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Pollution with Radioactive Substances

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Handbook on Marine Environment Protection

Abstract

Our world is radioactive since the beginning of the universe. Life has learned to resist against highly energetic radiation from natural sources originating from so-called primordial and cosmogenic radionuclides, but in addition the presence of natural radioactivity, man has introduced artificial radionuclides into the environment by various nuclear technical activities, e.g. nuclear weapon tests, by radioactive wastes, controlled releases from nuclear facilities, and accidental releases of huge amounts of radioactive substances. The marine environment is one of the major recipients of these radionuclides, but oceans have the property of dispersion and dilution by ocean currents into the giant water masses. However, we learned in the meantime that the ocean capacity and resilience against pollutants is not unlimited. The following chapter will enlighten some basic knowledge about radioactivity in the environment and processes of the adverse effect of radioactivity in the oceans.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    eV: Electron-Volt is the amount of energy gained (or lost) by the charge of a single electron moving across an electric potential difference of 1 V. This unit is mostly used in nuclear physical processes. It can be converted into the SI-system by 1 eV = 1.6 × 10–19 J. It is common to use 1 keV = 1000 eV or 1 MeV = 106 eV.

  2. 2.

    The unit Becquerel is used in the International System of Units (SI), however in Russian and American literature the old unit curie (Ci) still can be found. 1 Ci is about the activity of 1 g pure Radium-226 and is equivalent to 3.7 × 1010 Bq.

  3. 3.

    Kerma: Acronym for “kinetic energy released per unit mass”.

  4. 4.

    Rem: Roentgen equivalent man.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Former at Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH), Hamburg, Germany

    Hartmut Nies

  2. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Monaco, Monaco

    Hartmut Nies

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  1. Hartmut Nies
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Correspondence to Hartmut Nies .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. German Advisory Council on the Environment, Berlin, Germany

    Markus Salomon

  2. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Till Markus

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Nies, H. (2018). Pollution with Radioactive Substances. In: Salomon, M., Markus, T. (eds) Handbook on Marine Environment Protection . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60156-4_21

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