Application Of Radiation And Radioisotopes In Biotechnology

Major Fields of Non-power application of Radiation and isotopes

Agriculture
Health
Industry
Environment
Radiography
Radioisotopes which emit gamma rays which can be used to check welds of new gas and oil pipeline
systems, with the radioactive source being placed inside the pipe and the film outside the welds. This is
more convenient than employing X-ray equipment.
Radioisotope power sources
Some radioisotopes emit a lot of energy as they decay. Such energy can be harnessed for heart
pacemakers and to power navigation beacons and satellites.
The decay heat of plutonium-238 has powered many space vehicles, such as the Cassini space probe
now orbiting Saturn and the New Horizons probe that will reach Pluto in 2015.
Radioisotopic Dating
Analysis of radioisotopes is of vital importance in determining the age of rocks and other materials that
are of interest to geologists, anthropologists and archaeologists.
Production of Radioisotopes
Iodine-131 is commonly used to treat thyroid cancer, probably the most successful kind of cancer
treatment, and also for non-malignant thyroid disorders.
Iridium-192 wire implants are used especially in the head and breast to give precise doses of beta
rays to limited areas, then removed.
Samarium-153 relieve the pain of secondary cancers lodged in bone.


Industrial Radioisotopes
Naturally occurring radioisotopes:
Chlorine-36: Used to measure sources of chloride and the age of water (up to 2 million years)
Carbon-14: Used to measure the age of water (up to 50,000 years)
Tritium (H-3): Used to measure 'young' groundwater (up to 30 years)
Lead-210: Used to date layers of sand and soil up to 80 years
Artificially produced radioisotopes:
Americium-241:
Used in backscatter gauges, smoke detectors, fill height detectors and in measuring ash content of coal.
Caesium-137:
Used for radiotracer technique for identification of sources of soil erosion and deposition, in
density and fill height level switches.
Used to predict the behaviour of heavy metal components in effluents from mining waste water.
Iridium-192, Gold-198 & Chromium-57:
Used to label sand to study coastal erosion
Ytterbium-169, Iridium-192 & Selenium-75:
Used in gamma radiography and non-destructive testing.
Tritiated Water:
Used as a tracer to study sewage and liquid wastes
Silver-110m, Cobalt-60, Lanthanum-140, Scandium-46, Gold-198:
Used together in blast furnaces to determine resident times and to quantify yields to measure the
furnace performance.
Cobalt-60:
Used for gamma sterilisation, industrial radiography, density and fill height switches.
Gold-198 & Technetium-99m:
Used to study sewage and liquid waste movements, as well as tracing factory waste causing ocean
pollution, and to trace sand movement in river beds and ocean floors.
Strontium-90, Krypton-85, Thallium-204:
Used for industrial gauging.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION OF NUCLEAR TECHNIQUES
Improving Product Quality and Saving Energy and Materials
Nucleonic Control System (NCS)
Gauges of thickness, density, moisture in plastic and tobacco industries
Non - Destructive Testing (NDT)
Quality Control of pipelines vessels, chemical plants, pressure vessel etc
Radiation Processing Growing Application
Improving Properties:
Wires, cables, automobile tires, plastic tubes, rubber sheets best shrinkable material
Sterilization of Medical Products
Industry
* NDT testing of installation pipes, tanks and tankers
* Trouble shooting in oil, chemical and other industries by radiotracers
* Chemical and biochemical reactor design and testing
Contributions of Nuclear Technology in Industry
Electron beam purification of flue gases
Isotopic techniques to study climate change and predict future global changes resulting from
greenhouse gases
Rational exploitation of geothermal sources
Isotope hydrology and geochemistry in geothermal fields
Quality control and inspection of pipelines by NDT
Contributions of Nuclear Technology in Energy Industry
Process Diagnostics and Optimization in Petrochemical Industry
Role of Nuclear Power and other Energy Options in Competitive Electricity Market
Contributions of NuclearTechniques in Health Industry
Molecular biology techniques using radionuclide methods (e.g. Polymerase chain reaction or
PCR) for diagnosis of infectious diseases such as hepatitis B & C, tuberculosis
Early detection of congenital diseases in children.
Contributions of NuclearTechnology in Environment
Nuclear Power reduces emission of greenhouse gases
Isotope Techniques for Groundwater Contamination Studies in the Urbanized and Industrial
Areas
Uranium resources development through microorganisms
Nuclear power plants for saltwater desalination
Environmental Protection
Flue gas treatment
Wastewater and sludge treatment
Radiotracer Wastewater treatment plant optimization
