Nuclear Waste disposal

Radioactive waste disposal continues to be an emotional subject worldwide. The concern is more with the disposal of high-level waste which will remain radioactive for thousands of years. Thus, the issue of nuclear waste and methods of its disposal remain one of the most pressing problems facing the nuclear sector.

There are technical solutions for the waste disposal and they are certainly safe. Deep geological disposal is one of the viable options available for the purpose. There are international publications and guidelines available on the subject. However, what has been missing so far is a uniform, global approach to this issue at a level which is clearly understood by the clever public. Public acceptance is very important and somehow the authorities are not able to convince the educated and knowledgeable public about the safety and security of such technology in the long term. Private sector participation in nuclear sector and terrorist activity are the two new dimensions which should be addressed to convince the public.

The opinion is to have safety demonstration of such a technology and internationally harmonized regulations to control such activities. As part of its effort to tackle this issue, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held this week in Cape Town, South Africa, an international workshop on the safety and licensing of radioactive waste disposal. More than 90 international experts participated in the one-day event. The outcome of the workshop is awaited.

Mobile phone radiations & health effects

There have been many posts in this blog on the health concerns of indiscriminate use of mobile phones. Also, articles periodically appear on this issue which is of serious concern from public health considerations. The most recent ones appeared in an Indian news paper Mumbai Mirror. The reported study indicated that the radiation from the mobile phones weakened the bones by reducing the bone density. A decade-long investigation in UK, overseen by World Health Organization (WHO), says that heavy mobile users have higher risk (39% increase) of developing brain tumours later in life. Most of the health effects are of long-term nature and will be manifested only after a few years of usage.

In spite of all these, one fails to understand why the government authorities turning a blind eye to these concerns about the potential health effects, likely to be in catastrophic scale in the near future?

New Reference Computational Phantoms of the Adult Male and Female of the ICRP

In its recent recommendations (ICRP Publication 103: Recommendations of the ICRP. Annals of the ICRP 37(2-4)), ICRP adopted the new reference male and female computational phantoms, called RMCP and RFCP. These voxel phantoms will be used for the forthcoming update of organ dose conversion coefficients. The phantoms are based on medical image data of real persons and are consistent with the information given in ICRP Publication 89 (2002) on the reference anatomical and physiological parameters for both male and female subjects.

The reference voxel models are constructed after modifying the voxel models (Golem and Laura) of two individuals whose body height and weight resembled the reference data. The organ masses of both models were adjusted to the ICRP data on the Reference Adult Male and Reference Adult Female, without spoiling their realistic anatomy.

The numerical data representing the phantoms will be contained in electronic data storage medium (CD-ROM) that will accompany the upcoming publication. The phantoms' technical description is contained in a series of Annexes that form the larger part of the publication:

One of the aims of the report is to assist those who want to implement the phantoms for their own calculations.

ICRP Publication 98: Radiation safety aspects of brachytherapy for prostate cancer

It is now well known that radiation sources are implanted in the body to treat localized cancers such as prostate cancers. The radioactive sources used are Iodine-125 or Palladium-103. The application of the technique, known as brachytherapy, has been rapidly increasing all over the world in the last fifteen years. To date, it is estimated that globally more than 50,000 patients are treated this way every year. Although no accident or adverse effects involving the medical staff and/or members of the patient family have been reported so far, the brachytherapy technique raises a number of radiation safety issues which need specific recommendations from the expert body, International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).

The available data show that, in the vast majority of cases, the dose to comforters and carers remains well below the 1 mSv/year limit. Only in rare case where the patient's partner is pregnant at the time of implantation may need specific precautions. Other related issues are: rare possibility of expulsion of the sources through the urine, the semen or the gastro-intestinal tract; incident/accident linked to the radioactive seed loss; cremation of bodies containing the sources; guidelines for the surgery of pelvic or abdominal regions of the patient; possible modifications of the semen due to the radiation exposure; a limited risk of genetic effects for the child fathered by the patient with the implantation; the possibility of triggering certain types of security radiation monitors; induction of the radiation-induced secondary tumors, etc.

The ICRP publication 93 (2006) provides specific recommendations on the above issues.

