-women-whove-received-a-stage-4-diagnosis-instead-of-focusing-only-on-early-detection-and-beating-cancer-168628">originally published on Oct. 29, 2021</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190877/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Kraus receives funding from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Louisville Institute. </span></em></p>October is awash in seas of pink T-shirts, balloons and ribbons in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But this messaging fails to recognize people who are not cured of the disease.Rachel Kraus, Professor of Sociology, Ball State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905162022-09-13T12:32:23Z2022-09-13T12:32:23ZCold shutdown reduces risk of disaster at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – but combat around spent fuel still poses a threat<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484145/original/file-20220912-1734-jinnwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5808%2C3103&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, reactor No. 6, has been safely shut down.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/photo-taken-on-aug-4-2022-shows-the-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-news-photo/1242418488">Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>An updated version of this article was published on June 6, 2023. <a href="https://theconversation.com/kakhovka-dam-breach-raises-risk-for-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-receding-waters-narrow-options-for-cooling-207192">Read it here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Energoatom, operator of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, <a href="https://www.energoatom.com.ua/app-eng/eng-1109221.html">announced</a> on Sept. 11, 2022, that it was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/engineers-shut-down-last-reactor-at-ukraines-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant">shutting down the last operating reactor</a> of the plant’s six reactors, reactor No. 6. The operators <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-101-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine">have put the reactor in cold shutdown</a> to minimize the risk of a radiation leak from combat in the area around the nuclear power plant.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://sites.usc.edu/meshkati/">Najmedin Meshkati</a>, a professor and <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/thirty-three-years-catastrophe-chernobyl-universal-lesson-global-nuclear-power-industry">nuclear safety expert</a> at the University of Southern California, to explain cold shutdown, what it means for the safety of the nuclear power plant, and the ongoing risks to the plant’s spent fuel, which is uranium that has been largely but not completely depleted by the fission reaction that drives nuclear power plants.</em> </p>
<h2>What does it mean to have a nuclear reactor in cold shutdown?</h2>
<p>The fission reaction that generates heat in a nuclear power plant is produced by positioning a number of uranium fuel rods in close proximity. Shutting down a nuclear reactor involves inserting control rods between the fuel rods to stop the fission reaction. </p>
<p>The reactor is then in cooldown mode as the temperature decreases. <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/full-text.html">According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission</a>, once the temperature is below 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93 Celsius) and the reactor coolant system is at atmospheric pressure, the reactor is in cold shutdown.</p>
<p>When the reactor is operating, it requires cooling to absorb the heat and keep the fuel rods from melting together, which would set off a catastrophic chain reaction. When a reactor is in cold shutdown, it no longer needs the same level of circulation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qthg5xE196w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant uses pressurized water reactors.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How does being in cold shutdown improve the plant’s safety?</h2>
<p>The shutdown has removed a huge element of risk. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is a <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/pwrs.html">pressurized water reactor</a>. These reactors need constant cooling, and the cooling pumps are gigantic, powerful, electricity-guzzling machines. </p>
<p>Cold shutdown is the state in which you do not need to constantly run the primary cooling pumps at the same level to circulate the cooling water in the primary cooling loop. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-101-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine">has reported</a> that reactor No. 6 is now in a cold shutdown state like the facility’s five other reactors, and will require less power for cooling. Now, at least if the plant loses offsite power, the operators won’t have to worry about cooling an operating reactor with cranky diesel generators.</p>
<p>And by shutting down reactor No. 6, the plant operators can be relieved of a considerable amount of their workload monitoring the reactors amid the ongoing uncertainties around the site. This substantially reduced the potential for human error.</p>
<p>The operators’ jobs are likely to be much less demanding and stressful now than before. However, they still need to constantly monitor the status of the shutdown reactors and the spent fuel pools.</p>
<h2>What are the risks from the spent fuel at the plant?</h2>
<p>The plant still needs a reliable source of electricity to cool the six huge spent fuel pools that are inside the containment structures and to remove residual heat from the shutdown reactors. The cooling pumps for the spent fuel pools need much less electricity than the cooling pumps on the reactor’s primary and secondary loops, and the spent fuel cooling system could tolerate a brief electricity outage.</p>
<p>One more important factor is that the spent fuel storage racks in the spent fuel pools at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant were compacted to increase capacity, according to a <a href="https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/national_report_of_ukraine_for_the_6th_review_meeting_-_english.pdf">2017 Ukrainian government report to the IAEA</a>. The greater number and more compacted the stored spent fuel rods, the more heat they generate and so more power is needed to cool them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four large concrete cylinders on a concrete slab" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484151/original/file-20220912-6373-iank1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These massive concrete cylinders store spent nuclear fuel rods. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant stores much of its spent fuel outdoors in casks like these.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrcgov/6946374745">U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is also a dry spent fuel storage facility at the plant. <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/dry-cask-storage.html">Dry spent fuel storage</a> involves packing spent fuel rods into massive cylinders, or casks, which require no water or other coolants. The casks are designed to keep the fuel rods contained for at least 50 years. However, the casks are not under the containment structures at the plant, and, though they were designed to withstand being crashed into by an airliner, it’s not clear whether artillery shelling and aerial bombardment, particularly repeated attacks, could crack open the casks and release radiation into the grounds of the plant. </p>
<p>The closest analogy to this scenario could be a <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11263/safety-and-security-of-commercial-spent-nuclear-fuel-storage-public">terrorist attack</a> that, according to a seminal study by the National Research Council, could breach a dry cask and potentially result in the release of radioactive material from the spent fuel. This could happen through the dispersion of fuel particles or fragments or the dispersion of radioactive aerosols. This would be similar to the detonation of a “dirty bomb,” which, depending on wind direction and dispersion radius, could result in radioactive contamination. This in turn could cause serious problems for access to and work in the plant.</p>
<h2>Next steps from the IAEA and UN</h2>
<p>The IAEA has called on Russia and Ukraine to <a href="https://theconversation.com/un-nuclear-agency-calls-for-protection-zone-around-imperiled-ukrainian-power-plant-a-safety-expert-explains-why-that-could-be-crucial-189429">set up a “safety and security protection zone” around the plant</a>. However, the IAEA is a science and engineering inspectorate and technical assistance agency. Negotiating and establishing a protection zone at a nuclear power plant in a war zone is entirely unprecedented and totally different from all past IAEA efforts.</p>
<p>Establishing a protection zone requires negotiations and approvals at the highest political and military levels in Kyiv and Moscow. It could be accomplished through backchannel, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/06/20/track-ii-diplomacy-a-short-history/">Track II-type diplomacy</a>, specifically nuclear safety-focused <a href="https://www.sciencediplomacy.org/sites/default/files/engineering_diplomacy_science__diplomacy.pdf">engineering diplomacy</a>. In the meantime, the IAEA needs strong support from the United Nations Security Council in the form of a resolution, mandate or the creation of a special commission.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Najmedin Meshkati received research funding from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the mid-1990s.</span></em></p>The power plant’s sixth reactor has been shut down, all but eliminating the risk of a nuclear meltdown. But fighting at the site could still release radioactive material.Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1894292022-08-26T12:19:56Z2022-08-26T12:19:56ZUN nuclear agency calls for protection zone around imperiled Ukrainian power plant – a safety expert explains why that could be crucial<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483071/original/file-20220906-22-a9szl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C52%2C1022%2C714&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Damage at the Zaporizhzhya facility.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/iaea_imagebank/52328919198/">International Atomic Energy Agency</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-united-nations-government-and-politics-d65a057bbb9dc1e59171fdad1fd3c3f0?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_1">called on Russia and Ukraine</a> to set up a “safety and security protection zone” around the embattled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar. The plea, made on Sept. 6, 2022, by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), comes amid mounting concern that the facility – Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – is vulnerable to nearby fighting, and that damage to the site could cause a catastrophic accident.</em></p>
<p><em>Shelling has already <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-93-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine">damaged power and communication lines to the plant</a>, prompting <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-nuclear-plant-escapes-meltdown-zelenskiy-says-moscow-kyiv-trade-blame-2022-08-25/">fears for the plant’s safety</a> and evoking painful memories in a country still scarred by the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in 1986.</em> </p>
<p><em>In addition, Russian authorities have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/24/revealed-russian-plan-to-disconnect-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-from-grid">developed plans to disconnect the plant</a> from Ukraine’s power grid – in the event of damage to the plant, according to the Russians, as a prelude to switching the plant to the grid in Russian-occupied territory, according to the Ukrainians. Disconnecting the plant from the grid is a risky operation.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://sites.usc.edu/meshkati/">Najmedin Meshkati</a>, a professor and <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/thirty-three-years-catastrophe-chernobyl-universal-lesson-global-nuclear-power-industry">nuclear safety expert</a> at the University of Southern California, to explain the risks of warfare taking place in and around nuclear power plants.</em></p>
<h2>How safe was the Zaporizhzhia power plant before the Russian attack?</h2>
<p>The facility at Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear plant in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It has six <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/pwrs.html">pressurized water reactors</a>, which use water to both sustain the fission reaction and cool the reactor. These differ from the <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/appendices/rbmk-reactors.aspx">RBMK</a> reactors at Chernobyl, which used graphite instead of water to sustain the fission reaction. RBMK reactors are not seen as very safe, and there are <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/appendices/rbmk-reactors.aspx">only eight remaining in use</a> in the world, all in Russia.</p>
<p>The reactors at Zaporizhzhia are of moderately good design, and the plant has a decent safety record, with a good operating background.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qthg5xE196w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant uses pressurized water reactors.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ukrainian authorities tried to keep the war away from the site by asking Russia to observe a 30-kilometer (nearly 19-mile) safety buffer. But Russian troops surrounded the facility and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-everything-you-need-to-know">seized it in March</a>.</p>
<h2>What are the risks to a nuclear plant in a conflict zone?</h2>
<p>Nuclear power plants are built for peacetime operations, not wars.</p>
<p>The worst thing that could happen is if a site is deliberately or accidentally shelled. If a shell hit the plant’s <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/pools.html">spent fuel pool</a> – which contains the still-radioactive spent fuel – or if fire spread to the spent fuel pool, it could release radiation. This spent fuel pool isn’t in the containment building, and as such is more vulnerable.</p>
<p>Containment buildings, which house nuclear reactors, are also not protected against deliberate shelling. They are built to withstand a minor internal explosion of, say, a pressurized water pipe. But they are not designed to withstand a huge explosion.</p>
<p>As to the reactors in the containment building, it depends on the weapons being used. The worst-case scenario is that a bunker-buster missile breaches the containment dome – consisting of a thick shell of reinforced concrete on top of the reactor – and explodes. That would badly damage the nuclear reactor and release radiation into the atmosphere, which would make it difficult to send in first responders to contain any resulting fire. It could be another Chernobyl.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A soldier stands in the foreground as a half dozen people in hazmat suits and gas masks stand near stretchers outside a large tent" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481180/original/file-20220825-26-qlt1zq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ukrainian Emergency Ministry personnel conducted a drill in the city of Zaporizhzhia on Aug. 17, 2022, to prepare for a possible radiation leak from the nuclear power plant near the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ukrainian-emergency-ministry-rescuers-attend-an-exercise-in-news-photo/1242554458">Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are the concerns going forward?</h2>
<p>The safety problems I see are twofold:</p>
<p><strong>1) Human error</strong></p>
<p>The workers at the facility are working under incredible stress, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/world/europe/ukraine-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant.html">reportedly at gunpoint</a>. Stress increases the chance of error and poor performance.</p>
<p>There is a human element in running a nuclear power plant – operators are the first and last layers of defense for the facility and the public. They are the first people to detect any anomaly and to stop any incident. Or if there’s an accident, they will be the first to heroically try to contain it.</p>
<p>This concern was highlighted in the International Atomic Energy Agency report, which noted that the Ukrainian staff at the plant were working under “constant high stress and pressure” – something that could have consequences for nuclear safety.</p>
<p><strong>2) Power failure</strong></p>
<p>The second problem is that the nuclear plant needs constant electricity, and that is harder to maintain in wartime.</p>
<p>Even if you shut down the reactors, the plant will need off-site power to run the huge cooling system to remove the residual heat in the reactor and bring it to what is called a <a href="http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-is-cold-shutdown.html">cold shutdown</a>. Water circulation is always needed to make sure the spent fuel doesn’t overheat.</p>
<p>Spent fuel pools also need constant water circulation to keep them cool, and they need cooling for several years before they can be put in dry casks. One of the problems in the 2011 <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-years-after-fukushima-safety-is-still-nuclear-powers-greatest-challenge-155541">Fukushima disaster</a> in Japan was the emergency generators intended to replace lost off-site power got inundated with water and failed. In situations like that, you get “<a href="https://allthingsnuclear.org/dlochbaum/nuclear-station-blackout/">station blackout</a>” – and that is one of the worst things that could happen. It means no electricity to run the cooling system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hundreds of square openings lie at the bottom of a large pool of water in an industrial building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spent nuclear fuel rods are stored at the bottom of this pool, which requires constant circulation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-shows-the-cooling-pool-of-the-switched-off-unit-1-news-photo/524200126">Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In that circumstance, the spent fuel overheats and its zirconium cladding can create hydrogen bubbles. If you can’t vent these bubbles, they will explode, spreading radiation.</p>
<p>If there is a loss of outside power, operators will have to rely on emergency generators. But emergency generators are huge machines – finicky, unreliable gas guzzlers. And you still need cooling waters for the generators themselves. </p>
<p>My biggest worry is that Ukraine suffers from a sustained power grid failure. The likelihood of this increases during a conflict because power line pylons may come down under shelling, or gas power plants might get damaged and cease to operate. And though Ukrainian intelligence services <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-says-russia-plans-disconnect-nuclear-plants-blocks-grid-2022-08-19/">claim that the Russians intend to stockpile diesel fuel</a> to keep these emergency generators going, it is unlikely that Russian troops will have excess fuel given their need to fuel their own vehicles.</p>
<h2>How else does a war affect the safety of nuclear plants?</h2>
<p>One of the overarching concerns about the effects of war on nuclear plants is that war degrades <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK253947/">safety culture</a>, which is crucial in running a plant. I believe that safety culture is analogous to the human body’s immune system, which protects against pathogens and diseases. Safety culture is pervasive and has a widespread impact. “It can affect all elements in a system for good or ill,” <a href="https://www.safetymattersblog.com/2014/11/a-life-in-error-by-james-reason.html">according to</a> <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/jim-reason-FBA/">psychologist James Reason</a>.</p>
<p>The tragic situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant violates every universally accepted tenet of <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1500/ML15007A487.pdf">healthy nuclear safety culture</a>, especially the maintenance of an environment where personnel can raise safety concerns.</p>
<p>War adversely affects safety culture in a number of ways. Operators are stressed and fatigued and may be scared to death to speak out if something is going wrong. Then there is the maintenance of a plant, which may be compromised by lack of staff or unavailability of spare parts. </p>
<p>Governance, regulation and oversight – all crucial for the safe running of a nuclear industry – are also disrupted, as is local infrastructure, such as the capability of local firefighters. In war, everything is harder.</p>
<h2>So what can be done to better protect Ukraine’s nuclear power plants?</h2>
<p>The only solution is declaring a demilitarized zone around nuclear plants, similar to the the protection zone urged by the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, Russia has previously rejected United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2022/sc15003.doc.htm">plea for declaring a demilitarized zone around the plant</a>. </p>
<p>I believe an optimal though not ideal solution is to bring the two operating reactors to a cold shutdown before any further loss of off-site power and risk of station blackout, store more fuel for emergency diesel generators at different locations at the plant site, and keep only a skeleton caretaker staff to look after the spent fuel pools.</p>
<p>Admittedly, this is only a stopgap measure. In parallel with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s effort under the leadership of its Director, General Rafael Mariano Grossi, I believe that the U.N. Security Council should immediately empower a special commission to mediate between the warring parties. It could be modeled after the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations-Monitoring-Verification-and-Inspection-Commission">United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission</a> in 2000, and appoint a prominent, senior international statesman as its head. </p>
<p>I believe the person should be of the caliber and in the mold of the legendary former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, <a href="https://worldleaders.columbia.edu/directory/hans-blix">Hans Blix</a> of Sweden. Blix led the agency at the time of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and commands respect in today’s Russia and Ukraine.</p>
