INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS RADIOACTIVITY?

The atom (from the Greek Atomos, not divisible) is the smallest part of the matter. It is formed of a central nucleus constituted by Protons and Neutrons, and from peripheral particles, called Electrons, placed on various orbits, revolving around the nucleus.

An Electron, when it is in movement (revolving around its own nucleus or going along a conductor), produces, with its Negative electric charge, a Magnetic Field. Practically, each of the endless Atoms that form the universe, even though it is electrically neutral, has its own Magnetic Field, which is bigger according to the number of Electrons revolving around its Nucleus. In fact, in the whole universe, the distance among Galaxies, Stars and Planets is conditioned by the force lines of the Magnetic Fields of these heavenly bodies, in their turn obtained  by the summation of the Magnetic fields of the all Atoms they are composed of!

In examining the Periodic Table, worked out by Mendeleev, you can notice that:

1) the number of elements is of 118

2) the first element is Hydrogen, whose symbol is H and whose atomic number is 1. This means that it has only one Proton and one Electron and consequently the Magnetic Field that encircles each of its atoms is the lowest of all.

3) Uranium has symbol U and Atomic number 92. This means that its Magnetic Field is 92 times bigger that Hydrogen’s one. Further widening the reasoning, you can notice that the atomic number of many of the elements considered Radioactive is high, that is why also their Magnetic Field is high.

In order to calculate its value, it is necessary to remember Einstein’s formula that states the energy developed or acquired by a body in movement, that is: E=mc², where:

E = Energy.

m = mass (in this case, the one of the electron).

c² = celerity.

Before dealing with the matter of the dangerousness of Nuclear Plants, it is necessary to make a short account on Radioactivity and its consequences.

The protons present inside the atom have all a positive charge and, for the Electromagnetic Force, they tend to repel themselves; when the nuclear force that hinders this tendency is not strong enough, the atoms are unstable and the element they create is defined radioactive. This means that it has the tendency to transformed itself in other elements in order to reach a stable element. This process is said radioactive decay or radioactivity. The kinds of decay differ according to the radiations they emit (alpha, beta and gamma). Alpha and beta decays change the chemical composition of the atom involved, transforming it into another element with a different number of protons and electrons, varying therefore its Electromagnetic field.

Alpha and beta radiations are defined highly ionizing, it means that they transform the atoms they strike, adding or taking away electrons, therefore altering their structure and Electromagnetic Field. Instead, gamma decay has, as only result, an emission of energy, in form of gamma radiations. These last ones, although less ionizing, have a greater power of penetration and they cannot be stopped by simple material barriers. Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiations and they originate from the emission of photons, all these concepts are referable to and ruled by Einstein’s formula.

A nuclear plant (although there are of different kinds) is, usually, a wiring that produces electric energy exploiting the vapour, gotten through the nuclear fission that happens in its reactors. In these reactors, a radioactive fuel, plunged in light or heavy water, is made to react in order to have a nuclear fission, in a watched way. The product of the nuclear fission is first of all an immense heat, which produces, in its turn, vapour that is used by the turbines for the creation of electric energy. But the nuclear fission also wastes kinetic energy (E=mc²) and gamma radiations (electromagnetic radiations). With time, the radioactive fuel burns out and the part that cannot be used anymore is known with the name of radioactive waste, which has an higher radio toxicity than the starting element. Then it has to be stored in safe places, in waiting that its radio toxicity will return to the level of the starting element.

Nuclear plants use, usually, the natural isotopes of Uranium ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U, artificially enriched. Through fission, uranium produces Electromagnetic gamma radiations, while, decaying, it produces beta and alpha rays.

Gamma rays produced by fission, being Magnetic radiations, follow the Susceptible Property of Ferromagnetic materials, setting in alternated orientation the electrons of the atoms that they strike with their force lines. If the Magnetic Force of gamma radiations and the strength of the Magnetic Field, produced by the 92 electrons of uranium, is stronger than the cohesion strength that connects the various atoms in making the molecules, the molecular chains can break, altering their structure at atomic level, sometimes with serious consequences.

After the fission, part of the radioactive fuel separates from the bars and melts in the water in which they are plunged, making it radioactive. Accordingly, also the vapour produced by high temperatures will contain radioactive atoms that, in their journey to reach the Turbine, will have influence, with their high magnetic field, on the pipes they flow through. These ones will be progressively stricken, modified at atomic level and, therefore, weakened.

