Applications Of Nuclear And Radioisotope Technology

Applications of Nuclear and Radioisotope Technology: For Peace and Sustainable Development presents the latest technology and research on nuclear energy with a practical focus on a variety of applications. Author Dr. Khalid Al-Nabhani provides a thorough and well-rounded view of the status of nuclear power generation in order to promote its benefits towards a sustainable, clean and secure future. This book offers innovative theoretical, analytical, methodological and technological approaches, encourages a positive societal and political uptake. This book enhances awareness of peaceful nuclear applications across a broad spectrum of industries, including power generation, agriculture, and medicine. It presents successful examples and lessons learned across many countries that are working towards their sustainability goals in cooperation with the IAEA and AAEA, to benefit researchers, professionals and decision-makers implementing and developing their own nuclear strategies for the future. Presents theoretical and scientific knowledge which is supported with real examples and successful experiences Provides prevailing perceptions of nuclear safety and security concerns by presenting the most advanced safety and security systems Applies technologies to a variety of applications to guide the reader to make informed decisions to help meet sustainability goals

This textbook highlights the fundamentals, applications and research frontiers of the civil-use non-power nuclear technology, especially the radioisotopes and radiation technology. The wide scope of applications and the active research in the subject field calls for a comprehensive textbook that not only explains the basic principles but also links the fundamentals to the various application fields. The book systematically leads students from isotope preparation, to nuclear analysis, and to the civil applications in areas such as chemical engineering, agriculture, medicine, environmental protection and materials modification. The application in the energy field is briefly introduced. The book can be used as good teaching materials for upper undergraduate and graduate students in nuclear science and technology. It is also a handy reference book for researchers and engineers in the above mentioned fields.

Contributing Authors Include P. C. Aebersold, J. R. Bradford, G. D. Calkins, And Many Others.

Nearly 20 million nuclear medicine procedures are carried out each year in the United States alone to diagnose and treat cancers, cardiovascular disease, and certain neurological disorders. Many of the advancements in nuclear medicine have been the result of research investments made during the past 50 years where these procedures are now a routine part of clinical care. Although nuclear medicine plays an important role in biomedical research and disease management, its promise is only beginning to be realized. Advancing Nuclear Medicine Through Innovation highlights the exciting emerging opportunities in nuclear medicine, which include assessing the efficacy of new drugs in development, individualizing treatment to the patient, and understanding the biology of human diseases. Health care and pharmaceutical professionals will be most interested in this book's examination of the challenges the field faces and its recommendations for ways to reduce these impediments.

After World War II, the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began mass-producing radioisotopes, sending out nearly 64,000 shipments of radioactive materials to scientists and physicians by 1955. Even as the atomic bomb became the focus of Cold War anxiety, radioisotopes represented the government’s efforts to harness the power of the atom for peace—advancing medicine, domestic energy, and foreign relations. In Life Atomic, Angela N. H. Creager tells the story of how these radioisotopes, which were simultaneously scientific tools and political icons, transformed biomedicine and ecology. Government-produced radioisotopes provided physicians with new tools for diagnosis and therapy, specifically cancer therapy, and enabled biologists to trace molecular transformations. Yet the government’s attempt to present radioisotopes as marvelous dividends of the atomic age was undercut in the 1950s by the fallout debates, as scientists and citizens recognized the hazards of low-level radiation. Creager reveals that growing consciousness of the danger of radioactivity did not reduce the demand for radioisotopes at hospitals and laboratories, but it did change their popular representation from a therapeutic agent to an environmental poison. She then demonstrates how, by the late twentieth century, public fear of radioactivity overshadowed any appreciation of the positive consequences of the AEC’s provision of radioisotopes for research and medicine.

This book is the product of a congressionally mandated study to examine the feasibility of eliminating the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU2) in reactor fuel, reactor targets, and medical isotope production facilities. The book focuses primarily on the use of HEU for the production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), whose decay product, technetium-99m3 (Tc-99m), is used in the majority of medical diagnostic imaging procedures in the United States, and secondarily on the use of HEU for research and test reactor fuel. The supply of Mo-99 in the U.S. is likely to be unreliable until newer production sources come online. The reliability of the current supply system is an important medical isotope concern; this book concludes that achieving a cost difference of less than 10 percent in facilities that will need to convert from HEU- to LEU-based Mo-99 production is much less important than is reliability of supply.