Radiation

The author is ready to assert that practically none of the readers of this book will ever happen to deal with large doses of radiation. But the author without a shadow of a doubt claims that any readers of this book, regardless of gender, age, financial situation, type of professional activity, and habits are actually exposed to low doses of radiation throughout 　their life.

This book is devoted to the effect of small doses on the body. To understand the basic effects of radiation on humans, the book contains the necessary information from an atomic, molecular and nuclear physics, as well as from biochemistry and biology. Special attention is paid to the issues that are either not considered or discussed very briefly in existing literature. Examples include the ionization of inner atomic shells that play an essential role in radiological processes, and the questions of transformation of the energy of ionizing radiation in matter.

The benefits of ionizing radiation to mankind is reflected in a wide range of radiation technologies used in science, industry, agriculture, culture, art, forensics, and, what is the most important application, medicine. Radiation: Fundamentals, Applications, Risks and Safety provides information on the use of radiation in modern life, its usefulness and indispensability.

Experiments on the effects of small doses on bacteria, fungi, algae, insects, plants and animals are described. Human medical experiments are inhuman and ethically flawed. However, during the familiarity of mankind with ionizing radiation, a large number of population groups were subject to accumulation, exposed to radiation at doses of small but exceeding the natural background radiation.

This book analyzes existing, real-life radiation results from survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chernobyl and Fukushima, and examines studies of radiation effect on patients, radiologists, crews of long-distant flights and astronauts, on miners of uranium copies, on workers of nuclear industry and on militaries, exposed to ionizing radiation on a professional basis, and on the population of the various countries receiving environmental exposure.

The author hopes that this book can mitigate the impact of radiation phobia, that prevails in the public consciousness last half century.

• Explores the science of radiation and the effects of radiation technologies and biological processes
• Analyzes the elementary processes of ionization and excitation
• Summarizes information about inner shells ionization and its impact on matter and biological structures
• Discusses quantum concepts in biology and clarifies the importance of epigenetics in radiological processes
• Includes case studies focusing on humans irradiated by low doses of radiation and its effects

Graduate students, postgraduates and researchers in chemistry, physics, biology, and ecology; chemical engineers and materials scientists who are investigating or using radiation in various fields; medical doctors, environmentalists, and instrument engineers.

Part I. Fundamentals
1. Peculiarities of the processes in microcosm
2. Nucleus and nuclear radiation
3. Probability and energy laws of particle collisions
4. Ionization and excitation of atoms and molecules
5. Passing of charged particles through matter
6. Interaction of gamma quanta with matter
7. Interaction of neutrons with matter
8. Elementary processes of radiation action on matter
9. Electron attachment
10. Diffusion and drift of charges
11. Recombination of charges
12. Luminescence
13. Molecule relaxation
14. Radiation detection
15. Formation and migration of defects in crystals
16. Chemical processes under radiation action

Part II. Applications
16. Radionuclide sources of ionizing radiation
17. Particle accelerators in applied investigations and technologies
18. Nuclear reactors as neutron sources
19. Radiation methods of the analysis of structure and composition of matter
20. Nuclear gamma-resonance (Mössbauer effect)
21. Diffraction methods of structure of matter investigation
22. Industry radiation technologies
23. Radiation for synthesis and modification of matter
24. Radiation doping of semiconductors
25. Radiation for control and testing
26. Radiation-chemical nanotechnology
27. Radiation sources of energy
28. Basics of radiation material science
29. Radiation sterilization
30. Radiation medical diagnostics
31. Radiation medical therapy

Part III. Risks and Safety
32. Basics of biochemistry
33. Basics of biology 
33. Action of radiation on biological structures (Mutagenesis)
34. Radiation carcinogenesis
35. Tests on bacteria, plants, cultures of tissues and animals
36. Basics of epidemiological method
37. Early history of radiation damages
38. Radium period
39. Radiation events
40. Radiation experiments on people
41. Persons survived after atomic bombarding of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
42. Radiation experiments on people
43. Population and personnel irradiated during nuclear weapon tests
44. Workers of atom industry
45. Radon. Population and uranium miners. Internal irradiation.
46. Crew and passengers of long-distant flights and cosmonauts
47. Radiologists and patients of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures
48. Population and liquidators after the Chernobyl disaster
49. Radiation accident in Fukushima
50. Population living near the nuclear facilities
51. Population of districts with high natural radiation background
52. Radiation hormesis. Possible benefit of radiation for living objects. Necessity of radiation
53. The ability of living organisms to feel radiation
54. Comparison of radiation hazard with the hazards of other types