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.