Dangers of Nuclear radiation – One Special Science Teacher

Dangers of nuclear radiation.

Why is radiation dangerous?

Nuclear radiation is called ionising radiation. This means that it affects the electrons inside atoms. This can have a detrimental affect on the cells in our bodies.
It can damage the DNA in our cells, DNA contains instructions for our bodies so damage to DNA can cause mutations. Radiation can kill cells and although this is useful in Radiotherapy it does not know whether a cells is cancerous or not.
Radiation can cause changes that lead to cancer, it can also damage the organs in our bodies, cause burns and internal bleeding.

This man is Alexander Litvinenko, he was a russian spy that defected. He was poisoned using radioactive Polonium, he died 22 days after being poisoned due to the effects of the radiation.

Contamination and Irradiation

You are irradiated if alpha, beta or gamma radiation from a radioactive sources reaches your body from outside.

You are contaminated with a radioactive material gets onto your skin or inside your body. This can cause more harm than irradiation because the source is very close to you

Handling radiation

When handling radiation it is important to follow strict safety guidelines.
This person in the picture is wearing gloves and using tongs. This is important to reduce the risk that the radiation can get onto your skin or inside your body. It is not safe for pregnant women to be around radiation as it can cause harm to the developing baby.

It is important that the radiation is only out for the minimum amount of time

Storing radiation

If we had radioactive sources in school they would be stored in lead lined boxes inside special cabinets away from the classroom. Someone would have to be specially trained in order to be able to handle it.

We would use gloves and tongs to handle them to keep the radiation as far away from us as possible