by Group 7
English Themes
In this project, we decided to work with the English Themes: Environmental Issues and Minorities, because they could be easily connected to Radioactivity itself. Environmental Issues can be connected to the pollution aspect of Radioactivity, and Minorities can be connected to very important and influencer woman of Science that brought courage to the woman community at that time, where women didn't have a lot of rights as they have now, so Marie Curie played a big part.
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We will start explaining environmental issues first and then minorities comes next.
Environmental Issues
First of all, before jumping right into the subtopic of “Radioactive pollution” It’s probably a good choice to talk about the geiger counters, equivalente dose that was created by sievert and the absorbed dose created by Gray. The equivalent dose is a form to measure the biological impacts of radiation a can be calculated by using the equation H = Q x D. The SI definition given by the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) says:
"The quantity dose equivalent H is the product of the absorbed dose D of ionizing radiation and the dimensionless factor Q (quality factor) defined as a function of linear energy transfer by the ICRU"
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The value of Q is not defined further by CIPM, but it requires the use of the relevant ICRU recommendations to provide this value.
The CIPM also says that "in order to avoid any risk of confusion between the absorbed dose D and the dose equivalent H, the special names for the respective units should be used, that is, the name gray should be used instead of joules per kilogram for the unit of absorbed dose D and the name sievert instead of joules per kilogram for the unit of dose equivalent H.
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The ICRP definition of the sievert is:
"The sievert is the special name for the SI unit of equivalent dose, effective dose, and operational dose quantities. The unit is joule per kilogram."
The sievert is used for a number of dose quantities which are part of the international radiological protection system devised and defined by the ICRP and ICRU.
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The sievert – quantity H - Equivalent dose
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1 Sv = 1 joule/kilogram – a biological effect. The sievert represents the equivalent biological effect of the deposit of a joule of radiation energy in a kilogram of human tissue. The equivalence to absorbed dose is denoted by Q.
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The absorbed dose is a dose quantity which is the measure of the energy deposited in matter by ionizing radiation per unit mass. Absorbed dose is used in the calculation of dose uptake in living tissue in both radiation protection (reduction of harmful effects), and radiology (potential beneficial effects for example in cancer treatment). It is also used to directly compare the effect of radiation on inanimate matter such as in radiation hardening. Conventionally, in radiation protection, unmodified absorbed dose is only used for indicating the immediate health effects due to high levels of acute dose. These are tissue effects, such as in acute radiation syndrome, which are also known as deterministic effects. These are effects which are certain to happen in a short time. The absorbed radiation can be calculated using the formula D = E/M. D is the absorbed radiation, E is the absorbed energy and M is the object's mass.
Now that we already spoke about those basics we can talk about the geiger counters. Geiger counters are particle detectors that detect the ionizing radiation present in a certain space using the ionizing effect produced in a Geiger-Müller tube. Geiger counters work with a Geiger-Müller tube filled with an inert gas such as helium, neon or argon at low pressure. (Note: is important to notice the Geiger-Müller tube consists of a metallic conductive cylinder with an anode in the middle surrounded by an inert gas). When there is ionizing radiation near the Geiger counter, the inert gas is ionized and turns conductive making an electrical discharge between the anode and the metallic plate evolving it. At the end the pulse created by the electrical discharge is sent to the processing and display electronics.
Now it’s time to get to the main topic, the impact of radiation on the environment is worse than most of the people think it is. The ionizing radiation leaves a trace of destruction where it passes, affecting any being in its way. When it comes to speaking about radiation it is important to know that it's easily spread throughout the air and it's also important to notice that the life span of some radioactive elements such as uranium can last thousands of years depending on the quantity, like plutonium can last up to 24 thousand years, until it disintegrates completely it will continually emit ionizing radiation. With that in mind we can have a small notion of the problem caused by it. When we speak about the environmental impacts of it, usually the first thing that comes to our mind are the disasters evolving the nuclear power plants. Even though they are one of the biggest problems involving radiation we cannot forget about the testing of nuclear weaponry.
To better describe it the radioactive pollution is defined as the physical pollution of living organisms and their environment as a result of release of radioactive substances into the environment during nuclear explosions and testing of nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon production and decommissioning, mining of radioactive ores, handling and disposal of radioactive waste, and accidents at nuclear power plants. Nuclear tests are carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. The proportion of radioactive pollution is 15% of the total energy of the explosion. Radioactive pollution of water, water sources, and air space is the result of radioactive fallout from the cloud of a nuclear explosion. Radionuclides are the main sources of pollution; they emit beta particles and gamma rays, radioactive substances.
When the soil is infected it creates a chain effect, a chain effect that starts with the soil not being infertyle but every plant that is born within it has some radioactive properties. If we take into account that contamination can last for decades, it is easy to imagine the level of the environmental impact and the consequences for life in the affected regions. In addition, the contaminated water will also spread radioactivity wherever it goes, affecting everything from fish to the vegetation of rivers and seas, favoring a series of imbalances in the organisms that make up those ecosystems. Because the cesium atoms are heavy, the air does not suffer from radioactive contamination to an intense extent. However, iodine particles, which are lighter, can remain in the atmosphere for a long period of time. The fact is that soil, water and air, in addition to animals and plants, are each affected in a different way. In the great interdependence that shapes the environment, each point of disharmony causes impacts that can be perpetuated for decades. Is important to say that there are other types of radiation like de cosmic and the X rays but they aren’t that big of a deal for the environment.
