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The main source of radiation in the human body is potassium-40 (40 K), typically 17 milligrams in the body at a time and 0.4 milligrams/day intake. [28] Most rocks, especially granite , have a low level of radioactivity due to the potassium-40, thorium and uranium contained.
Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is unintended or undesirable (from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) definition).
Radioactive contamination is a potential danger for living organisms and results in external hazards, concerning radiation sources outside the body, and internal dangers, as a result of the incorporation of radionuclides inside the body (often by inhalation of particles or ingestion of contaminated food). [14]
In a 1999 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency titled "Inventory of radioactive waste disposals at sea," a grainy map shows that at least 56,261 containers of radioactive waste were ...
Releases of man-made radioactive materials which occur during an industrial or research accident. For instance the Chernobyl accident. Releases which occur as a result of military activity. For example, a nuclear weapons test, which have caused a global fallout, peaking in 1963 (the Bomb pulse), and up to 2.4 million deaths by 2020. [5]
Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the environment, such as uranium, thorium and potassium and any of their decay products, such as radium and radon. [1]
Mining is the largest source of uranium contamination in the environment. [1] Uranium milling creates radioactive waste in the form of tailings, which contain uranium, radium, and polonium. Consequently, uranium mining results in "the unavoidable radioactive contamination of the environment by solid, liquid and gaseous wastes". [13]
Metabolism of ionizing radiation was theorized as early as 1956 by the Russian microbiologist S. I. Kuznetsov. [1] Beginning in the 1990s, researchers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant uncovered some 200 species of apparently radiotrophic fungi containing the pigment melanin on the walls of the reactor room and in the surrounding soil.