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Posts Tagged ‘radioactivity’

Marie Curie 150

Tuesday, November 7th, 2017

November 7, 2017

Polish-born French physicist Marie Curie was born 150 years ago today on Nov. 7, 1867. Curie, famous for her research on radioactivity, was the first woman awarded a Nobel Prize. She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, receiving one in physics and one in chemistry. She was also the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne, a famous university in Paris.

Portrait of Marie Curie (1867 - 1934), Polish chemist. Credit: Wellcome Library, London (licensed under CC BY 4.0)

Marie Curie in her Paris laboratory. Credit: Wellcome Library, London (licensed under CC BY 4.0)

Curie and her husband, Pierre, also a physicist, worked together in the late 1890′s. They studied the radiation given off by such chemical elements as uranium and thorium. They found that uranium ore called pitchblende gave off much more radiation than could be accounted for by the amount of uranium in the ore. The Curies then searched for the source of the additional radiation. In 1898, they announced their discovery of two previously unknown, highly radioactive elements. They named the new elements radium and polonium. The French chemist Gustave Bémont helped in the discovery of radium. The Curies worked to separate tiny amounts of these elements from tons of pitchblende.

The husband-and-wife team of Pierre and Marie Curie, shown here, with help from the French chemist Gustave Bémont, isolated the radioactive element radium in 1898. Credit: © AP Images

The husband-and-wife team of Pierre and Marie Curie, with help from the French chemist Gustave Bémont (at left), isolated the radioactive element radium in 1898. Credit: © AP Images

Marie theorized that radioactivity was a property that was linked to individual atoms rather than one that depended on the arrangements of atoms in molecules. Later, other scientists showed that polonium and radium developed from the original uranium atoms. The new substances were created by a process called radioactive decay or transmutation. That is, the uranium atoms had changed from one element into another by giving off radiation. Previously, scientists had not known that atoms could change in any way.

The Curies’ work was inspired by Antoine Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who had also conducted research on radiation. In 1903, Becquerel and the Curies won the Nobel Prize in physics. Becquerel received the award for discovering natural radioactivity. The Curies got the prize for their study of radiation. In 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for her discovery of the new elements and her work in isolating radium and studying its chemical properties. Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934, of leukemia. Years of exposure to radiation probably caused the illness.

Tags: marie curie, nobel prize, radioactivity
Posted in Current Events, History, People, Science | Comments Off

New Leak of Radioactive Water from Damaged Fukushima Plant

Friday, August 23rd, 2013

August 23, 2013

The discovery that highly radioactive water is leaking from a storage tank at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has further alarmed scientists already gravely concerned about conditions at the site. The tank is 1 of 1,000 built to store the massive amounts of water being used to cool the fuel rods from nuclear reactors damaged by a magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan’s main island, Honshu, on March 11, 2011. Three of the six reactors at Fukushima went into full meltdown after the plant’s cooling system was knocked out.

The storage tanks at Fukushima, which are about 85 percent filled, currently hold a total of about 80 million gallons (300 million liters) of contaminated water. The leaking tank has released about 80,000 gallons (300,000 liters), most of which has seeped into the ground. Inspectors said the leak resulted from deteriorating plastic seams on the tanks. The leaking tank is one of 350 temporary steel-plated vessels constructed to expand the storage capacity for contaminated water. The other tanks are welded steel vessels. The problem with the storage tank led Japan’s nuclear energy watchdog agency to raise the threat level at the plant from one to three on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. Conditions at the plant were rated seven–the highest rating–after the tsunami.

A huge wave strikes Japan's coast on March 11, 2011. An earthquake that day caused a tsunami (series of powerful ocean waves) that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. (© Mainichi Shimbun, Reuters)

News of the leak has strengthened the belief of many scientists that conditions at the plant are much worse than the Japanese government and and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant’s operator, are admitting. The leak has also intensified criticism of TEPCO for failing to contain leaks from the plant.

The tanks are only one focus of concern. One nuclear safety expert was quoted by the BBC as saying that contaminated water was leaking everywhere at the site, “not just from the tanks. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place.” According to a Japanese government official, as much as 75,000 gallons (284,000 liters) of groundwater is believed to be flowing daily downhill through the ruined plant and into a containment pond. Despite efforts to hold the contaminated water in the pond, some appears to be flowing into the Pacific Ocean. At a recent news conference, the head of Japan’s nuclear regulation agency expressed concerns about future leaks. Shunichi Tanaka told reporters, “We should assume that what has happened once could happen again, and prepare for more.”

Additional World Book articles:

  • Japan 2011 (a Back in Time article)
  • Reconsidering Nuclear Power (a special report)

Tags: fukushima, japan, nuclear power, nuclear power plant, radioactivity, tsunami
Posted in Current Events, Energy, Environment, Government & Politics, Natural Disasters, Science, Technology | Comments Off

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