Environmental Radiation : A Boon or Bane

Abstract

Public interest and concern about environmental radiation has increased during recent times although radioactivity and X-rays were discovered during the last decade of the 19th century. The sources of environmental radiation are both natural and artificial; the bulk of average annual effective dose (2.4 mSu) being contributed by natural sources of radiation including radon and cosmic rays. The first demonstration of environmental contamination due to artificial radioactivity was the Atomic bomb explosions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Radiation accidents have been almost nil at accelerators but the most dramatic episode concerning reactor was the Chernobyl accident on 26 April, 1986. Reactor accidents and nuclear explosions have created a media-hype and a 'nuclear neurosis' among the general public to veto setting up of any nuclear facility in the neighborhood or even in remote areas