Industrial Applications of Nuclear Chemistry

 

Industrial Applications of Nuclear Chemistry

What is Nuclear Chemistry ?

The branch of science which deals with the chemistry of radioactive materials, especially with the transformation of chemical elements by (natural or artificial) nuclear processes.

 

Basic Concept:

Nuclear chemistry is the sub-field of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes, and transformations in the nuclei of atoms, such as nuclear transmutation and nuclear properties.

It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as the actinides, radium and radon together with the chemistry associated with equipment (such as nuclear reactors) which are designed to perform nuclear processes.

 

 This includes the corrosion of surfaces and the behavior under conditions of both normal and abnormal operation (such as during an accident). An important area is the behavior of objects and materials after being placed into a nuclear waste storage or disposal site.

 

It includes the study of the chemical effects resulting from the absorption of radiation within living animals, plants, and other materials. The radiation chemistry controls much of radiation biology as radiation has an effect on living things at the molecular scale,

to explain it another way the radiation alters the bio-chemicals within an organism, the alteration of the bio-molecules then changes the chemistry which occurs within the organism, this change in chemistry then can lead to a biological outcome.

As a result, nuclear chemistry greatly assists the understanding of medical treatments (such as cancer radiotherapy) and has enabled these treatments to improve.

 History of Nuclear Chemistry:

 

In 1896, Henri Becquerel expanded the field of chemistry to include nuclear changes when he discovered that uranium emitted radiation. Soon after Becquerel's discovery, Marie Sklodowska Curie began studying radioactivity and completed much of the pioneering work on nuclear changes.

Curie found that radiation was proportional to the amount of radioactive element present, and she proposed that radiation was a property of atoms (as opposed to a chemical property of a compound). 

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win two (the first, shared with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for discovering radioactivity; the second for discovering the radioactive elements radium and polonium).

Industrial Applications of Nuclear Chemistry

v Electric Power Generation

v  Medicine

v  Scientific Research

v  Food & Agriculture

v  Consumer Products

v Industrial Applications

v  Space

 

In Medicine Industries :

ü In nuclear medicine, medical professionals inject a tiny amount of radioisotope—a chemical element that produces radiation—into apatient’s body.

ü A specific organ picks up the radioisotope, enabling a special camera to take a detailed picture of how that organ is functioning.

ü For example: Myocardial perfusion imaging maps the blood flow to the heart, allowing doctors to see whether a patient has heart disease and determine the most effective course of treatment.

ü Bone scans can detect the spread of cancer six to 18 months earlier than X-rays.

ü  Kidney scans are much more sensitive than X-rays or ultrasounds in fully evaluating kidney function.

ü Imaging with radioactive technetium-99 can help diagnose bone infections at the earliest possible stage.

Research

 

o   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 radioisotopes.

o   Radioisotopes also are essential to the biomedical research that seeks causes and cures for diseases such as AIDS, Cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

o   Researchers also use radioisotopes in metabolic studies, genetic engineering and environmental protection studies.

o   Carbon-14, a naturally occurring, long-lived radioactive substance, allows archaeologists to determine when artefacts containing plant or animal material were alive, created or used.

Food & Agriculture

Food irradiation kills bacteria, insects and parasites that can cause food borne diseases, such as trichinosis and cholera.

Ø According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 76 million

Americans are affected by food-borne illnesses each year, and more than

5,000 die.

Ø In addition to killing bacteria, irradiation can retard spoilage and increase the shelf life of food.

Food irradiation does not make the food radioactive, and it does not change the food any more than canning or freezing.

By the end of the 1980s, radiation had eradicated approximately 10 species of pest insects in wide areas, preventing agricultural catastrophes.

These pests included the Mediterranean fruit fly and the screwworm fly. Agricultural researchers also use radiation to:  develop hundreds of varieties of hardier, more disease-resistant crops—§

including peanuts, tomatoes, onions, rice, soybeans and barley  improve the nutritional value of some crops, as well as improve their§

 baking or melting qualities or reduce their cooking time  show how plants absorb fertilizer, helping researchers to learn when to§

apply fertilizer, and how much to use; this prevents overuse, thus reducing a major source of soil and water pollution.

Consumer Products

Smoke Detector

Ionization of air by a radioactive source produces a current.

• Smoke traps the electrons and reduces the current. Setting off the alarm.

• Many smoke detectors—installed in nearly 90 percent of U.S. homes -rely on a tiny radioactive source to sound an alarm when smoke is present.

Watches and clocks that “glow in the dark” use a small quantity of a radioisotope as a source of light .

Computer disks “remember” data better when treated with radioisotopes

 

Treating nonstick pans with radiation ensures that the coating will stick to the surface  Photocopiers use small amounts of radiation to eliminate static and prevent paper from sticking together and jamming the machine  Radiation sterilizes cosmetics, hair products and contact lens solutions, removing irritants and allergens Radiation sterilizes medical bandages and a variety of personal health and hygiene products,

In general Applications :

The industries that use radioisotopes include:

1.    ―The automobile industry, to test the quality of steel in vehicles
2.    ―Aircraft manufacturers, to check for flaws in jet engines
3.    ―Mining and petroleum companies, to locate and quantify oil, natural gas and mineral deposits
4.    ―Can manufacturers, to obtain the proper thickness of tin and aluminum
5.    ―Pipeline companies, to look for defects in welds
6.    ―Construction crews, to gauge the density of road surfaces and subsurfaces.

Space

Unmanned spacecraft rely on radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) for the power they need for space exploration.  RTGs use heat from Plutonium to generate electricity.

§  The craft use this electricity to run the computers that control their§

operation and collect and process the vast amounts of data, including images, that are sent back to Earth.

 A typical RTG produces about 300 watts of electricity and will operate unattended for many years.