Innovation
Nuclear energy drives innovative technologies that deliver energy, improved health, cleaner water and a safer food supply. Our high standard of health and quality of life would not be possible without the use of radioactive materials.
Medical Breakthroughs
Today, about one-third of all procedures used in modern hospitals involve radiation or radioactivity. The medical profession relies heavily on direct radiation fields and radioactive isotopes for identifying and treating disease. These procedures are a unique, safe, and cost-effective way for physicians to collect medical information in a non-invasive manner.
- There are nearly 100 different nuclear medicine imaging procedures available today. An estimated 10 to 12 million nuclear medicine imaging and therapeutic procedures are performed each year in the United States.
- One out of every three hospitalized people now benefits from a nuclear procedure.
- Radioactive materials are used for bone scans for arthritis, heart scans to study blood flow and breast imaging to identify cancer.
- Radioactive materials also are essential to the biomedical research that seeks causes and cures for diseases like AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
- Children commonly undergo nuclear medicine procedures to evaluate bone pain, injuries, infection, or kidney and bladder function.
A Nutritional Plus
Irradiation is a decades-old process used to kill bacteria, parasites and insects in food. It also retards non-microbial spoilage of certain foods, increasing their shelf life.
- The irradiation process exposes foods to gamma rays emitted by cobalt-60 and machine-generated beams of electrons and X-rays. Irradiated food is not radioactive.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved irradiation of spices, wheat and flour, potatoes, pork, fruits and vegetables, poultry and red meat.
- The irradiation process does not deplete the vitamin content or alter the molecular structure of foods any more than canning or freezing.
Moving Forward
Nuclear technology has also made pivotal advances in a number of domestic areas.
- Radiography is used for safety to ensure the structural integrity of planes, trains, automobiles, bridges and pipelines.
- It is also used in well-logging for resource exploration, for space travel in satellites and space probes, and in smoke detectors for home safety.
- Nuclear plants are able to produce potable water from seawater, a process known as desalination. Nuclear reactors may be used solely to produce potable water or for the dual use of generating electricity and producing potable water.