Radiotracer water evaporation and self purification study
Radionuclides in the marine and terrestrial environment
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONENT
Cleaning Flue Gases from Coal Burning Power Stations
Treatment of Off-gases to Remove Toxic Compounds
Cleaning Waters and Industrial Wastewater
Disinfection of Sewage Sludge for Organic Fertilizer
Monitoring of Radionuclides in the sea
Locating Landmines
About 60 million mines in 62 countries , about 26000 causalities per year
Neutron Probes can identify content
Sterilization
Many medical products today are sterilized by gamma rays. It is safer and cheaper because it
can be done after the item is packaged. Medical products sterilized by radiation include
syringes, cotton wool, burn dressings, surgical gloves, heart valves, bandages, plastic and rubber
sheets and surgical instruments.
Smoke Detectors
These contain a small amount of americium-241 which is a decay product of plutonium-241
originating in nuclear reactors.
The Am-241 emits alpha particles which ionize the air and allow a current between two
electrodes.
If smoke enters the detector it absorbs the alpha particles and interrupts the current, setting off
the alarm.
Environmental tracers
Radioisotopes also play an important role in detecting and analyzing pollutants, since even very
small amounts of a radioisotope can easily be detected, and the decay of short-lived isotopes
means that no residues remain in the environment.
Nuclear techniques have been applied to a range of pollution problems including smog
formation, sulphur dioxide contamination of the atmosphere, sewage dispersal from ocean
outfalls and oil spills.
Process and Waste Water Treatment
Radionuclide are leached into water when it comes into contact with uranium and thorium
bearing rocks and sediments. Water treatment often uses filters to remove impurities. Hence,
radioactive wastes from filter sludges, ion-exchange resins, granulated activated carbon and
water from filter backwash are part of NORM.
Scrap metal industry
Scrap metal from various process industries can also contain scales with enhanced levels of
natural radionuclides. The exact nature and concentration of these radionuclides is dependent
on the process from which the scrap originated.
Metal smelting sludges
Metal smelting slags, especially from tin smelting, may contain enhanced levels of uranium and
thorium series radionuclides
Pollution due to Energy Sources
Some 2 billion people lack access to electricity and rely on traditional fuel sources such as
firewood, kerosene, or biomass for their cooking and heating. Which results in Pollution.
Nuclear Techniques in Phytoremediation
Mutation breeding to produce new varieties in different plants/ trees used for Bioremediation
of soil contaminated with hazardous pollutants
Biodiversity & Ecosystem Management
Biodiversity and the ecosystems they support are the living basis of sustainable development.
Biodiversity & Contributions of Nuclear Techniques
Nuclear techniques are used:
To trace the fate of pollutants, and study sedimentation rates in pollution studies
To identify pathways of pesticides & agrochemicals in the environment
Investigating Environmental and Water Resources in Geothermal Areas
Radioisotopes are also used for Molecular Biotechnology Techniques and DNA Sequencing
Hybridization
The formation of a duplex between two complementary sequences
Intermolecular hybridization: between two polynucleotide chains which have complementary
bases
DNA-DNA
DNA-RNA
RNA-RNA
Annealing is another term used to describe the hybridization of two complementary molecules
Probes
Probe is a nucleic acid that can be labeled with a marker which allows identification and
quantitation will hybridize to another nucleic acid on the basis of base complementarity Types
of labels Radioactive (
32
P,
35
S,
14
C,
3
H)
Fluorescent
FISH: fluorescent in situ hybridization
chromosomes
Biotinylated (avidin-streptavidin)
Southern Blots
Southern blotting is a procedure for transferring denatured DNA from an agarose gel to a solid
support filter where it can be hybridized with a complementary nucleic acid probe
The DNA is separated by size so that specific fragments can be identified
A Focus of Development: Automation User-Friendly, Faster, and Cost-
Effective
This electronic microarray is an example of "Lab-on-a-Chip" technology. It is an
electrophoresis device that produces results up to 1000 times faster than conventional
techniques while using much less sample.
High Resolution Banding and FISH
The chromosome banding technique performed 20 years ago missed the small deletion. High
resolution banding developed more recently can elucidate the abnormality. Fluorescence in
situ Hybridization (FISH) is a powerful technique in that it can reveal submicroscopic
abnormalities even in non-dividing cells.