In what ways is radiation useful?

Answer 1

Radiation is used every day for medical treatment. Radiation treatment is an accepted form of therapy for some forms of carcinoma. We also use it in medical imaging and in other forms of patient testing and evaluation. There is a lot of other biological investigation that involves the use of radiation emitted from nuclear materials, too. The so-called radioactive tracers help us track and document the processes of life. Industrial uses abound. We use radiation to sterilize things. It works very well, and it's more practical and cost-effective to have a radioactive source rather than use electricy to generate ionizing radiation. We also use "chunks" of radioactive material as a radiation source for portable X-rays. You wouldn't believe all the stuff we X-ray in the world of industry. Pipe welds are just one thing. You would expect that physicists are still investigating various aspects of nuclear behavior using radiation, and they are. There are still other uses of radiation, but note that there are a couple of basic "flavors" of radiation: electromagnetic (like X-rays and gamma rays) and particulate (like beta particles, protons and neutrons). Just wanted you to be aware of that. As an example, neutron flux in the core of an operating nuclear reactor is used in lots of applications to synthesize materials, and these materials will emit either kind of radiation depending on what we make and what we want. That's were a lot of nuclear materials come from. We also are seeing an increase in the use of the cyclotron, a particle accelerator. It is applied to both systhesize materials and also to be used in imaging and as a new treatment option in radiation therapy. It's a new frontier.

Answer 2

Radiation can be useful in the sterilization of food; gamma rays are emitted to kill any bacteria. Also radiation therapy is used for cancer treatment; again gamma radiation does serious damage to living organisms