Key Issues
Beneficial Uses of Radiation
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Energy
Nuclear power plants generate 20 percent of the United States’ electricity and 17 percent of world’s electricity. In producing one-fifth of America’s electricity, U.S. nuclear plants cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, by 697 million metric tons in 2004.
Scientific Research
Radioactive materials are integral to research in nearly all fields of modern science. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires all new drugs to be tested for safety and effectiveness. More than 80 percent of those drugs are tested with radioactive materials.
Radioactive materials also are essential to the biomedical research that seeks causes and cures for diseases such as AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Radioisotopes are used extensively in metabolic studies, genetic engineering and environmental protection studies.
Carbon-14, a naturally occurring, long-lived radioactive substance, allows archaeologists to determine when artifacts containing plant or animal material were alive, created or used. For example, carbon-14 dating showed that the Shroud of Turin did not belong to the period when Jesus Christ was alive.
Museums rely on radioactive materials to verify the authenticity of paintings and art objects.
Criminology also makes use of radiation, where investigators use neutron activation analysis in chemical analyses. These investigators use radiation to examine physical evidence and to link suspects to crimes. For example, using radiation, they can detect the toxic element arsenic in a single strand of hair.
Agriculture and Food Products
More than 40 countries have approved the use of radiation to help preserve nearly 40 different varieties of food. Not all have yet approved the sale of irradiated food on the open market.
The process exposes food to high doses of radiation from cobalt-60. This process kills bacteria, insects and parasites, while the food itself remains safe without becoming radioactive. In the United States, the federal government has approved the use of irradiation for fruits, vegetables, pork, poultry, red meat and spices. The first major U.S. plant to use the process opened near Tampa, Fla., in 1992 to process fruits, vegetables and poultry.
Other food processors have been slow to adopt the technique because of concerns about con-sumer acceptance, even though astronauts regularly eat irradiated foods on space missions. In May 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cleared the way for irradiated ground beef to be available to schools through the National School Lunch program.
In agriculture, radiation helps breed new seed varieties with higher yields, such as the “miracle” rice that has greatly expanded rice production in Asia. By the end of the 1980s, radiation had eradicated approximately 10 species of pest insects in wide areas, preventing agricultural catastrophes. These include the Mediterranean fruit fly in Japan and Mexico, the tsetse fly in Africa and the screwworm fly in North Africa, the United States and Mexico.
In this process, which is known as the sterile insect technique, gamma radiation sterilizes millions of male insects so they are unable to mate productively. Once they are released into fields to mate with female insects, they produce no offspring, thereby breaking the cycle of infestation.
Radiation also has been used to:
Energy
Nuclear power plants generate 20 percent of the United States’ electricity and 17 percent of world’s electricity. In producing one-fifth of America’s electricity, U.S. nuclear plants cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, by 697 million metric tons in 2004.
Scientific Research
Radioactive materials are integral to research in nearly all fields of modern science. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires all new drugs to be tested for safety and effectiveness. More than 80 percent of those drugs are tested with radioactive materials.
Radioactive materials also are essential to the biomedical research that seeks causes and cures for diseases such as AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Radioisotopes are used extensively in metabolic studies, genetic engineering and environmental protection studies.
Carbon-14, a naturally occurring, long-lived radioactive substance, allows archaeologists to determine when artifacts containing plant or animal material were alive, created or used. For example, carbon-14 dating showed that the Shroud of Turin did not belong to the period when Jesus Christ was alive.
Museums rely on radioactive materials to verify the authenticity of paintings and art objects.
Criminology also makes use of radiation, where investigators use neutron activation analysis in chemical analyses. These investigators use radiation to examine physical evidence and to link suspects to crimes. For example, using radiation, they can detect the toxic element arsenic in a single strand of hair.
Agriculture and Food Products
More than 40 countries have approved the use of radiation to help preserve nearly 40 different varieties of food. Not all have yet approved the sale of irradiated food on the open market.
The process exposes food to high doses of radiation from cobalt-60. This process kills bacteria, insects and parasites, while the food itself remains safe without becoming radioactive. In the United States, the federal government has approved the use of irradiation for fruits, vegetables, pork, poultry, red meat and spices. The first major U.S. plant to use the process opened near Tampa, Fla., in 1992 to process fruits, vegetables and poultry.
Other food processors have been slow to adopt the technique because of concerns about con-sumer acceptance, even though astronauts regularly eat irradiated foods on space missions. In May 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cleared the way for irradiated ground beef to be available to schools through the National School Lunch program.
In agriculture, radiation helps breed new seed varieties with higher yields, such as the “miracle” rice that has greatly expanded rice production in Asia. By the end of the 1980s, radiation had eradicated approximately 10 species of pest insects in wide areas, preventing agricultural catastrophes. These include the Mediterranean fruit fly in Japan and Mexico, the tsetse fly in Africa and the screwworm fly in North Africa, the United States and Mexico.
In this process, which is known as the sterile insect technique, gamma radiation sterilizes millions of male insects so they are unable to mate productively. Once they are released into fields to mate with female insects, they produce no offspring, thereby breaking the cycle of infestation.
Radiation also has been used to:
- develop hundreds of varieties of hardier, more disease-resistant crops—including peanuts, tomatoes, onions, rice, soybeans and barley—in agricultural research laboratories
- improve the nutritional value of some crops, as well as improve their baking or melting qualities or reduce their cooking time
- pinpoint where illnesses strike animals, allowing the breeding of disease-resistant livestock
- show how plants absorb fertilizer, helping researchers learn when to apply fertilizer, and how much to use. This prevents overuse, thus reducing a major source of soil and water pollution.
