Radioactive pollution facts

Term radioactive pollution refers to the introduction of one or many radioactive substances into our living environment (land, air and water).

Radioactive pollution is mostly a result of human activity, and has its origin in radioactive waste (mostly coming from nuclear power plants).

Nuclear waste remains radioactive for more than 5,000 years meaning that radioactive pollution has long-term effects, and isolating it for such a long period is anything but easy.

The worst cases of radioactive pollution in our planet occurred at the end of the World War two, after two atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The radiation effect and a resulting cancer took millions of lives in Japan.

In recent times, radioactive pollution is mostly the result of nuclear power plant accidents such as Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear disasters.

The radioactive pollution has extremely harmful effect on human health because of variety of radioactive gases, liquids or particles.

The levels of radioactive pollution need to be constantly monitored and measured in nuclear power plants in order to avoid nuclear disaster.

Radioactive pollutants can enter our body through ingestion, inhalation, absorption, or injection.

Exposure to large quantities of radioactive material always leads to death. This is because high levels of radiation destroy the cells in our body and cause cancer.

People that work in uranium mines and nuclear power plants are being continuously exposed to radioactive pollution and therefore require protective clothing to avoid being contaminated by radiation.

Radioactive pollution has been linked with genetic defects in children and grandchildren of people that were at some point of life being exposed to radioactive pollutants.

World could decrease the global levels of radioactive pollution by switching from nuclear power to other energy sources such as renewable energy.

Reusing old nuclear fuel is also one of the ways to decrease the level of radioactive pollution.

Some scientists have even suggested that the best possible solution to deal with nuclear waste would be its disposal into space. This, however, could easily result in disaster if, for instance, there would to occur the failure of the launch vehicle.

Illegal dumping of nuclear waste could lead to massive increase of radioactive pollution in the world. This issue is certainly in need of very strict regulations.