<p>War, in my opinion, is the worst enemy of nuclear safety. This is an unprecedented and volatile situation. Only through active, pragmatic <a href="https://www.sciencediplomacy.org/sites/default/files/engineering_diplomacy_science__diplomacy.pdf">engineering and nuclear diplomacy</a> can an amenable and lasting solution to this vexing problem be found.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-troops-fought-for-control-of-a-nuclear-power-plant-in-ukraine-a-safety-expert-explains-how-warfare-and-nuclear-power-are-a-volatile-combination-178588">an article</a> originally published on March 4, 2022.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Najmedin Meshkati received research funding from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in mid-1990s.</span></em></p>Artillery shelling, stressed-out technicians and power supply disruptions increase the chances of catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1868852022-08-22T12:26:00Z2022-08-22T12:26:00ZCell towers have come to symbolize our deep collective anxieties<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479964/original/file-20220818-22-29q3j2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5742%2C3819&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most of us would rather not think about the fact that we're immersed in an electromagnetic soup of radio waves.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cellphone-base-station-towers-over-factory-roofs-royalty-free-image/1266611529?adppopup=true">RapidEye/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new movie “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15325794/">Fall</a>” is a survival-thriller about two young women, Becky and Hunter, who are avid rock climbers. To mark the one-year anniversary of Becky’s husband’s death in a climbing accident, they decide to climb an abandoned 2,000-foot TV tower.</p>
<p>But a ladder breaks, and they find themselves stranded atop the rusty steel latticework. Ironically, at the top of the communication tower, the climbers are too high in the air to get a phone signal to call for rescue.</p>
<p>Other recent movies have also featured terrifying communication towers. </p>
<p>Take the 2016 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775440/">Cell</a>,” which is based on a Stephen King novel. In it, a cell tower signal turns normal people into zombies, a literal version of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone_zombie">the cliché</a> about the effect mobile phones have on users. The 2018 Indian sci-fi blockbuster “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5080556/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">2.0</a>” features a gigantic Kaiju monster – akin to Godzilla or Mothra – made of cellphones. It rises to avenge the deaths of millions of birds supposedly killed by cell tower radiation. (Millions of <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/no-5g-radio-waves-do-not-kill-birds">birds do die</a> every year by crashing into towers, but probably because they become disoriented by their lights, not from the radiation they emit.)</p>
<p>Why are communication towers so scary? Why, in “Fall,” is the steel tower somehow more disturbing than the rocky cliff face where Becky’s husband died?</p>
<p>I think it’s about more than fear of heights. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Zj3a1f4AAAAJ&hl=en">As a scholar who studies attitudes toward technology</a> – and who wrote <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Against-Technology-From-the-Luddites-to-Neo-Luddism/Jones/p/book/9780415978682">a book on the Luddites</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/cell-tower-9781501348815/">another one on cell towers</a> – I see cell towers, like the radio and TV towers that preceded them, as the focus of deep collective anxieties.</p>
<h2>Channeling invisible forces</h2>
<p>As anthropologist <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/code-and-clay-data-and-dirt">Shannon Mattern has argued</a>, towers and antennas are visible manifestations of vast invisible networks – mostly wireless or underground – that can be hard for people to wrap their heads around, even as they grow increasingly dependent on them. </p>
<p>They’re a reminder of something that most of us would rather forget: that we’re immersed in an electromagnetic soup of radio waves, walking around every day in what design scholar Anthony Dunne <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/hertzian-tales">has called</a> “hertzian space.” Those same invisible waves also signal the possibility of ubiquitous surveillance and manipulation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Christian cross perched atop communication technology." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479969/original/file-20220818-15665-4u0d8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479969/original/file-20220818-15665-4u0d8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479969/original/file-20220818-15665-4u0d8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479969/original/file-20220818-15665-4u0d8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479969/original/file-20220818-15665-4u0d8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479969/original/file-20220818-15665-4u0d8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479969/original/file-20220818-15665-4u0d8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cross tower doubles as a telecommunications node at Green Hills Baptist Church in La Habra, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-cross-tower-at-green-hills-baptist-church-now-holds-news-photo/564008531?adppopup=true">Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So a latticework steel tower or a sleek <a href="https://pedroc.co.uk/content/vodafone-o2-monopoles">monopole mast</a> with an array of rectangular antenna panels clustered at its top can elicit powerful responses. </p>
<p>On the one hand, there’s denial – you might half-consciously “unsee” them and pretend they’re not there. </p>
<p>On the other hand, they can become a source of paranoia, which sometimes metastasizes into conspiracy theories. </p>
<h2>Hidden in plain sight</h2>
<p>Cell towers are often designed to hide in plain sight. Some are even <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/4/19/8445213/cell-phone-towers-trees">disguised as pine trees or palm trees</a> – rather poorly, in most cases. But stealth towers like these aren’t actually meant to pass for the natural objects they imitate. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479965/original/file-20220818-349-dj7ai0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cell phone tower 'disguised' with palm fronds." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479965/original/file-20220818-349-dj7ai0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479965/original/file-20220818-349-dj7ai0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479965/original/file-20220818-349-dj7ai0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479965/original/file-20220818-349-dj7ai0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479965/original/file-20220818-349-dj7ai0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479965/original/file-20220818-349-dj7ai0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479965/original/file-20220818-349-dj7ai0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cell tower ‘camouflage’ is meant to elicit benign disregard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cell-phone-tower-on-the-north-shore-of-the-salton-sea-is-news-photo/1397549380?adppopup=true">George Rose/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like all camouflage, they’re just supposed to distract our attention long enough for us to overlook them. The brown painted “bark” and green plastic “leaves,” or the rows of rectangular antenna panels painted to blend into building façades, are simply prompts to our unseeing – cues to look away. Nothing to see here, they say. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the towers <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/185854/monthly-number-of-cell-sites-in-the-united-states-since-june-1986/">quietly multiply</a>.</p>
<p>In recent years, 5G antennas have started showing up everywhere, often as unlabeled boxes or cylinders on standalone poles or streetlights.</p>
<p>Known as small-cell networks, these faster and more powerful 5G systems require many more antennas spaced closer together. This greater density has provoked <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/05/great-5g-conspiracy/611317/">increased fears</a> about potential risks to health and security, along with more paranoid reactions linking cellular radiation to cancer – a link <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/science/5g-cellphones-wireless-cancer.html">not supported by scientific research</a>. Some people even <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/coronavirus-covid19-5g-conspiracy-theory.html">wrongly blamed 5G for the COVID-19 pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>As a result of such conspiracy theories, 2020 saw a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/05/18/deep-conspiracy-roots-europe-wave-cell-tower-fires-264997">rash of cell tower arson</a> reminiscent of the Luddites – textile workers in 19th-century England who <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/">sabotaged new mechanical looms that were putting them out of work</a>. Two hundred years later, the name Luddite has become synonymous with any reaction against new technology. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Caution tape wrapped around burned out metal boxes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479967/original/file-20220818-459-zz89e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479967/original/file-20220818-459-zz89e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479967/original/file-20220818-459-zz89e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479967/original/file-20220818-459-zz89e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479967/original/file-20220818-459-zz89e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479967/original/file-20220818-459-zz89e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479967/original/file-20220818-459-zz89e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The base of a 5G phone mast damaged by arsonists in May 2020 in Liverpool, England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fire-and-explosion-damage-can-be-seen-on-an-ee-network-5g-news-photo/1227576029?adppopup=true">Christopher Furlong/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the extreme reactions against cell towers may be the result of displaced anxiety about the very real risks of everyday technology. </p>
<p>Most of us sense – though we often prefer to forget – that each steel cell tower or sleek 5G box is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a visible sign of mostly invisible global communication networks, tied to centers of commercial and political power, that are gradually eroding our privacy and autonomy. </p>
<p>No wonder they’re so terrifying.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186885/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hiding in plain sight, they’re subtle reminders that we’re being watched, tracked, studied.Steven Jones, Professor of English and Digital Humanities (Ret.), University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1815252022-04-26T13:18:26Z2022-04-26T13:18:26ZHere’s one way to burn less fossil fuel – use human energy to heat buildings instead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459791/original/file-20220426-18-abbvt9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C2038%2C1364&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Capturing energy from clubbers could help power homes and buildings.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/exitfestival/28128407771">Exit Festival/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the cult film <a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/matrix">The Matrix</a>, unwitting humans’ body heat was siphoned off by machines to use as their energy source. Although that might not be the ideal situation to find ourselves in, the basis of the idea – using the warmth we generate to heat our buildings – could help fight climate change by cutting <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-it-would-take-to-end-emissions-from-fossil-fuels-170815">fossil fuel use</a>.</p>
