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The radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are the observed and predicted effects as a result of the release of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichii Nuclear Power Plant following the 2011 TÅhoku 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami (Great East Japan Earthquake and the resultant tsunami).
Caesium-137 concentration in the air, 19 March 2011. Radioactive materials were dispersed into the atmosphere immediately after the disaster and account for most of all such materials leaked into the environment. 80% of the initial atmospheric release eventually deposited over rivers and the Pacific Ocean, according to a UNSCEAR report in 2020. [17]
Radionuclides occur naturally or are artificially produced in nuclear reactors, cyclotrons, particle accelerators or radionuclide generators. There are about 730 radionuclides with half-lives longer than 60 minutes (see list of nuclides). Thirty-two of those are primordial radionuclides that were created before the Earth was formed. At least ...
Degrees of these effects are dependent on external factors, especially in the case of humans. Radioecology encompasses all radiological interactions affecting biological and geological material as well as those between different phases of matter, as each is capable of carrying radionuclides.
Ultimately the contaminated water, after treatment to remove radionuclides other than tritium, has to be discharged into the Pacific ocean. [193] TEPCO created an underground ice wall to block the flow of groundwater into the reactor buildings. A $300 million 7.8 MW cooling facility freezes the ground to a depth of 30 meters.
Marine food chains are more vulnerable to the nuclear fallout and the effects of soot in the atmosphere. [39] Fallout radionuclides' detriment in the human food chain is apparent in the lichen-caribou-eskimo studies in Alaska. [40] The primary effect on humans observed was thyroid dysfunction. [41]
Effects may also depend on the chemical toxicity of the deposited material, independent of its radioactivity. Some radionuclides may be generally distributed throughout the body and rapidly removed, as is the case with tritiated water. Some organs concentrate certain elements and hence radionuclide variants of those elements.
The presence of radioactive waste in the environment may cause long-term effects due to the activity and half-life of the radionuclides, leading their impact to grow with time. [2] These particles exist in various oxidation states and are found as oxides , coprecipitates , or as organic or inorganic complexes, according to their origin and ways ...