how does nuclear radiation work to damage the body?

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I don’t understand how nuclear radiation affects a geographical area to the point where it’s dangerous for a human to be there for extended periods of time.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

A little background before we get to the question : Heavier elements ( like Xenon, radon, etc) can be converted into lighter elements like Cesium by a process called nuclear fission which means dividing the nucleus. So what does nucleus mean? Nucleus of an element contains protons and neutrons which gives it mass.

So imagine I have a box of mangoes containing 12 mangoes called ‘box X’ and I create a small hole at the bottom of it, some small mangoes will fall out until they stop (maybe the hole got lodged by a bigger mango). So imagine 4 mangoes fell out and only 8 are left inside the box, since the quantities of mango inside has changed I now name it ‘box Y’.

So box X = Xenon and box Y = Cesium and the hole I created = instability and the bigger mango lodging the hole so no more mangoes fall = stability

So all unstable elements have a tendency to become stable by releasing some part of their nucleus (protons and neutrons) and this process results in a tremendous amount of energy released which could be used for various things. So those 4 mangoes falling from the hole is what radioactive decay/radiation is and it is of various types (alpha,beta,gamma)

Now imagine I pick one of the 4 fallen mangoes and throw it on top of a grape? What happens? Either I miss the grape or the grape gets squished partially/completely. Grape in this scenario are the cells of the body.

So nuclear radiation (X-rays, b decay, uv rays, gamma rays, etc) when released may collide with nucleus of our cell (mainly DNA) and since DNA is another molecule, it might become a part of it or damage it somehow changing it in a certain way.

Now DNA tells the cells what to do and what stuff to make, chiefly proteins (for simplicity). So damaged DNA — damaged proteins- proteins build other other important stuff— cells can’t make that stuff — cell dies or the part of the DNA that controls the division of the cell gets damaged resulting in unlimited division of the said cell resulting in cancer.

Now coming to your query about radiation effects in a geographical area. Let’s take Chernobyl for example. The main radioactive product their is Cesium-137 along with Strontium-90 I think. Imagine the mango crate but instead of 12 mangoes there are 12 million mangoes in there and they fall once every 3 hours and the grapes are sitting below the crate, it will take a long time for the crate to be completely stable/empty and it may or may not squish all the grapes in the process. Cesium-137 has a half life (the time it takes for it’s amount to reduce to half) of 30 years. So every 30 years, the amount of Cesium-137 reduces by half and it will take a while before it’s below safety levels and in the meantime it will keep on releasing radiation to get to a stable form. Some radioactive elements have a half life of hundreds and thousands of years. So the risk of radiation exposure and hence the above explained harmful effects are longer.

Hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions 🙂

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