<p>Let’s look at the science. The average human body emits about <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9781782420323500132">100 watts of heat</a> at rest. When exercising, that heat can easily exceed <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9694408/#:%7E:text=During%20strenuous%20exercise%20the%20body's,temperature%20by%20a%20few%20degrees.">1,000 watts</a>: energy that could boil one litre of water in six minutes. For comparison, a standard (3 kW) home kettle takes more than two minutes to heat a litre of water.</p>
<p>Where does that energy come from? Mostly, food. The body’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/human-disease/Metabolic-control">internal metabolism</a> uses products of digestion, such as carbohydrates and fatty acids, to produce the energy that drives muscle contraction. However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1566070216300303">about 70-95%</a> of energy produced is released as heat. This shows that the human body isn’t very efficient at generating mechanical energy from food: in fact, it’s slightly less efficient than a petrol engine.</p>
<p>Much of this heat is removed from the body through convection, infrared radiation and <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-perspiration-to-world-domination-the-extraordinary-science-of-sweat-62753">sweating</a>, which cools skin using evaporation. This explains why in extremely <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-humid-is-it-3-things-to-keep-you-cool-in-a-hot-and-sticky-summer-and-3-things-that-wont-176365">hot and humid</a> conditions, you don’t feel comfortable – your sweat isn’t evaporating as easily into the saturated air. </p>
<p>Using infrared cameras, we’re able to see that heat as it moves from bodies to their surroundings. These cameras depict areas of increased heat (where more heat is being lost) as lighter in colour, and cooler areas as darker – showing us where most heat is being wasted.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An infrared-colour image of the author" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458591/original/file-20220419-13-wpw5hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458591/original/file-20220419-13-wpw5hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458591/original/file-20220419-13-wpw5hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458591/original/file-20220419-13-wpw5hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458591/original/file-20220419-13-wpw5hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458591/original/file-20220419-13-wpw5hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458591/original/file-20220419-13-wpw5hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In infrared, you can see which parts of me are hotter and cooler.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amin Al-habaibeh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When people gather indoors, this heat starts to accumulate. Imagine a theatre with a 500-person capacity. Assuming each person is producing 100 watts of thermal energy, this means 50 kW of heat will be emitted overall: equivalent to 25-30 <a href="https://www.tameside.gov.uk/EnergyEfficiency/Top-Tips-%E2%80%93-June-Don%E2%80%99t-Fill-The-Kettle-Too-Full">average</a> kitchen kettles continuously boiling water.</p>
<p>If those people are physically active – for example, dancing – together they could generate 150 kW of heat, or 3600 kWh over 24 hours. The average household in the UK consumes about <a href="https://usave.co.uk/energy/how-much-energy-does-the-average-uk-household-consume/#:%7E:text=According%20to%20Ofgem%2C%20the%20average,kWh%20of%20gas%20each%20year.">1,000 kWh</a> of gas per month. Since an average domestic gas boiler has an approximately 30 kW output, just 500 dancers could produce the energy of five gas boilers.</p>
<p>The next question is how this human heat can best be used to warm buildings. Usually, buildings use ventilation or air conditioning systems to reduce temperatures and enhance air quality. This extracted heat is then lost to the outside environment, wasting energy. Instead, crowd heat could be extracted via <a href="https://www.ipieca.org/resources/energy-efficiency-solutions/efficient-use-of-heat/heat-exchangers/">mechanical heat exchangers</a> – devices that transfer heat from one area to another – and used to heat incoming air in neighbouring buildings. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An infrared-colour image of people walking and sitting in a room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458592/original/file-20220419-20-1tnfsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458592/original/file-20220419-20-1tnfsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458592/original/file-20220419-20-1tnfsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458592/original/file-20220419-20-1tnfsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458592/original/file-20220419-20-1tnfsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458592/original/file-20220419-20-1tnfsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458592/original/file-20220419-20-1tnfsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Infrared images can be used to pinpoint where human body heat is being wasted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amin Al-habaibeh</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A more flexible option is to use <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166516216301604?via%3Dihub">heat pumps</a>, which are a bit like reverse air conditioning systems that pump heat in instead of out. That heat can also be stored for later use, for example in water cylinders or modified bricks. Technology like this is already used in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359431115010388">data centres</a>, where the significant amounts of heat emitted by computer networks need to be extracted to avoid system failure.</p>
<h2>Thermal energy in action</h2>
<p>The concept of body heating systems is already a reality in some parts of the world. In Sweden, the <a href="https://earthbound.report/2012/11/02/building-of-the-week-kungsbrohuset/">Kungsbrohuset</a> office building – located above Stockholm’s central subway station – is already <a href="http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:1114930/FULLTEXT01.pdf">partially heated</a> by the body heat of daily travellers through the station, reducing its heating needs by 5-10%. A heat pump extracts heat from the station, where it’s stored in water that’s used for heating the offices above. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Mall of America in Minnesota, energy from sunlight and the heat of over 40 million annual visitors has <a href="http://minnesotaconnected.com/lifestyle/local-businesses/did-you-know-the-mall-of-america-has-no-central-heating_178620/">replaced</a> central heating. And the <a href="https://www.bodyheat.club/">BODYHEAT</a> system, currently undergoing installation at an arts centre in Glasgow, uses heat pumps to capture clubbers’ thermal energy and store it in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/30/arts/dance/geothermal-body-heat-glasgow-nightclub.html">underground boreholes</a> that will provide the building with heat and hot water.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large, multicoloured play area inside a glass building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459458/original/file-20220425-22-ad6oc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459458/original/file-20220425-22-ad6oc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459458/original/file-20220425-22-ad6oc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459458/original/file-20220425-22-ad6oc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459458/original/file-20220425-22-ad6oc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459458/original/file-20220425-22-ad6oc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459458/original/file-20220425-22-ad6oc2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mall of America has used sunlight and body heat to warm its internal space since 1992.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mall_of_America-2005-05-29.jpg">Jeremy Noble/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’ve studied the heating system at <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095263521000601?via%3Dihub">Nottingham Playhouse</a>, with an auditorium capacity of 750 people. We found that as audience numbers increase inside the theatre, so does the temperature, meaning that the central heating can be lowered on nights with packed crowds. Using this principle, we can develop “<a href="https://theconversation.com/get-ready-for-the-invasion-of-smart-building-technologies-following-covid-19-168646">smart buildings</a>” able to adjust their heating based on the number of people in a room and the expected resulting increase in temperature. This simple solution can be used in many types of buildings – even those without heat pumps installed.</p>
<p>With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/energy-bills-are-spiking-after-the-russian-invasion-we-should-have-doubled-down-on-renewables-years-ago-179336">recent hike</a> in energy prices and the global push towards reaching <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-companies-pledge-net-zero-emissions-to-fight-climate-change-but-what-does-that-really-mean-166547">net zero</a> carbon emissions, systems like these could provide a simple and revolutionary way to cut fossil fuel use and lower energy bills by making use of the wasted heat that fills busy public spaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amin Al-Habaibeh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Extracting and storing human body heat we generate could improve building sustainability while cutting bills.Amin Al-Habaibeh, Professor of Intelligent Engineering Systems, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1794442022-03-18T12:35:09Z2022-03-18T12:35:09ZRussia’s energy clout doesn’t just come from oil and gas – it’s also a key nuclear supplier<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452897/original/file-20220317-23-1kda34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C5590%2C3707&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Manufacturing a 300-ton nuclear reactor pressure vessel at a factory in Volgodonsk, Russia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-over-300-ton-reactor-pressure-vessel-an-inside-look-at-news-photo/979044218">Pallava Bagla/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Western nations look for ways to reduce their reliance on Russian oil and gas, another aspect of the Ukraine crisis has received less attention: Most of the 32 countries that use nuclear power rely on Russia for some part of their nuclear fuel supply chain.</p>
<p>Nuclear power is a critical part of many national electricity grids. European countries especially rely on nuclear power, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mix">including</a> France, where it produces 69% of the nation’s electricity supply, Ukraine (51%), Hungary (46%), Finland (34%) and Sweden (31%). In the U.S., nuclear reactors generate 20% of the nation’s power. Many of these countries originally embraced nuclear power to minimize dependence on imported fossil fuels and, more recently, to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality.</p>
