Description
Book SynopsisOur world has been radioactive ever since! Humans are primarily exposed to natural radiation from the Sun, cosmic rays, and naturally-occurring radionuclides found in the Earth's crust. Besides the natural radioactivity, industries, which produce radioactive wastes during their normal operations or during their dismantling and decommissioning processes, do contaminate the environment through the release of radionuclides into the air, soil and water. Among them, nuclear power plants, NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials) related industries, hospitals, radionuclide production facilities, uranium mining and other nuclear facilities, along with radioactive/nuclear disposal sites are a potential source of environmental contamination by emission/discharging of natural/artificial radionuclides through water, air and soil to the other environmental compartments like plants, animals and foods. In a word, everything that makes our existence! The book ''Radionuclides: Properties, Behavior and Potential Health Effects" is a comprehensive overview of some information on radiation in the environment and human exposure to radioactivity. This book highlights the sources, properties, behaviors, and biological and ecological effects of radioactivity from both natural and anthropogenic sources. The emphasis is on the environmental aspects of radionuclides and their eventual effects on biota, particularly humans.
Table of ContentsPreface; Gamma Dose Rate in Air Due to Natural and Anthropogenic Radionuclides in Soil; A Review of the Behavior of Different Radionuclides in Sludge from Water Treatment Plants and Their Radiological Implications; Radioactivity of Rocks in Several Regions of East Georgia; Radioactivity of Water in Vojvodina and Possible Health Effects; 210Pb, 137Cs and 7Be as Tracers for Sediment Deposition in an Embayment of Three Gorges Reservoir, China; Activity Concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in Building Materials in Serbia: Radon Exhalation Rate and Assessment of Radiological Impact; Radionuclides 90Sr and 3H: Properties, Behavior, Distribution and Analysis of Influence to Content in Precipitation; Radiological and Environmental Aspects of 210Pb in Water: Improvements in the Detection Efficiency during Cherenkov Counting; Properties, Behavior and Potential Health Effects of 14C; Human Bio-Monitoring and Bio-Indicators for Health Risk Management Associated to Chronic Exposures in High Radon Concentration Environments: A Review; Indoor Radon and Thoron Study and Assessment of Geogenic Radon Potential; Radionuclides in Nuclear Medicine; Nuclear Medicine: Therapeutic Potential of Radionuclides; Index.
