Radioisotopes

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Radioisotopes 

Throughout our first chapter of energy, I was not entirely curious about anything. This all changed when we were assigned our Energy Posters and I realized that most people ended up just putting a nuclear power plant in the background which is super realistic that they just pop up everywhere. Anyway, this got me wondering; where else is nuclear energy used? That’s when I came upon the idea of radioisotopes.  
I know it probably seems like a huge, weird word but it’s actually pretty cool. A radioisotope is a radioactive isotope, and an isotope is an element that differs from itself because it has different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. I know that seems confusing so if you want to know more just google it. Moving on, my google search brought me to a site showing how radioisotopes are used every day. The most interesting one I found was that radioisotopes are used in agriculture. They are used specifically to prevent food irradiation.  
“Some 25-30% of food harvested is lost as a result of spoilage before it can be consumed”. Radioisotopes can help with this problem because when foods are exposed to gamma rays it can help them stay fresh longer and kill bacteria. Already, more than sixty countries have started using irradiation for spices, grains, fruit, vegetables, and meat. Irradiation is completely safe, and it can replace the potentially harmful chemical fumigants that humans have used in the past.  

The next step is most obviously increasing the use of food irradiation around the world. We do in fact use irradiation here in the United States, but it would be more impactful if we increased it globally. This could also decrease the use of fertilizers because the gamma rays kill bacteria and fertilizer is a huge pollution problem.  

 

http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/non-power-nuclear-applications/overview/the-many-uses-of-nuclear-technology.aspx    
https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/radioisotope  
http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/non-power-nuclear-applications/radioisotopes-research/radioisotopes-in-food-agriculture.aspx  
Images: nuclearconnect.org  
Jlab.org  
  

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