<p>Economic fallout from the war in Ukraine could disrupt access to fuel for the nuclear power industry. We believe that countering Russia’s influence will require concerted efforts that balance energy security, climate mitigation and a commitment to international law.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8VAO2BrrakM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Today, 32 countries use nuclear power, mainly in North America, Europe and Asia.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A global industry</h2>
<p>Around the world, <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today.aspx">32 countries</a> operate about 440 commercial nuclear power reactors that generate 10% of the world’s electricity supply. The U.S. has the most operating reactors (93), followed by France (56) and China (53). </p>
<p>Many nations export nuclear fuel, materials and services. The leading international suppliers are the U.S., Russia, Europe and China. Several other countries play important roles, including Canada and South Korea.</p>
<p>Producing nuclear fuel involves five steps:</p>
<p>– Raw uranium ore, which usually contains less then 2% uranium, is mined from the ground.</p>
<p>– The ore is milled to separate the uranium from other materials, yielding a powder called yellowcake.</p>
<p>– Yellowcake is chemically converted to gaseous uranium hexafluoride.</p>
<p>– Uranium hexafluoride is processed to increase its concentration of uranium-235, which can be split in reactors to produce large quantities of energy. U-235 only makes up 0.7% of natural uranium; enrichment for commercial reactor fuel increases its concentration, usually up to 5%.</p>
<p>– Enriched uranium is fabricated into fuel rods for reactors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452901/original/file-20220317-25-1q4b5bx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Producing nuclear fuel requires many steps after mining the ore." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452901/original/file-20220317-25-1q4b5bx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452901/original/file-20220317-25-1q4b5bx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452901/original/file-20220317-25-1q4b5bx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452901/original/file-20220317-25-1q4b5bx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452901/original/file-20220317-25-1q4b5bx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452901/original/file-20220317-25-1q4b5bx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452901/original/file-20220317-25-1q4b5bx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stages in the life of nuclear fuel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://need-media.smugmug.com/Graphics/Nuclear/i-wQB55bt">National Energy Education Development Project</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Uranium conversion, enrichment and fabrication are sophisticated technical processes that are handled at a small number of facilities around the world.</p>
<p>Fuels for nuclear reactors are highly specialized and tied to specific reactor designs. Buying a power reactor from a supplier such as <a href="https://www.rosatom.ru/en/index.html">Rosatom</a>, Russia’s state nuclear company, or the French company <a href="https://www.framatome.com/EN/home-57/index.html">Framatome</a>, can lead to decadeslong supply dependencies. </p>
<p>All of these factors make nuclear supply chains more complex, less competitive and harder to shift rapidly than other energy types, such as oil and gas. And since key materials and technologies for civilian nuclear power can also be used to produce weapon-usable nuclear materials, international nuclear sales are subject to strict export controls and trade restrictions.</p>
<h2>Russia as a nuclear supplier</h2>
<p>Compared to other mined commodities such as cobalt, world uranium resources are spread reasonably widely. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-05/turmoil-in-uranium-rich-kazakhstan-threatens-to-elevate-prices">Kazakhstan produces more than 40%</a> of the global supply, <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/mining-of-uranium/world-uranium-mining-production.aspx">followed by Canada (12.6%), Australia (12.1%) and Namibia (10%)</a>. Russia is a minor player, producing around 5%, while the U.S. and Europe produce less than 1%. </p>
<p>However, much of the milled uranium from Kazakhstan travels through Russia before it is exported to global markets. Other parts of the supply chain also route through Russia. Only a handful of facilities in the world convert milled uranium into uranium hexafluoride; Russia produced <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/conversion-enrichment-and-fabrication/conversion-and-deconversion.aspx">approximately one-third of the 2020 supply</a>, much of it made with uranium from Kazakhstan. </p>
<p>Russia also has 43% of the global <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/conversion-enrichment-and-fabrication/uranium-enrichment.aspx">enrichment capacity</a>, followed by Europe (about 33%), China (16%) and the U.S. (7%). There is some spare capacity in the U.S. and Europe, and China is expanding. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452908/original/file-20220317-27-10ai11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cranes decorated with balloons loom behind a fence at a construction site." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452908/original/file-20220317-27-10ai11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452908/original/file-20220317-27-10ai11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452908/original/file-20220317-27-10ai11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452908/original/file-20220317-27-10ai11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452908/original/file-20220317-27-10ai11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452908/original/file-20220317-27-10ai11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452908/original/file-20220317-27-10ai11f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Construction on the third nuclear reactor at the Russian-supplied Akkuyu power plant in Mersin, Turkey, March 10, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/construction-site-of-akkuyu-nuclear-power-plant-decorated-news-photo/1231626853">Serkan Avci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before it invaded Ukraine, Russia had a national strategy to <a href="https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-o-s/russia-nuclear-power.aspx">increase its nuclear energy exports</a>. It is a leading supplier of nuclear reactors, building plants abroad and then providing their fuel. Its customers include former Soviet states and Warsaw Pact members like Ukraine and Hungary, along with new nuclear power users such as Egypt.</p>
<p>Some 16%-20% of the annual U.S. uranium supply is at least partially sourced from Russia, mainly for enrichment. Many European countries buy converted or enriched Russian uranium, and China is a growing market for Russian nuclear exports.</p>
<p>If U.S. nuclear trade with Russia is affected by the Ukraine conflict, the most serious impact would be on two planned advanced reactor demonstration projects: the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/us-department-energy-announces-160-million-first-awards-under-advanced-reactor">Xe-100 in Washington state and Natrium in Wyoming</a>. These reactors need fuel that is enriched to nearly 20% uranium-235, and Russia is currently the world’s only supplier. </p>
<h2>Market impacts of the Ukraine crisis</h2>
<p>Global uranium prices were low for most of the past decade, hovering between $20 to $30 per pound after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-years-after-fukushima-much-of-japan-has-lost-faith-in-nuclear-power-73042">Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan</a>. Then in 2021 and early 2022, <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/sprott-fund-transforms-uranium-spot-market-67100457">market speculation</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/world/asia/kazakhstan-protests.html">domestic protests in Kazakhstan</a> pushed prices up. Now, the war in Ukraine has driven some trades to almost <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/uranium-prices-spike-as-war-shifts-thinking-on-nuclear-power-51647505802">$60 per pound</a>, and potentially higher. Uranium is not openly traded on markets, so not all prices are public. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1502138016642605059"}"></div></p>
<p>The Biden administration reportedly is <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-09/u-s-weighs-sanctions-on-russian-nuclear-power-supplier-rosatom">considering nuclear sanctions on Russia</a>. U.S. utilities <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exclusive-us-utilities-push-white-house-not-sanction-russian-uranium-2022-03-02/">oppose this step</a> for fear that it would make uranium fuel scarcer and more expensive. Many U.S. nuclear plants are <a href="https://www.powerandresources.com/blog/economics-and-retirements-of-existing-nuclear-power-reactors">already struggling economically</a>.</p>
<p>If Russia retaliates against Western pressure by withholding converted or enriched uranium, we estimate that plants in the U.S. and Europe could be affected within 18 to 24 months, based on the amount of advanced notice required for fuel orders. Some U.S. utilities have said they <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-russias-invasion-is-affecting-u-s-nuclear/">do not expect shortages</a>, but the opacity of the market and long time frames make this hard to predict. Utilities will face higher prices if they turn to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-09/u-s-weighs-sanctions-on-russian-nuclear-power-supplier-rosatom?sref=Hjm5biAW">Europe, Japan or China</a> for uranium conversion or enrichment services. </p>
<p>What about uranium supplies? Western producers – notably, Canada and Australia – have large reserves that would be economic to mine at current price levels. And some U.S. politicians, mainly in western states, are calling for <a href="https://cowboystatedaily.com/2022/03/14/gordon-we-need-to-have-a-domestic-source-for-uranium/">more domestic mining</a>.</p>
<p>But this would be controversial. <a href="https://www.epa.gov/navajo-nation-uranium-cleanup/abandoned-mines-cleanup">Over 500 abandoned mines remain</a> from extensive uranium production across the Navajo Nation in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico during the Cold War. These areas are still experiencing harmful effects, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/before-the-us-approves-new-uranium-mining-consider-its-toxic-legacy-91204">environmental contamination and claims of mysterious illnesses and cancers</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ETPogv1zq08?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cold War uranium mining has left a toxic legacy on Navajo lands in the western U.S.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Opportunities for U.S. leadership</h2>
<p>Rather than focusing on domestic uranium mining, we see it as a higher priority for the U.S. to reconsider its enrichment capabilities and policies. Private companies have been reluctant to invest in new enrichment facilities while cheaper alternatives like importing from Russia were available. The Department of Energy is moving forward on a program to <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/energysource/how-a-haleu-bank-could-work/">fund fuel production for advanced reactors</a>, but it might have to also focus on making fuel for existing U.S. reactors if Russia’s supply is interrupted.</p>
