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Dangers of Nuclear Power and Radiation. Cells are undamaged. radiation. Cells are damaged, repair damage and…. Operate normally. Cells die as a result of damage. operate abnormally (cancer). Effects of radiation. Radiation breaks apart cell tissue and DNA.
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Cells are undamaged. radiation Cells are damaged, repair damage and…. Operate normally Cells die as a result of damage. operate abnormally (cancer).
Effects of radiation • Radiation breaks apart cell tissue and DNA. • Cells can repair some of the damage of low level exposure over time. • Higher levels of radiation can cause an increased rate of cancer, sterility, birth defects, death.
Radiation does not • Cause an instant mutation in a person • (You won’t grow a third eye) • You won’t glow in the dark either • Radiation is measured in mrem (millirems)
Doses • The average person receives 360 mrem a year with no adverse effects. • 56% of the survivors of 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still alive in 1990, and they received ~500,000 mrem. • These effects are still being studied.
Biological effects depend on… • 1. Energy of Radiation • 2. Penetrating ability of radiation • 3. Ionization ability of the radiation • 4. length of exposure
Ionization ability • Radiation can “knock” electrons off of atoms creating ions. • Some radiation is better at this than others. • Ionizing radiation- EM radiation higher than visible light (UV, X-rays, and gamma rays) • Meaning they are good at this. • All radiation lower than this (visible, IR, microwaves, radio waves) are nonionizing. • Meaning they don’t create ions very well.
Cell Phones • Cell phones send and receive information using radio waves. • This is nonionizing. • Nonionizing is still dangerous if the energy is high enough (look at a microwave oven). • Cell phones should release radiation in low enough energy levels that they are not harmful.
Large Scale Nuclear War • The scariest part of large scale nuclear war is that no one on the planet could possibly escape the after effects. • Even if you were outside of all blast regions, you would still be exposed to the fallout. • Fallout is radioactive material spread around from a nuclear explosion. • In a large scale nuclear war, enough radioactive material would be spread to cover the entire planet.
Nuclear Winter • Even if you were safe from the fallout (somehow), the planet would enter a nuclear winter. • This is the same idea as a comet hitting the planet and kicking up a huge dust cloud (the theory on what killed the dinosaurs). • Instead of a comet, it would be several nuclear bombs hitting cities. They burn releasing ash and soot into the stratosphere that would takes decades to settle out.
What this would do • It would block out sunlight from getting to the surface. • The amount that would be blocked out would depend on the amount of soot in the atmosphere which depends on the number of bombs exploding. • Even a small exchange of nuclear bombs would have a dramatic effect on the planetary climate.
Blocked out Sun • Some light would still get through, but average temperatures would fall. • Plants would begin to die. • Crops would fail. • Animals that eat those plants begin to die. • Bodies would begin to pile up, increasing the amount of harmful decomposers.
How bad? • According to a report published in The Journal of Geophysical Research in 2007, a war using most of the world’s arsenal would result in a global cooling of about 7-8o C. • The last ice age 18,000 years ago was 5o C colder. • After a decade the planet would still be 4o C, colder. • A war using 50 Hiroshima sized bombs (the approximate arsenal of India and Pakistan) could cool the planet by 2-3o C for almost 10 years
Ozone Depletion • The soot could chemically react with the ozone layer in the stratosphere. • This could create “holes” in the ozone layer. • Not only would you have to deal with lower global average temperatures, but the sunlight that does get through would come with dangerous levels of UV radiation.
Likely results • This would probably result in a mass extinction of most species across the planet. • Eventually temperatures would return to normal, and new species would come back through evolution. • Given the adaptability and ingenuity of humans, some are likely to survive. • I Don’t Know With What Weapons World War III Will Be Fought, But World War IV Will be Fought With Sticks and Stones~ “Albert Einstein”