To better understand the impacts of the ionizing radiation, we can take for exemple Chernobyl and the nuclear weapons tests that took place in Maralinga. Decades after the nuclear incident that happened in Chernobyl the city that was meant to serve as accommodation for the workers in Chernobyl (Pripyat) is still inhabitable and will be for the next 20 000 thousand years. As for the testing site of the nuclear weapons, it is still a radioactive place even after almost 70 years.
Now that we talked about it overall it’s time to discuss the solutions, and they're more than obvious. Why don’t we just completely erase the nuclear power plants all over the world? Right now each country is trying to stop the power plants from working. The thing is, that’s not that simple, there are countries that rely on the energy produced to be stable, countries such as France that relies on nuclear power for 75,2% of the electricity of the country. We also have the USA that 20% of its energy comes from the nuclear reactors. There are plans to even build more nuclear power plants, that happens because nuclear energy is the most efficient and clean energy that exists right now.
Minorities
The main focus on our idea of Minorities is Marie Curie, which was the pioneer for women in the science world. Marie Curie not only was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, she was also the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice. Born in Poland on November 7, 1867, she was the youngest of five children. The only university in Warsaw was a men’s only school. However, Curie discovered an underground university for women and studied physics, chemistry, and math. Curie and her husband discovered polonium and radium, which assisted in the development of x-rays. She also discovered radioactivity and was the one to name it as such. When World War I broke out Curie helped to develop portable x-rays so that soldiers could be examined on the field. Curie died in 1934 due to prolonged exposure to radiation. She was a pioneer for women in science and a role model for women everywhere.
“It is a woman who is now in charge of research and of numerous applications relating to radioactivity . . . Helping her and sharing the same work, is a whole staff of women doctors and university graduates.” This is how a female French journalist described Marie Curie’s laboratory in 1927, underlining the large number of women to be found working in a single scientific research laboratory that was also run by a woman (Geestelink 1927). It is interesting to look back at the large number of female researchers who worked with Marie Curie, and consider her role in inspiring and encouraging women to embrace a scientific career despite the difficulties and prejudices of the time.
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Marie Curie, A Woman at the Head of an Interdisciplinary Institute:
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Following Pierre Curie’s death, by force of circumstance, Marie Curie took over as director of their laboratory in rue Cuvier. She henceforth played an increasingly important role in the French and international scientific communities. Along with other French scientists, she supported a policy for the development of scientific research and looked for ways both to develop her laboratory and to recruit more researchers. In 1908, the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris decided to build a new multidisciplinary institute for research and for applications of radioactivity; it was called the Institut du Radium (Radium Institute) and had two sections, one devoted to physical and chemical studies (the Curie Pavilion, directed by Marie Curie), and the other concentrating on biological and medical applications (the Pasteur Pavilion, run by Claudius Regaud)
In the large laboratory that she had succeeded in building, Marie Curie made considerable room for women. Between 1904 (when the laboratory was created in rue Cuvier) and 1934 (the year of Marie Curie’s death), 47 women worked there as researchers. Information about these women, from the archives in the Curie Museum in Paris, although fragmented, nevertheless provides us with a certain amount of information about them and their work. The place and role of women in the laboratory changed over time. The First World War saw a break both in the number and in the composition and status of the women. After the war, the laboratory’s female population grew. In the two years immediately after the war there was a large majority of women at the laboratory, with their number later stabilizing at around 30 percent. When the laboratory moved to the new Institut du Radium, it was able to hold a larger number of researchers, with a regular turnover in personnel.
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The work done by these women was a reflection of the laboratory’s various activities. Many of them worked in physics and chemistry, studying, for example, the characteristics of radioactive elements and their radiation and determining procedures for chemical treatments or for methods of measurement. They were particularly involved in two areas: the preparation of radioactive sources and certification (metrology). Numerous women were specialists in what was later to be called radiochemistry. This was true of the Curies, mother and daughter, and Ellen Gleditsch, Sonia Cotelle, and Marguerite Perey. This was not an occupation reserved for women however: Bertram Boltwood at Yale and the two Nobel Prize winners Otto Hahn in Berlin and Otto Hönigschmit in Vienna won acclaim as radiochemists. In addition, the laboratory’s measurements department was usually run by women. Created in 1911, this department acted as a national metrological institution in the field of radioactivity. Its activity focused on the calibration and certification of sources. Sonia Cotelle, Renée Galabert, and Catherine Chamié were all in charge of this department at some point. In other laboratories (UK, USA, Germany, and Austria), metrology was run by men.
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The example of the Curie laboratory demonstrates the variety of jobs held by women in the field of radioactivity. It is clear that these women were not simply given the most repetitive and boring tasks, with the real research roles given to men. (e.g., in astronomy, women were employed to sort through thousands of negatives, a task deemed to require qualities proper to women—patience and perseverance.) Their significant presence is probably the result of several factors. Marie Curie was a role model for many young women who aspired to careers in science. She was not a feminist (few female scientists in France were), nor did she develop any policies in favor of women, but she did represent an example to follow. Furthermore, the field of radioactivity sciences was an emerging one; it was not particularly institutionalized, and as it offered few career opportunities, it was initially more accessible to women.
So thank you Marie Curie for making the world a better place!