<p>In our view, the U.S. should also work to counter Russia’s efforts to export fabricated fuel and reactors. Ukraine is already working with U.S.-based Westinghouse to develop fuel for its Russian-designed reactors that can <a href="https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newswestinghouse-fuel-assemblies-delivered-to-rovno-npp-8919297">replace Russian-manufactured fuel</a>. Seven of Ukraine’s 15 reactors already use this fuel, which is fabricated in Sweden. We believe U.S. policy should support similar efforts elsewhere as needed. </p>
<p>Finally, if the U.S. and other countries seek to remake world nuclear supply chains, we believe the nuclear industry should strive to transcend its toxic legacy. This would require engaging at the start with affected communities, securing benefits for them, making project plans more transparent and incorporating <a href="https://www.goodenergycollective.org/policy/can-nuclear-energy-jobs-power-a-just-transition">environmental justice</a> into every project. Of course, the first step toward <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/our-association/publications/technical-position-papers/best-practice-in-uranium-mining.aspx">ethical uranium</a> is ensuring that the nuclear power industry is not funding Russia’s war against Ukraine.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Gilbert is Director of Space & Planetary Regulation at Zeno Power, which develops radioisotope power systems for maritime and outer space applications. Such systems do not compete with terrestrial commercial power reactors and do not involve the front-end of the nuclear supply chain discussed in this article. Alex does not have a financial interest in any company involved in uranium mining, conversion, enrichment, reactors, or related services described in this article. Previously, Alex was a Project Manager at the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, a non-profit think tank dedicating to commercializing advanced reactors to mitigate climate change.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Bazilian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Russia isn’t a major producer of uranium, but it handles a large share of the steps that turn it into nuclear fuel. That makes it a major player in this globalized industry.Alex Gilbert, PhD Candidate in Space Resources, Colorado School of MinesMorgan Bazilian, Professor of Public Policy and Director, Payne Institute, Colorado School of MinesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1785092022-03-10T13:28:15Z2022-03-10T13:28:15ZWould Putin use nuclear weapons? An arms control expert explains what has and hasn’t changed since the invasion of Ukraine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450533/original/file-20220307-126059-i3fty9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4178%2C2345&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This intercontinental ballistic missile was launched as part of Russia's test of its strategic forces in 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaNuclearDrills/b806e35f8e094dccaa4bea3e15b06463/photo">Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The prospect of a nuclear exchange between Russia and the United States seemed, until recently, to have ended with the Cold War. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-23-22/h_d48db5391abae0b336a8217487043536">Threats</a> by Russian President Vladimir Putin to use the weapons to keep NATO out of the Ukraine conflict have revived those decades-old fears. </p>
<p>The threats come amid the fraying of nuclear arms control agreements between the two nuclear superpowers that had stabilized strategic relations for decades. </p>
<p>As an <a href="https://nonproliferation.org/experts/miles-pomper/">arms control expert</a>, I see the war in Ukraine as an added strain but not a fatal blow to the system that has helped to keep the world from nuclear devastation. That system has evolved over decades and allows U.S. and Russian officials to gauge how close the other side is to launching an attack.</p>
<h2>Keeping an eye on each other</h2>
<p>Arms control treaties rely on each of the nuclear superpowers sharing information about deployed delivery systems – missiles or bombers that could be used to deliver nuclear warheads – and to permit the other side to <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/rls/139906.htm">verify these claims</a>. The treaties usually include numerical limits on weapons, and implementation of a treaty typically begins with baseline declarations by each side of numbers and locations of weapons. Numbers are updated annually. The two sides also regularly notify each other of significant changes to this baseline through what are now called <a href="https://youtu.be/JWgkp5u7Kmg">Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers</a>. </p>
<p>A key element of all arms control treaties has been the two sides’ ability to use “<a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/rls/139906.htm">national technical means</a>,” such as satellites, along with remote monitoring techniques such as <a href="https://technet.pnnl.gov/sensors/nuclear/products/armscontrol.stm">radiation detectors</a>, <a href="https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1205690/">tags and seals</a>, to monitor compliance. Remote monitoring techniques are designed to distinguish individual items such as missiles that are limited by treaty and to ensure that they are not tampered with. </p>
<p>The 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty introduced a major innovation: the use of on-site inspections. Before that treaty, the Soviets had resisted U.S. proposals to include such inspections in verification. But as Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev moved domestically to a process of <a href="http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1985-2/perestroika-and-glasnost/">glasnost</a> (openness), he embraced on-site inspections, and similar provisions have been included in subsequent treaties. They include both regular announced inspections and a certain number of annual unannounced short-term challenge inspections to guard against cheating. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450796/original/file-20220308-13-37peez.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a group of men look at a pair of disassembled missiles lying on the ground in a desert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450796/original/file-20220308-13-37peez.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450796/original/file-20220308-13-37peez.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450796/original/file-20220308-13-37peez.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450796/original/file-20220308-13-37peez.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450796/original/file-20220308-13-37peez.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450796/original/file-20220308-13-37peez.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450796/original/file-20220308-13-37peez.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Soviet weapons inspectors examine two disassembled Pershing II missiles in the U.S. in 1989.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:INF_inspection_of_Pershing_II_missiles_in_1989_(1).JPEG">MSGT Jose Lopez Jr./Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The history of keeping nuclear arms in check</h2>
<p>National security scholars such as <a href="https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1207805/heroes-of-arms-control-tom-schelling-and-mort-halperin/">Thomas Schelling and Morton Halperin</a> developed the concept of arms control in the late 1950s and early 1960s amid an accelerating U.S.-Soviet arms race. Arms control measures were designed to increase transparency and predictability to avoid misunderstandings or false alarms that could lead to an accidental or unintended nuclear conflict. As the concept evolved, the goal of arms control measures became ensuring that defenders could respond to any nuclear attack with one of their own, which reduced incentives to engage in a nuclear war in the first place. </p>
<p>The approach gained traction after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the surprise deployment of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles less than 100 miles from the U.S. brought the world to the verge of nuclear war. Initial agreements included the 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Talks agreement (SALT 1), which put the first ceilings on U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons. Subsequently, Gorbachev negotiated the <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2019-08-02/inf-treaty-1987-2019">INF</a> treaty and Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), which brought reductions in the two sides’ nuclear forces. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450545/original/file-20220307-85965-spshus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two men in dark business suits sit on the same side of a table signing documents" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450545/original/file-20220307-85965-spshus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450545/original/file-20220307-85965-spshus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450545/original/file-20220307-85965-spshus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450545/original/file-20220307-85965-spshus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450545/original/file-20220307-85965-spshus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450545/original/file-20220307-85965-spshus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450545/original/file-20220307-85965-spshus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty in the East Room of the White House on Dес. 8, 1987.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/public/archives/photographs/large/c44067-5.jpg">Ronald Reagan Presidential Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The INF treaty for the first time banned an entire class of weapons: ground-launched missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers (311 and 3,418 miles). This included U.S. missiles capable of hitting Russia from the territory of U.S. allies in Europe or East Asia and vice versa. START I applied to strategic nuclear weapons, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) launched from one superpower’s homeland to attack the other’s territory. In 2010, President Barack Obama and then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed the <a href="https://www.state.gov/new-start/">New START agreement</a>, which further reduced the two sides’ deployed strategic nuclear forces. And in 2021, President Joe Biden and Putin extended that treaty for five years. The treaties have supported dramatic cuts in the two countries’ nuclear arsenals.</p>
<h2>New challenges for an aging system</h2>
<p>Inspections under the INF treaty ended in 2001 after the last banned missiles were removed from deployment. Under the Obama and Trump administrations, the U.S. accused Russia of violating the treaty by developing, testing and deploying <a href="https://2017-2021.state.gov/russias-violation-of-the-intermediate-range-nuclear-forces-inf-treaty/index.html">cruise missiles</a> that exceeded its 500-kilometer limit, an accusation Russia rejected. Backed by NATO allies, the Trump administration withdrew from the treaty in 2019. This left long-range strategic weapons as the only nuclear weapons subject to arms control agreements.</p>
