Unit 2: Ionizing Radiation

In Unit 1 you learned about nuclear power and nuclear waste and why they are important issues for our modern technological society. This unit presents additional details about some of those issues. The unit also explains one of the aspects of nuclear waste that many people find confusing and, therefore, frightening: ionizing radiation.

Ionizing radiation is the type of radiation that can change atoms and molecules, and thus damage a human being’s cells, tissues, and organs. This is the type of radiation most people mean when they use the word “radiation.”

Radiation is a complex topic, but it’s part of everyone’s everyday life, no matter where or how they live. So it’s an important topic to understand. In addition, many people are concerned about the use of nuclear power to generate electricity and the issues of what to do with spent nuclear fuel after it has served our technological society.

Therefore, this unit has several purposes:

To explain important basic facts about atoms, isotopes, and radiation
To illustrate how radiation is part of life, including its beneficial applications
To help you understand that too much ionizing radiation can cause health risks, and how and why this is so
To re-emphasize essential information about nuclear fuel, including where it comes from, how it works in a reactor, and why it must be carefully controlled and handled, especially after it is used or “spent”
To provide you with knowledge about other forms of highly radioactive materials that also must be carefully managed
To illustrate essential techniques of protecting ourselves from too much radiation
To explain important physical facts about spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, facts the U.S. Department of Energy relies on as it makes plans for a proposed underground repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada