06 Oct

Use of Nuclear Radiation Technology for Providing Better Quality of Life

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Contents

• Introduction
• Fields in which radiation technology is being used
  • Health
  • Food Security
  • Energy Security
  • Societal Application
  • Water Resources
  • Industrial Applications

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Introduction

• Even before the use in nuclear bombs and nuclear energy, radiations were used in therapeutic and palliative for cancer cure in the early part of the 20th century.
• In the subsequent decades, nuclear fission made possible the harnessing of nuclear energy for electricity production.
• However, the peaceful uses of the atom have developed several other large-scale applications in agriculture, medicines and industrial sectors.

Important fields in which radiation technology is being used

Health: Care to Cure

Healthcare has grown into one of the most important peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

• Nuclear Medicine – Diagnosis
  • Nuclear medicine is a medical speciality that uses trace amounts of radioactive substances (called radio – pharmaceuticals) in the diagnosis and treatment of wide range of diseases and conditions in a safe and painless way.
  • Radio pharmaceuticals can be administered by injection, inhalation, or orally and selectively localized and retained at sites of diseases. And thus, allow an image to be obtained of the loci using gamma scintigraphy or to deliver cytotoxic dose of radiation to specific disease sites without adversely affecting the surrounding normal tissues.
  • They help in identification of abnormalities in organ function even in early stages of a disease.
• Radiation Therapy
  • A treatment that involve use of high-energy radiation either by using special machines or from radioactive substance. The aim is to impart specific amount of radiation at tumors or parts of the body to destroy the malignant cells.
    • External Beam Radiation Therapy / teletherapy
      • • Radiation is delivered by using a machine outside the body.
        • A machine, either a ⁶⁰Co-teletherapy unit or linear accelerator is used
        • It can be used to treat Breast Cancer, Bowel Cancer, Head and Neck Cancer and Lung Cancer.
        • Bhabatron is a teletherapy machine developed by BARC and has been installed in 50 cancer hospitals.
          • It is cheaper than any imported telecobalt machine.
    • Internal Radiation Therapy or brachytherapy
  • Radioactive material is placed in the body near cancer cells.
  • It makes it possible to treat a cancer with a larger dose of radiation that can’t be given with external beam radiation therapy.
  • Tiny titanium encapsulated Iodine-125 seeds have been developed by BARC and have provided an avenue to treat eye cancer.

Food Security (1. Nuclear Agriculture 2. Food Preservation)

Use of ionizing radiation based technologies provide safe hygienic and economically viable solutions to address issue of agricultural productivity

• Nuclear Agriculture
  • Ionizing radiation is being used by BARC to induce mutation in plant breeding, and around 50 varieties of different crops have been released to Indian farmers for commercial cultivation in the country.
    • E.g. groundnuts, mungbean, blackgram, pigeon pea, cowpea, mustard etc.
  • Advantages
    • Higher yield
    • Earliness
    • Large seed size
    • Resistance to biotic and abiotic stress
• Food Preservation – Produce and Preserve
  • Almost 30% of the food produced in India is lost due to spoilage because of pest attack, contamination and moulds infestation. These are encountered both during harvesting as well as post-harvest handling storage of the edible and cash crops.
  • Limitation of using pesticides
    • Health hazards
    • Disturbance to ecology
    • Development of resistance in pest
  • Radiation Processing can provide a viable, effective, and eco-friendly alternative to chemical fumigants and microbial decontamination, as the latter affect human health and environment adversely.
  • There is an utmost need to adopt and integrate the irradiated foods into the country’s supply chains and promote the widespread use of this technology to ensure food safety and security.
• Advantages of using radiation processing
  • Disinfestation of insects, pests in cereals, pulses and grain.
  • Microbial decontamination (hygienization) of dry species etc. for preservation/shelf life extension by applying pre-determined radiation doses.
  • Increasing the exportability of Indian food produce.
  • Elimination of parasites and pathogens of public health importance in food
  • Delay in ripening and senescence in fruits and vegetables
  • Inhibition of sprouting in tubers, bulbs and rhizomes
• Radiation in no ways make production radioactive.
  • Radiation therapy has been approved by WHO, IAEA, WTO, FSSAI etc.

Thus, as of Aug 2021, 26 Radiation Therapy plants are operational in the country.

• Energy Security – Nuclear is Clean and Green.
• Societal Application
  • Sludge Hygenisation – from waste to wealth -> reduces spread of disease; protects environment; increased manufacture of manure etc.  
• Hydrogel – Healing the wound
  • The process was developed by BARC scientists and technologically has been transferred for commercial purpose.
  • Hydrogel is a thin transparent sheet of gel and is an excellent medical tool particularly useful for burn and injury dressings.
  • Production
    • It is prepared by cross linking molecules of hydrophilic polymers like PVA either chemically or by Gamma/Electron beam irradiation.
    • A 3D network of gel like structure is formed which holds large quantities of water. Gamma Irradiation achieves gel formation and sterilization in one step.
• Water Resources
  • Isotope Hydrology techniques
    • Isotope hydrology techniques enable accurate tracing of measurement of the extent of new and renewable underground water resources at various locations.
    • The data obtained is used towards resource planning and sustainable management of water resources.
• Measuring contaminants in water
  • BARC has developed low cost and user-friendly kits for measurement of contaminants in water.
• Industrial Applications
  • Radiation Sterilization of Medical Products
  • Radiography
    • Radioisotopes which emit gamma rays are more portable than x-ray machines, and may give higher-energy radiation, which can be used to check welds of new gas and oil pipeline systems, with the radioactive source being placed inside the pipe and the film outside the weld.
    • Radiography can also be used to gauge the thickness and density of materials or locate components that are not visible to other means.