Health Concerns of radiation exposure from mobile towers/phones

Please refer to the article entitled “Addicted to cellphones? – India Government tells Parliament excessive use of mobiles harmful” published in today’s Times of India (Times Nation, page no. 15). The Union Health Minister is cautioning the public against the excessive usage of mobile phones. There were articles which appeared in Mumbai Mirror (“Red alert on Cell tower radiation”, in July, 2008, and the recent article “JJ hospital docs get cell tower jitters”, dated January 24, 2009) and Times of Navi Mumbai article “Illegal mobile towers to go”, dated January 11, 2009) reporting the radiation levels in different areas much exceeding the internationally accepted levels.

In spite of repeated news appearing in World Wide Web,
http://radsafe.blogspot.com
www.radsafetyinfo.com
http://icareforyou2007.blogspot.com

little attention is paid to the harmful effects of such non-ionizing radio-frequency (RF) radiation emitted by the towers and mobile phones. The expected mobile phone usage is projected to be 500 million (half of the population) within a short period of time. As per the recent reports, of the service providers have projected erection of over 90,000 base stations, signal booster antennae all over India to meet the ever increasing demand even from rural areas.

Why no serious efforts are made by the government to regulate and control these activities? Are politicians and Babus are being pressurized by the rich service providers’ lobby against taking any action? Why not ban the latest silly ad – Walk while talk - from Idea Cellular? Before RF related health effects are shown in the public in catastrophic magnitude, it is absolutely necessary to take action on war footing. Better late than never!

Nuclear disarmament

The US President Barack Obama has been actively proposing nuclear disarmament at a time when even the smaller nations such as North Korea and Iran are trying to build-up their own nuclear arsenal. The concept of nuclear disarmament is easy to talk about, but very difficult to implement.

What happens to the thousands of tons of fissile materials such as plutonium and enriched uranium in the war-heads which will become redundant and can fall into the hands of the terrorist groups? In the nuclear-weapon countries, the weapons must be of very old design and assumed to be in a state which calls for up-gradation to ensure safety and suitability for current strategic applications. Considering the cost of dismantling and reassembling, it is advisable for these countries to go for disarmament.

Unless serious efforts are made to recycle the fissile materials, probably as fuel in nuclear power reactors, it is dangerous to go for nuclear disarmament.

Risk Equivalent Radiation Dose (RERD)-for policy decisions

A unifying concept of radiation dose should be used to express the total health risk from exposure to radiation and chemicals. For example, many chemical pollutants we come across in day-to-day life and in industrial releases are carcinogenic. The risk factors (risk per unit exposure) are assessed by different agencies and are known. Carcinogenic risk from radiation is also well known.

Thus, it is possible to add up the chemical risks due to known amount of exposures or intakes (=measured concentration of the pollutant multiplied by the time period of exposure), and the risk from radiation exposure (=radiation dose rate multiplied by the time period of exposure) to get the total risks of cancer due to radiation and chemical pollutants in any given environment.

The total risk can be expressed in terms of the total Risk Equivalent Radiation Dose (RERD).

This can be conveniently employed by the policy makers to take decisions based on health detriment, due to a decision, say, to build a type of power plant, nuclear, thermal or hydro.

Mobile hot cell for handling highly radioactive sources

The IAEA has conceived an idea of employing mobile hot cell facility to handle radioactive sources in developing countries. The idea was successfully employed for the first time in a real field operation in Sudan in early May to process high-activity disused radioactive sources. This was the first operation of its kind undertaken by IAEA in a developing country.

Disused/decayed high-activity radioactive sources, used for diagnosing and treating medical patients, sterilizing blood and medical appliances or protecting stored crops, need to be handled before its safe disposal. Unlike in developed countries, developing countries may not have the specialized infra-structure for handling such sources.

The project in Sudan was performed at the radioactive waste storage site of the country´s Atomic Energy Commission. The inventory included disused sources that had been used in research and medical teletherapy machines containing high-activity Cobalt 60 sources. Inside the mobile hot cell, the disused radioactive sources were removed from the original equipment and transferred into a stronger storage container that was designed for their safe and secure storage.

The creation of the mobile hot cell and its successful operation illustrates an excellent example of technical cooperation between developing countries. It is an opportunity to extend disused source recovery and conditioning work to cover other developing countries (source: IAEA News).

Radioactive Cargo in aircrafts

Millions of radioactive packages are transported regularly by air between different destinations around the world. I believe, India also imports and exports these radioactive sources for different applications, mainly for the diagnosis and treatment of patients in hospitals.