There are therefore two effects in the pipelines that convey to the Turbine:

a-     An increasing number of atoms settles on the walls of the pipelines, which will become radio toxic, too.

b-     With the passing of time, the damaged walls will allow an always higher number of Uranium atoms to get through, pouring out and contaminating, then, the surrounding parts, as far as the cement of the structure itself of the Nuclear Plant. In its turn, the structure will initially show micro damages, that, in time, will get larger (as it is happening in the cement “sarcophagus” built in Chernobyl). When the external walls of the Plant will be damaged and they will allow the atoms of radioactive material to get through and it will pour out in the surrounding environment, poisoning it, nothing will be able to stop it from affect also the living beings, human, animal or vegetable.

The concerned political parts assure that nuclear plants of next generation will be safe, but until the radioactive fuel will interact with the structure and the materials of construction of the plant according to the Laws of the Physics, this cannot happen. Should we prefer Political promises or the realistic Laws of the Physics? The fact remains that, periodically, the Nuclear Plant has to undergo a functional “stop”, when all the parts, which have become more and more Radioactive, are replaced. Only the structure in reinforced concrete is not replaced, but it will undergo a definitive stop, when, in 50/60 years, the Radioactivity present in the environment will be too much. This deadline can be postponed for political reasons, not always in accord with the public well-being. I think that the Laws of the Physics could find a certain difficulty in conforming to the Laws of the State.     

When the technicians work inside a Nuclear Plant, the anti-radiations overalls they wear can protect them from the direct contact with Uranium atoms (or the ones of the other  Radioactive elements wasted in the environment) that may settle on the suits, but the layer of lead in the overall will become, in its turn, radio toxic in little time. So they cannot avert the danger of the penetration in their body and consequently in their cells of the force lines of the high Magnetic Field. According to the Susceptive property and Einstein’s formula, their molecular chains will be damaged, the concerned cells will probably die. If the damages will occur in a considerable number in some vital organs, the technician of the Nuclear Plant (as it is happening in Fukushima) is running serious risks for his own health. There is the demonstration of what I said in the death (even happened in few days), of some of the people who, even if shielded by a lead overall 30 Kg (66 pounds) heavy, have taken part in the operations in Chernobyl and who have tried, without succeeding, to remedy the accident occurred there. 

OBSERVATIONS: All the Radioactive elements (Uranium, Plutonium, Cesium, Polonium, etc…), present in the reactors, can be found outside the Plant, through the fractures that will originate in the structure and through the lost vapour wasted in the environment from the cooling towers. Then the wind will waste for kilometers and kilometers these harmful substances; they will reach the aquifers in the vicinity (uranium is soluble), making them radio toxic and radioactive. And so they will always strike a greater number of unaware citizens, originating in their physiques the most unpredictable, and sometimes deadly, illnesses. In this case, the Technicians and Politicians in charge of the activity of the Nuclear Plant cling to the problem of the economic damage consequent to the possible closing of the Plant. Or they try to influence the collectivity on the not harmfulness of nuclear energy. A proof is the fact that the environmental Radioactivity is reckoned on as only produced by natural uranium (considered normal, and therefore bearable for human beings). This is wrong because the radio toxicity of enriched uranium and of nuclear wastes produced by its fission is higher than the one of natural Uranium. And moreover, natural Uranium is often located in poorly inhabited areas of the Planet which are attainable with difficulty, while, as seen, the particles escaped by the Plants can disperse in the environment to great distances.

Radioactive wastes: the theory according to which nuclear wastes will lose their radio toxicity in some hundred thousand years, as sustained by Science, is, unfortunately, only a theory, as such a phenomenon has never happened and we cannot be totally sure of the way it will develop. Moreover, at the end of the process there will be a return to the same level of radio toxicity of natural Uranium and, therefore, a decidedly remarkable one. And in addition, Uranium process of radioactive decay will continue and Electromagnetic radiations will continue to be emitted. Radioactivity won't exist anymore, only if the whole Solar system has been attracted by a “Black Hole” and all the atoms of matter it is made of have collapsed, keeping the electrons from producing a magnetic field with their orbits. The presence of uranium on the Earth’s crust is valued in 2,8ppm (part for million) and in the granite in 4ppm, and that is why it is difficult to come across the “local” effects of its direct radioactivity, that is to say going in a naturally radioactive area. Clearly, the harmful effects to molecular chains occur also to people who run into a natural deposit by chance, even without the great dispersion caused by the human beings with nuclear plants, through the structural breaks and the vapour of cooling towers. The natural radioactivity of the planet constantly increases with the spread of nuclear wastes and, consequently, the damages to people and things will increase, despite Politicians’ reassurances. It is necessary to realize that is not possible to build a Nuclear Plant that is safe, because the radioactive fuel will always eat into its load-bearing structure and because until radioactive vapours will be wasted in the air, they will pollute the environment.