<p>Shorter-range non-strategic nuclear weapons – those with a range of less than 500 kilometers, or roughly 310 miles – have never been covered by any agreement, a sore point with Washington and NATO allies because <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL32572/46">Moscow possesses far more of them</a> than NATO does.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450543/original/file-20220307-51485-1hga5jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="four large military vehicles in a snow-covered field at the edge of a forest, two of the vehicles with nearly vertical cylinders attached at the rear" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450543/original/file-20220307-51485-1hga5jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450543/original/file-20220307-51485-1hga5jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450543/original/file-20220307-51485-1hga5jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450543/original/file-20220307-51485-1hga5jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450543/original/file-20220307-51485-1hga5jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450543/original/file-20220307-51485-1hga5jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450543/original/file-20220307-51485-1hga5jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Russia’s Iskander missile system launches short-range ballistic missiles with either nuclear or conventional warheads from mobile platforms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaUkraineWarWeaponsExplainer/9ab44d4bdff84b6a8cde43b237b17dbc/photo">Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Arms control has been declining in other ways as well. Russia has embarked on an ambitious <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/R45861.pdf">nuclear weapons modernization program</a>, and some of its exotic new strategic weapon systems fall outside of New START’s restrictions. Meanwhile, cyberattacks and anti-satellite weapons loom as new threats to arms control monitoring and nuclear command and control systems. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14751798.2020.1857911">Artificial intelligence</a> and <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2019/Sep/25/2002187108/-1/-1/0/59HYPERSONICWEAPONS.PDF">hypersonic missile</a> technology could shorten the warning times for a nuclear attack. Russia has been deploying missiles that can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads, sowing confusion. And Russia worries that U.S. missile defense systems, especially in Europe, threaten strategic stability by permitting the U.S. to carry out a nuclear first strike and then prevent an effective Russian nuclear response. </p>
<p>Before the Ukraine war, Biden and Putin had launched a <a href="https://russiamatters.org/analysis/us-russia-strategic-stability-dialogue-purpose-progress-challenges-and-opportunities">Strategic Stability Dialogue</a> to tackle these issues and lay the groundwork for negotiations on a replacement for New START before it expires in 2026. But the dialogue has been suspended with the outbreak of hostilities, and it is difficult to foresee when it might resume. </p>
<h2>Putin turns up the heat – but not to a boil</h2>
<p>Putin’s recent moves have further shaken the rickety strategic security architecture. On the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-23-22/h_d48db5391abae0b336a8217487043536">he said</a> that “anyone who tries to interfere with us … must know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history” and that Russia possesses “certain advantages in a number of the latest types of weapons.” </p>
<p>With the war underway, Putin announced an “<a href="https://tass.com/defense/1413219">enhanced combat alert</a>” of the country’s nuclear forces, which is <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2022/02/what-just-happened-putins-nuclear-forces-heres-what-experts-say/362501/">not a regular alert level</a> in Russia’s system comparable to the U.S.’s <a href="https://nuke.fas.org/guide/usa/c3i/defcon.htm">DEFCON status</a>. In practice, the enhanced combat alert consisted largely of adding staff to shifts at relevant nuclear weapon sites. The announcement was <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2022/03/concern-rising-putin-could-use-nuclear-weapons/362913/">designed to discourage NATO</a> from intervening and to intimidate Ukraine.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, U.S. national security officials <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?518352-1/house-intel-panel-told-putin-endgame-ukraine&live=">expressed concern</a> that Russia could use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine if NATO forces were drawn into direct conflict with Russia. Use of the weapons is consistent with Russia’s military doctrine of “<a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2017/february/escalate-de-escalate">escalate to de-escalate</a>,” according to the officials.</p>
<p>Even in the face of Putin’s strategic nuclear saber rattling and concerns about Russia’s use of tactical nuclear weapons, however, the arms control framework has held sufficiently firm to preserve strategic stability. U.S. nuclear commanders have criticized Putin’s moves but <a href="https://www.armytimes.com/pentagon/2022/03/01/no-changes-coming-to-us-nuclear-posture-after-russian-threat/">have not sought to match them</a>. They do not see evidence that Putin has taken steps to escalate the situation, like placing non-strategic nuclear warheads on airplanes or ships or sending nuclear-armed submarines to sea. </p>
<p>So far, arms control has played its intended role of limiting the scope and violence in Ukraine, keeping a lid on a conflict that otherwise could become a world war. </p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miles A. Pomper has led several research projects for CNS which have received funding from NATO member states, including the United States and several European allies. His research has also been supported by grants from foundations interested in arms control</span></em></p>Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats have the world on edge, but so far, long-standing arms control measures have helped keep the situation from getting out of control.Miles A. Pomper, Senior Fellow, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, MiddleburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1789752022-03-10T11:38:03Z2022-03-10T11:38:03ZChernobyl and Zaporizhzhia power cuts: nervous wait as Ukraine nuclear power plants could start leaking radiation<p>The catastrophic disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 was caused by an explosion at the Reactor 4 Unit. This expelled a sizeable quantity of radioactive material into the surroundings, alongside a partial meltdown of the reactor core. The last few decades have seen substantial international efforts to safely contain and decontaminate the site, including the recent installation of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/chernobyl-new-tomb-will-make-site-safe-for-100-years-58025">New Safe Confinement structure</a>.</p>
<p>But Russian forces have now seized the site, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-the-dangers-following-russias-attack-on-the-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-178564">along with the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant</a>, as part of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Moreover, on March 9, Ukrainian authorities reported a power loss at Chernobyl, <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-16-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine">followed by a partial one at Zaporizhzhia</a>.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-8-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine">reassurances</a> by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that there is no imminent safety threat posed by the power isolation, it is important to understand the potential impact going forward.</p>
<p>When nuclear fuel is removed from the core of a reactor, it is redesignated as “spent” nuclear fuel and often treated as a waste product for disposal.</p>
<p>But fuel will continue to dissipate heat due to radioactive decay, even after being removed from the reactor core. It is therefore of foremost importance that the spent fuel material contained at the Chernobyl site is adequately and continuously cooled to prevent a release of radioactivity.</p>
<p>At Chernobyl, as well as other sites, standard procedures to safely handle such material involves placing the fuel into water-filled ponds, which shield the near-field environment from radiation. They also provide a medium for heat transfer from the fuel to the water via continuous circulation of fresh, cool water.</p>
<p>If circulation is compromised, such as the recent power shutdowns, the fuel will continue to emit heat. This can make the surrounding coolant water evaporate – leaving nothing to soak up the radiation from the fuel. It would therefore leak out to the surroundings.</p>
<p>In the case of Chernobyl, the spent fuel material has been out of the reactor for an adequate period of time and does not, therefore, require intensive cooling. However, the surrounding water could nevertheless be evaporated eventually if the power is not reinstated. This could, in turn, heighten the risk for an increased radiation dose uptake by the remaining site workers and beyond. </p>
<p>The remaining risks are mainly posed by the severely damaged Reactor 4 Unit, which contains sizeable quantities of a <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ta/d0ta09131f">lava-like material</a>, commonly referred to as “corium” (because it comes form the core). This is highly radioactive and its eventual disposal continues to present a substantial scientific and engineering challenge. It is therefore necessary that the continued operation of radiation monitoring and ventilation systems within the New Safe Confinement structure remain online.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kK7xG_Q0Tkg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>At Zaporizhzhia, two out of six reactors are actually operating. The damaged power connection luckily affects a reactor <a href="https://snriu.gov.ua/en">that is currently shut down</a>. This is undergoing repair – but it is difficult to get spare parts in the middle of the war.</p>
<h2>Nervous wait</h2>
<p>Despite assurances that there exist on-site reserves of diesel fuel that could feasibly provide back-up power for approximately 48 hours at Chernobyl, we don’t know how long the site will be without power. It should be reiterated, however, that IAEA have said there is no cause for immediate alarm. That’s because there is enough water in the spent fuel pools to avoid an accident. It may be months before the water is completely gone.</p>
<p>This is reassuring, but then the fighting in the region is reportedly already making it difficult to fix the power connection problem. </p>
<p>At Zaporizhzhia, the damaged power connection is undergoing repair – but it is difficult to get spare parts in the middle of a war. The fact that the reactor is shut down means it is not an immediate safety risk. But if power is cut to one of the operating reactors, paired with substantial damage to backup generators, this <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-the-dangers-following-russias-attack-on-the-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-178564">could result in meltdown</a> in the worst case.</p>