There are very stringent international regulations applicable for transportation of radioactive materials. The rules and regulations apply with respect to type of the radioactive source, nature of the package and the total radioactive material permitted inside the package. The purpose of this is to make sure that even in case of any accident no radioactivity comes out of the package and harm anybody.

Under such situations, there is no reason for any alarm and no need for the media to give undue importance for the presence of radioactive cargo in the aircrafts. Let us not make patients suffer because of our ignorance.

Mobile user base has gone up seven times in India!

During the last 4 fours, a lot of changes have taken place in Indian telecom sector. The number of fixed-line users has come down. People want to go for mobile phone whether it is necessary or not. The revolution is a phenomenon. As of end of February 2009, the mobile phone user base was 376 million. The major GSM players are: Bharti, Vodafone, BSNL and Idea, while the CDMA firms are mainly Reliance and Tata Teleservices. The time spent by people making or receiving calls on mobile phones is one the rise. At the end of December 2008, minutes of GSM mobile usage (mou) worked out to be an average 496 minutes per month. The demand for mobile phones from rural sector is also increasing greatly.

One can see the many tall mobile tower structures coming up in the rural skylines. In cities, mobile towers are erected on building tops in heavily populated areas. The electromagnetic pollution levels measured in some places are much more than the permissible levels. It is also reported that the radiation from the towers can cause many health effects, including cancer, headaches, genetic disorders, etc. None of the service providers has come forward to explain the higher radiation levels measured and the actual position to the common man.

The mobile users in the country have a right to know what are the benefits and harmful effects of such radiation exposures and what precautions should be taken to prevent any possible harmful effects.

Scrap monitoring for radioactivity - global issue

International experts from several countries said in a meeting held at Spain recently that urgent steps are needed to protect people from radioactive material that can inadvertently end up at junk and scrap yards.

In the last three years, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has become aware of around 500 events involving uncontrolled ionizing radiation sources, about 150 of which were related to sources found in scrap metal or contaminated goods or materials. A large portion of the scrap metal that is consumed annually is traded internationally, and may originate in one country and be transported long distances before being processed in another country. This is clearly a global problem that hence requires the application of a globally harmonized approach involving all stakeholders, says the IAEA official.

The regulatory approach is based on providing International Safety Standards by the IAEA (which is in place), and provide better guidance to regulators, scrap dealers, and metal recycling industries on how to deal with problems when they occur. The scope of the new protocol involves the detection and monitoring of radioactivity in the storage facilities and industries where scrap metal is collected and handled. Key elements include creating a register of ascribed companies, monitoring material at the entrance of the facilities as well as the final products and waste, and establishing sequence of actions to be taken when radioactivity is detected in the scrap.

Chemical toxicity of natural uranium

Uranium is a naturally occurring element, with an atomic number of 92 and density as high as 18 g/cc. Its radioactive nature was discovered in 1896 by A.H. Becqueral. Initially, it was used as a coloring agent in glass and as a homeopathic medicine. Subsequently, uranium is used as a fuel in nuclear power reactors. The uranium deposits are mined (mainly from Singhbhum area of Bihar) and the metal is produced by series of chemical and metallurgical operations.

Uranium is distributed widely in nature and is estimated to be present in the earth’s crust to the extent of about 4 parts per million. It is more abundant than many familiar elements such as gold, silver and mercury. Uranium content of sea water is 3 parts per billion. Traces of uranium are also found in both food and drinking water. The average daily intake of uranium through food and fluids is estimated to be 1.9 micro gram.

The chemical toxicity of uranium is more dominating when it is in water soluble compounds such as carbonates, nitrates, phosphates, fluorides, etc. One of the three oxides of uranium, i.e., UO3 is more soluble as compared to other insoluble oxides, viz., UO2 and U3O8. In soluble form, it can be transported by ground/surface water. Very small part of the ingested uranium is absorbed by the body which ultimately gets deposited in bone and kidney. While passing through kidney, uranium gets precipitated, thus increasing kidney burden. The assessed safe threshold for uranium in kidney is in the range of 1 to 3 microgram/g of kidney tissue. The quantity of uranium in blood that might produce a human fatality is 60 mg. The threshold limit value in blood for uranium induced proteinurea is 2.7 mg. Drinking water standards vary considerably and are reported in the range of 15 to 100 microgram uranium per liter of water.

