Here is a compilation of essays on ‘Radioactive Pollution’ for class 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Radioactive Pollution’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Radioactive Pollution
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Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Radioactive Pollution
- Essay on the Meaning of Radioactive Pollution
- Essay on the Nuclear Weapons-Cause of Radioactive Pollution
- Essay on the Effects of Radioactive Pollution
- Essay on the Control of Radioactive Pollution
Essay # 1. Introduction to Radioactive Pollution:
Apart from the biological pollution, the industrial and the chemical pollution of the soil, now a day there is also the radioactive pollution. Radioactive pollutions are wastes those contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology.
Recently radioactive elements are also used in research and medicine. Radioactive pollutants are directly linked to Nuclear energy. Radioactive contamination, also called radiological contamination, is the deposition off or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids or gases.
In nuclear power station concentrated Uranium dioxide (UO2) is used, it is not very radioactive. It is refined from yellowcake (U3O8), and then converted to uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6). Jadugoda is the first uranium mine of India which started its operations in 1967. Jadugoda is a small township of Uranium Corporation India Limited in the Singhbhum district of Jharkhand State in Eastern India.
Around 50,000 people live in 15 villages within 5km of the Jadugoda complex. Jadugoda produces around 200 tons of uranium in the form of yellowcake U3O8 a year, and has a processing capacity of around 1000 tons of ore per day. Jadugoda people were suffering from harmful radiation. However medical surveys conducted by government showed no proof for the claim and showed that the cancer incidence in the area was less than one-third of the national average.
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The most dangerous long-lived radio- nuclides are those emitted by nuclear reactors. It’s most popular use in the past has been in wars where it destroyed entire cities in one go; however, today it is widely used as an energy source to fuel electricity. This waste is more dangerous than any other kind of waste and can have effects that last longer as well. Radiation is what primarily makes up radioactivity.
Radioactive wastes typically comprise a number of radioisotopes, emitting ionizing radiation which can be harmful to humans and the environment. Those isotopes emit different types and levels of radiation, which last for different periods of time.
The common sources of nuclear waste or radiation pollution are the power plants that produce nuclear energy, not disposing off nuclear waste properly, mining for uranium, and nuclear weaponry. All radioisotopes in the waste have a half-life. The time takes for any radioactive to lose half of its radioactivity varies and finally all radioactive waste decays into non-radioactive elements.
Indian Government regulations allow radioactive water to be released from Indian Point nuclear power plant to the environment containing “permissible” levels of contamination. Radioactive medical waste contains beta particle and gamma ray emitters’ isotopes, which are used as medicine.
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These are Y-90, used for treating lymphoma (2.7 days),I- 131, used for thyroid function tests and for treating thyroid cancer (8.0 days),Sr-89, used for treating bone cancer, intravenous injection (52 days),Ir-192, used for brachytherapy (74 days),Co-60, used for brachytherapy and external radiotherapy (5.3 years) and Cs-137, used for brachytherapy and external radiotherapy (30 years).
Ultraviolet (UV) light is actually electromagnetic radiation with very short wave length (i.e.; shorter than that of visible light). UV ray damages the cells of cornea and ultimately results to blindness. It also causes blisters and redness o the skin (skin cancer) by damaging the cells of the skin.
Sometimes residues of the oil and gas industry contain radium and its decay products. The concentrate of radium rich may be very. Wastes of paper, rags, tools, clothing, filters, and other industries contain small amounts of short-lived radioactivity.
This is an unstable form of energy which while trying to stop the decaying process. The three types of radiation are alpha and beta particles along with the gamma rays or neutrons. Alpha particles are the least harmful and can be stopped by something as simple as a piece of paper or the skin of a human being. Beta particles are able to break through human skin but one can get protection from them through either glass or metal.
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Gamma rays are the most dangerous type of emission from radioactivity and can be stopped only by an enormous and huge piece of concrete. The degree of hazard is determined by the concentration of the contaminants, the energy of the radiation being emitted, and the type of radiation.
Contamination may affect a person, a place, an animal or an object. The energy and the type of the ionizing radiation emitted by a radioactive substance are also important factors in determining its threat to humans. It can greatly harm to a human being as it can penetrate all soft and hard tissue.
Each exposure potentially can cause programmed cell death, genetic mutations, cancers, leukemia, birth defects, and reproductive, immune and endocrine system disorders. Exposure to high levels of radioactive waste may cause serious harm or death.
An organism under radiation may results mutation. Ionizing radiation causes deletions in chromosomes. If a developing organism such as an unborn child is irradiated, it is possible a birth defect may be induced, but it is unlikely this defect will be in a gamete or a gamete-forming cell. A very little dose is usually fatal, and has the lifetime risk of dying from radiation-induced cancer.
Gamma radiation is eventually absorbed as it penetrates a dense material. Lead is good at absorbing gamma radiation, due to its density. In the United States, this used fuel is stored, while in countries such as Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and India, the fuel is re-processed to remove the fission products, and the fuel can then be re-used.
This re-processing involves highly radioactive materials, and the fission products removed from the fuel are a concentrated form of high-level waste as compared the chemicals used in the process. India is the only country known to be planning multiple plutonium recycling schemes.
There are several methods of disposal of radioactive waste such as the stoppage of leakage from the radioactive materials including the nuclear reactors, industries and laboratories. The disposal of radioactive material must be safe and secure. They must be stored in the safe places and must be changed into harmless form. Deep borehole disposal is the concept of disposing of high-level radioactive waste from nuclear reactors in extremely deep boreholes.
Deep borehole disposal seeks to place the waste as much as 5 kilometers beneath the surface of the Earth. Space disposal of radioactive waste is attractive because it permanently removes nuclear waste from the environment. It has significant disadvantages, such as the potential for catastrophic failure of a launch vehicle, which could spread radioactive material into the atmosphere and around the world.
The wastes with a very low radiation must be put into the sewage. The recent radiation incident in Delhi’s Mayapuri industrial area may have recovered by authorities, but the dangers radioactive material have mostly been ignored in India.
Essay # 2. Meaning of Radioactive Pollution:
It is a phenomenon of physical pollution to all life-supporting system like air, water and land. Radioactivity is spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance which results in the emission of radioactive rays. In fact, in this phenomenon, the nuclei of radioactive substances spontaneously disintegrate to emit protons (α-particles), electrons (β-particles) and gamma rays (short wave electromagnetic waves).
The emitted radiations of radioactive elements affect the biotic community in various ways. Though the biotic community including human beings has been exposed to low levels of radiations from natural sources for several millennium, but the danger of radiations exposure has increased in the recent years.
Sources of environmental radiations are both natural, comprising cosmic rays that reach the surface of the earth from space and terrestrial radiations from radioactive element’s nuclei present in the earth’s crust (e.g., radium-224, Uranium-235 and 238, thoriutn-232, radon-222, potassium-40 and carbon-14), and man-made (e.g., mining and refining of plutonium and thorium, production and explosion of nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants and fuels and preparation of radioactive isotopes).
Essay # 3. Nuclear Weapons-Cause of Radioactive Pollution:
Amongst the nuclear weapons, atomic bombs were first used in World War II on the twin cities of Japan, Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. Since then the craze for possessing nuclear weapons has caused the nuclear race by the big powers of the world.
Tests of nuclear arms comprise the use of uranium-235 and plutonium-239 for fission and hydrogen or lithium as fusion material. Nuclear explosions are uncontrolled chain reactions, they give rise to very large neutron flux conditions that make other materials radioactive in the surroundings. Such materials include iodine-131, strontium-90, cesium-137.
These materials are transformed into gases and fine particles which are thrown high up into the air like a mushroom cloud. The radioactive particles are blown away by winds and, thus, get distributed in wide areas. When rain drops containing these particles fall on the ground, the radioactivity is transferred to the soil.
Thus, soil and water get polluted by radioactive substances. These substances, from the soil, enter into the food chain affecting different forms of life including man.
Radioactive isotopes like C14, I25, P32 and their compounds are widely used in scientific research. Waste waters containing these radioactive substances reach the rivers and lakes through sewer. These radioactive isotopes enter the food chain and finally reach to man (final victim of radioactive pollution) through fish.
Man also receives radiations voluntarily from diagnostic X-rays and radiation therapy for cancer. People living in nearby areas and also those who work in nuclear reactors, fuel processors and power plants are vulnerable to radiation exposure.
The radiation exposure sources may be summarised as under:
1. Natural:
A. Cosmic rays
B. Environmental
(i) Terrestrial
(ii) Atmospheric, and
(iii) Internal.
2. Man-Made:
A. Diagnostic exposures, i.e., medical and dental (X-rays and radiation therapy).
B. Nuclear explosions, leakages and exposures (Radioactive fallout, nuclear reactor wastes, etc.)
C. Occupational exposures, and
D. Miscellaneous exposures.
(TV. luminous dials, luminous markers, isotope tagged products, etc.)
Essay # 4. Effects of Radioactive Pollution:
Atmospheric and climatic conditions such as wind, temperature, rainfall and also half-life, energy releasing capacity and rate of diffusion of the radioactive pollutants determine their effects.
However, some generalized effects are listed below:
1. In lower doses, it can affect seriously and impair their functions.
2. In higher doses it can cause instantaneous death.
3. Long and repeated exposures can cause cancer and leukemia, and induce mutations.
4. The mutant genes having deleterious effects can persist and passed on to the progeny where they show their effects.
Essay # 5. Control of Radioactive Pollution:
In fact, there is no cure of radiation damage, hence, every precaution should be taken to prevent radioactive pollution, such as:
1. Leakages of radioactive substances from nuclear reactors, careless handling, transport and use of radioactive fuels, fission products and radioisotopes have to be totally stopped.
2. Safety measures against accidents in the power plants, fuel processors, nuclear reactors should be strictly enforced to avoid any chance of leakage.
3. The disposal of waste must be very safe.
4. Regular monitoring through frequent sampling and quantitative analysis has to be ensured in the risk areas.
5. Use of nuclear weapons should be completely banned.