<p>The safe dismantling, decontamination and decommissioning of the Chernobyl site is the collective aim of the global engineering community, yet estimates of completion range into the late 2060s. Clearly, the latest events events pose a serious threat to the ongoing decommissioning efforts in Ukraine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178975/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lewis Blackburn receives funding from EPSRC through the provision of a Doctoral Prize Fellowship.</span></em></p>The level of danger posed by the Chernobyl power cut depends on how long it lasts.Lewis Blackburn, EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellow in Materials Science, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1785882022-03-04T23:36:53Z2022-03-04T23:36:53ZRussian troops fought for control of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine – a safety expert explains how warfare and nuclear power are a volatile combination<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450124/original/file-20220304-23-pfhpx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3442%2C2282&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, points to the training facility hit by Russian artillery at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AustriaNuclearRussiaUkraineWar/86fb83c01e9149b3a9bb7c09dccc0157/photo">AP Photo/Lisa Leutner</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Russian forces have taken control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/zaporizhzhia-nuclear-power-plant-everything-you-need-to-know">shelling the Zaporizhzhia facility</a> in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar.</em></p>
<p><em>The overnight assault caused a blaze at the facility, prompting fears over the safety of the plant and evoking painful memories in a country still scarred by the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in 1986. The site of that disaster is <a href="https://theconversation.com/military-action-in-radioactive-chernobyl-could-be-dangerous-for-people-and-the-environment-177992">also under Russian control</a> as of Feb. 24, 2022.</em> </p>
<p><em>On March 4, Ukrainian authorities <a href="https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-11-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine">reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency</a> that the fire at Zaporizhzhia had been extinguished and that Ukrainian employees were reportedly operating the plant under Russian orders. But safety concerns remain.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://sites.usc.edu/meshkati/">Najmedin Meshkati</a>, a professor and <a href="https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/thirty-three-years-catastrophe-chernobyl-universal-lesson-global-nuclear-power-industry">nuclear safety expert</a> at the University of Southern California, to explain the risks of warfare taking place in and around nuclear power plants.</em></p>
<h2>How safe was the Zaporizhzhia power plant before the Russian attack?</h2>
<p>The facility at Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear plant in Europe, and one of the largest in the world. It has six <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/pwrs.html">pressurized water reactors</a>, which use water to both sustain the fission reaction and cool the reactor. These differ from the <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/appendices/rbmk-reactors.aspx">reaktor bolshoy moshchnosty kanalny</a> reactors at Chernobyl, which used graphite instead of water to sustain the fission reaction. RBMK reactors are not seen as very safe, and there are <a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/appendices/rbmk-reactors.aspx">only eight remaining in use</a> in the world, all in Russia.</p>
<p>The reactors at Zaporizhzhia are of moderately good design. And the plant has a decent safety record, with a good operating background.</p>
<p>Ukraine authorities tried to keep the war away from the site by asking Russia to observe a 30-kilometer safety buffer. But Russian troops surrounded the facility and then seized it.</p>
<h2>What are the risks to a nuclear plant in a conflict zone?</h2>
<p>Nuclear power plants are built for peacetime operations, not wars.</p>
<p>The worst thing that could happen is if a site is deliberately or accidentally shelled and the containment building – which houses the nuclear reactor – is hit. These containment buildings are not designed or built for deliberate shelling. They are built to withstand a minor internal explosion of, say, a pressurized water pipe. But they are not designed to withstand a huge explosion.</p>
<p>It is not known whether the Russian forces deliberately shelled the Zaporizhzhia plant. It may have been inadvertent, caused by a stray missile. But we do know they wanted to capture the plant.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kK7xG_Q0Tkg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tracer rounds and flames can be seen in this video of the fight for control of the nuclear power plant.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If a shell hit the plant’s <a href="https://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/pools.html">spent fuel pool</a> – which contains the still-radioactive spent fuel – or if fire spread to the spent fuel pool, it could release radiation. This spent fuel pool isn’t in the containment building, and as such is more vulnerable.</p>
<p>As to the reactors in the containment building, it depends on the weapons being used. The worst-case scenario is that a bunker-buster missile breaches the containment dome – consisting of a thick shell of reinforced concrete on top of the reactor – and explodes. That would badly damage the nuclear reactor and release radiation into the atmosphere. And because of any resulting fire, sending in firefighters would be difficult. It could be another Chernobyl.</p>
<h2>What are the concerns going forward?</h2>
<p>The biggest worry was not the fire at the facility. That did not affect the containment buildings and has been extinguished. </p>
<p>The safety problems I see now are twofold:</p>
<p><strong>1) Human error</strong></p>
<p>The workers at the facility are now working under incredible stress, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-03-04-22/h_1f73598a8edc48dcd10cea81c3c37be5">reportedly at gunpoint</a>. Stress increases the chance of error and poor performance.</p>
<p>One concern is that the workers will not be allowed to change shifts, meaning longer hours and tiredness. We know that a few days ago at Chernobyl, after the Russians took control of the site, they <a href="https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/IAEA-chief-warns-over-pressure-on-Ukraine-nuclear">did not allow employees</a> – who usually work in three shifts – to swap out. Instead, they took some workers hostage and didn’t allow the other workers to attend their shifts.</p>
<p>At Zaporizhzhia we may see the same.</p>
<p>There is a human element in running a nuclear power plant – operators are the first and last layers of defense for the facility and the public. They are the first people to detect any anomaly and to stop any incident. Or if there’s an accident, they will be the first to heroically try to contain it. </p>
<p><strong>2) Power failure</strong></p>
<p>The second problem is that the nuclear plant needs constant electricity, and that is harder to maintain in wartime.</p>
<p>Even if you shut down the reactors, the plant will need off-site power to run the huge cooling system to remove the residual heat in the reactor and bring it to what is called a “cold shutdown.” Water circulation is always needed to make sure the spent fuel doesn’t overheat.</p>
<p>Spent fuel pools also need constant circulation of water to keep them cool. And they need cooling for several years before being put in dry casks. One of the problems in the 2011 <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-years-after-fukushima-safety-is-still-nuclear-powers-greatest-challenge-155541">Fukushima disaster</a> in Japan was the emergency generators, which replaced lost off-site power, got inundated with water and failed. In situations like that you get “<a href="https://allthingsnuclear.org/dlochbaum/nuclear-station-blackout/">station blackout</a>” – and that is one of the worst things that could happen. It means no electricity to run the cooling system. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hundreds of square openings lie at the bottom of a large pool of water in an industrial building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450128/original/file-20220304-21-hirerv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Spent nuclear fuel rods are stored at the bottom of this pool, which requires constant circulation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-shows-the-cooling-pool-of-the-switched-off-unit-1-news-photo/524200126">Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In that circumstance, the spent fuel overheats and its zirconium cladding can cause hydrogen bubbles. If you can’t vent these bubbles they will explode, spreading radiation.</p>
<p>If there is a loss of outside power, operators will have to rely on emergency generators. But emergency generators are huge machines – finicky, unreliable gas guzzlers. And you still need cooling waters for the generators themselves. </p>
<p>My biggest worry is that Ukraine suffers from a sustained power grid failure. The likelihood of this increases during a conflict, because pylons may come down under shelling or gas power plants might get damaged and cease to operate. And it is unlikely that Russian troops themselves will have fuel to keep these emergency generators going – they <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60596629">don’t seem to have enough fuel</a> to run their own personnel carriers.</p>
<h2>How else does a war affect the safety of nuclear plants?</h2>
<p>One of the overarching concerns is that war degrades <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK253947/">safety culture</a>, which is crucial in running a plant. I believe that safety culture is analogous to the human body’s immune system, which protects against pathogens and diseases; and because of the pervasive nature of safety culture and its widespread impact, according to <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/jim-reason-FBA/">psychologist James Reason</a>, “<a href="https://www.safetymattersblog.com/2014/11/a-life-in-error-by-james-reason.html">it can affect all elements in a system for good or ill</a>.”</p>
<p>It is incumbent upon the leadership of the plant to strive for immunizing, protecting, maintaining and nurturing the healthy safety culture of the nuclear plant.</p>
<p>War adversely affects the safety culture in a number of ways. Operators are stressed and fatigued and may be scared to death to speak out if something is going wrong. Then there is the maintenance of a plant, which may be compromised by lack of staff or unavailability of spare parts. Governance, regulation and oversight – all crucial for the safe running of a nuclear industry – are also disrupted, as is local infrastructure, such as the capability of local firefighters. In normal times you might have been able to extinguish the fire at Zaporizhzhia in five minutes. But in war, everything is harder.</p>
<h2>So what can be done to better protect Ukraine’s nuclear power plants?</h2>
<p>This is an unprecedented and volatile situation. The only solution is a no-fight zone around nuclear plants. War, in my opinion, is the worst enemy of nuclear safety.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178588/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Najmedin Meshkati received research funding from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC in mid-1990s.</span></em></p>The world held its collective breath as Russian troops battled Ukrainian forces at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The battle is over and no radiation escaped, but the danger is far from over.Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.