FUKUSHIMA: On 11^th, 2011, an earthquake magnitude 9 occurred in Japan. Even if this  Nation is in a “seismic zone” and, therefore, prepared to withstand strong shakes, the damages to people and things were important because of a very destructive Tsunami. The Japanese electric society has about fifty Nuclear Plants, regularly working and built with anti-earthquake criterions. Despite this, in one of the Nuclear Plants, the violent earthquake and the consequent Tsunami damaged the cooling circuit of the radioactive vapour. For this reason, part of the vapour produced by the plant was released on the outside.
The consequences have been:

1)     In the Plant control room, radioactivity has reached values some thousand times higher than the average ones.

2)     Outside the Plant, values of radioactivity about ten or hundred times higher than average ones have been collected.

3)     An undetermined number of people, who lived near the Nuclear Plant, has been moved.

4)     Because of the lack of working in the cooling circuit of the Nuclear Plant core, it is likely that a nuclear fusion has occurred. I hope that this Nuclear fusion shouldn’t turn out to be uncontrollable in its evolution and harmful to the people who live near to the Nuclear Plant (data in my possession may not take all the variables into consideration or be up-to-date). Even the use of sea water to cool the core has proved to be useless. The fission process was not under control anymore and Uranium bars melted. The water poured by military helicopters had, as only result, to create vapour that has become Radioactive because it contained atoms of the Uranium bars. The Radioactive vapour, moved to the atmosphere and carried by the wind, condensed, falling then, with its load of atoms of Radioactive Uranium, on the earth or in the sea, making them Radioactive and radio toxic. In fact, the military helicopters had to interrupt their activity as the air where they flew was by then harmful to the pilots and the technicians.

A value below which Radioactivity isn’t harmful to people doesn’t exist. Those people who, sacrificing themselves, worked inside the Nuclear Reactor of Fukushima, by then radioactive in an uncontrollable way, in order to restore its conditions of regular working, they should be commended. I hope that their heroic efforts and the sacrifice of their life will be repaid by the wished result, but I have some doubts, because the Laws of the Physics go over the Politicians’ will and people’s humaneness.

CHERNOBYL: news of the last moment report that, in the “sarcophagus” made of cement to cover the “Core”, some breaks, from which the radioactive material escapes, have been discovered. This happens because numerous atoms of Radioactive material have settled in the cement structure, and they set in alternate orientation (to the frequency of the Magnetic Field) the atoms of cement with which they interact. It is necessary to say that the action of the Magnetic Field produced by Radioactivity is further strengthened by the fact that, when its force lines reach the iron rod plunged in the reinforced concrete, they induce in it a Magnetic Field given by B = µ x H, of considerably higher value than the one that has produced it. The formula B = µ x H has the following meaning:

B = the induced Magnetic Field in the iron rod plunged in the reinforced concrete, in which the force lines of the high Magnetic Field belonging to one or more atoms of Radioactive material, torn from the Core and lost in the ways previously described inside the Nuclear Plant, have penetrated. In this way, micro breaks form at first in the cement, they enlarge with  time becoming bigger and bigger. Practically, it is possible, considered the high Magnetic Field emanated by the atoms of Radioactive material, to reach the “magnetic saturation” of the ferrous material in the iron rod, with a consequent increase in the damages to the cement walls and in the spillages of radioactive material.

µ = coefficient of absolute magnetic permeability, which in the ferrous material (that forms the iron rod plunged in the reinforced concrete) can also have a value higher than 2.000. This means that the induced Magnetic Field in the iron rod is really considerable.

H = inducing Magnetic Field: It is the one of the atoms of Radioactive material that, with time, have been wasted inside the Nuclear Plant and that, with their force lines, penetrate inside the reinforced concrete of its structure and obviously also inside the iron rod plunged there. Obviously, the construction of new types of “sarcophaguses” (even made of iron) would not avert the creation, with time, of micro breaks. This could finish only when all the atoms of Uranium have migrated from the inside of the Plant, through the fractures, pouring out in the outside environment. This happens because the first principle of Physics affirms that “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”; therefore the atoms of Uranium, also decaying, will always be there with their harmful effects on All the living beings with which they will come into contact.

Who knows if the molecular chains of the European Community experts, who raise continuously the levels of radiations that people can bear, are able not to break as those of all the others, when they are subjected to the action of the Electromagnetic Fields? What is of importance for them, it is only the control over the static stability of every part of the existing Nuclear Plants, so that then, they can build ones of  new and safer and more reliable generation. The dispersion of Uranium atoms in the environment is just a trifle.

Maintaining that Nuclear Plants are not harmful for the Earth and for its inhabitants, belonging to the animal or the vegetable kingdom, becomes difficult at this stage.

Mogno Gian Pietro