To control the kidney burden, uranium should be kept in body fluids as a stable complex, such as bicarbonate complex, so that it is filterable in kidney and excreted through urine. That is the reason why sodium bicarbonate solution (1 to 1.5% in saline) is used for internal decontamination of uranium.

Uranium deforming children of Faridkot?

Reputed News papers like Times of India should not publish stories of this kind which is definitely “misinformation” without any specific scientific evidence.

Uranium is a naturally occurring element and is present in the rock to the extent of about 4 part per million. In trace levels, uranium is also present in ground water sources. The compounds of uranium differ in their solubility. Some compounds such as chloride, phosphates, carbonates and nitrates are soluble and compounds like oxides are insoluble in water. Uranium is a radioactive element. Because of very long half life, the specific activity, i.e., radioactivity per gram is very low.

Hexavalent uranium compounds with carbonates and phosphates are most stable compounds and forms soluble compounds with water and hence are transported through soil to some distances. If there is any source of uranium in nearby areas, it is possible that soluble uranium compounds can get into ground water sources and get ingested in the body. A very small fraction of the ingested uranium gets metabolized in the body and gets deposited in bone and kidney.

Uranium is used in nuclear reactors as fuel. The fuel production facilities, such as mines, uranium concentration and purification plants discharge very small amount of uranium in well controlled and regulated manner into the environment.

It is highly improbable that the deformation or any genetic effects occurring due to the intake of uranium. Radiation is categorized as a weak mutagen. The probability of uranium causing the health effect described in the story is almost zero. However, there is a good possibility of chemical entities such as fluorides, and heavy metals such as lead, etc pollute ground water to a great extent. It is also well known that chemical pollutants cause mutation of the body cells to a much greater extent which ultimately may manifest as genetic disorder in exposed population.

Hence, it is important that complete chemical analysis of the water samples be done before coming out with any premature conclusion which will adversely influence public opinion on nuclear applications

Radiation from mobile phones and towers

In view of the large scale usage of mobile phones, there has been much apprehension worldwide about the health concerns of its prolonged use.

It is reported that the latest Bluetooth devices use Radio Frequency (RF) with the spectrum in the range 2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz. The power output from a typical Class 3 Bluetooth device is 1 mW/square cm, which is of the same order of the limit for exposure of RF from cell-phones, which uses RF of 0.9 GHz. The Bluetooth devices are meant for attachment to the ear all the time. This may do irreversible damage to the ear internals.

RF radiation is also emitting from the towers erected on the buildings and almost everywhere. Some towers are legal and most of them are illegally erected. Some measurements carried out have shown that the levels of radiation exposures from the towers are significant and often exceed the limit. Long term effects are still not well known. Keeping in mind the uncertainty and the gaps in our knowledge about the health effects of exposure to the RF radiation, particularly due to its prolonged usage, it is not advisable to completely rule out adverse health effects, even at levels of RF exposures below the existing international guidelines.

Under the circumstance, it is advised to use mobiles for sending only messages and not for long gossip sessions. The mobiles should be kept away from the children. A separate regulatory body should be set up by the government to monitor the exposure levels from the towers at different areas to check compliance with the international regulatory limits.

Half a Century of Nuclear Safety

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s contribution to nuclear safety worldwide is marking a significant milestone this December 2008 with the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the Agency’s safety standards. The first IAEA safety series publication, entitled Safe Handling of Radioisotopes, was issued in December 1958.

The IAEA safety standards are a collection of fundamental radiation protection principles, requirements for the protection and guidance that serves as a global reference for ensuring safety in all areas in the nuclear sector. The standards reflect international consensus on what constitutes a high level of safety for protecting people and the environment.

The application of IAEA safety standards through, inter alia, peer reviews and advisory services at national and international levels are essential to support the development of effective national safety infrastructures. A big part of the IAEA´s statutory mandate is the establishment and promotion of international standards and guides, says, Head of the IAEA´s Publishing Section, IAEA. International standards, however, should not be seen to be in conflict with national regulations.

More than 200 safety standards have been published. They cover nuclear safety, radiation protection, radioactive waste management, the transport of radioactive materials, the safety of nuclear fuel cycle facilities and quality assurance.

"I CARE FOR YOU" WISHES ALL THE BLOGGERS/READERS A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SAFE NEW YEAR - 2009