Living With Radiation: Heal and Protect: A Nuclear World

By David Schumann

The Life-saving Guide to Living with Radiation in the 21st Century and Beyond

Explore this easy to understand and empowering book on the hazards of ionizing radiation, especially man-made radiation resulting from nuclear energy and weapons. There are consequences from our use of nuclear technology. Radioactive contamination of our environment is one negative consequence that can lead to sickness, disease, cancer, genetic mutation, and death. This book teaches the reader to be aware of, limit exposure to, cleanse the body of, and live safely with this hidden health threat that will persist for generations.

The uplifting message is that our bodies are simply amazing. We can heal and protect from this threat. Awareness, and the simple but effective strategies presented here, can protect you and your family. We hand to the future generations this world and the genes in our bodies. The passion that illuminates this book is centered on healing and protecting these gifts so that we can thrive and evolve as we are meant to. With wisdom, wit, and well-researched information, David Thomas Schumann easily explains the threat and provides an accessible guide to living with radiation in the 21st century and beyond.

Learn diet, detoxification, supplementation, and lifestyle strategies to heal and protect from ionizing radiation.

Learn to prevent health complications like cancer and heart disease.

Learn about the most hazardous forms of radiation and how they degrade your health.

Learn why man-made radiation is the most hazardous and how to avoid it.

Learn what to do in case of nuclear reactor accidents, like Fukushima or Chernobyl.

Learn what to do in case of nuclear weapon releases.

Learn how to empower the body to heal itself innately.

Learn how to protect the genetic integrity of your family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Schumann
• Release date: Jul 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9780997561067

David Schumann

Kevin Fitzgerald is an executive manager with a 30 year successful track record leading the design, development, and production of pyrotechnic devices. A graduate of Bucknell University with a degree in mechanical engineering, Kevin began his career in the defense industry before moving to automotive. He resigned from Takata in 2014 as the Vice President of Inflator Engineering and Processing to testify for the U.S. Government, greatly expanding what has become the largest, most complex recall ever. He worked again as an executive in the pyrotechnic industry, before leaving to dedicate himself fully to writing his story and ridding the world of every Takata airbag.David Schumann is a mathematician, engineer, entrepreneur, and writer. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Arizona and spent fifteen years in the pyrotechnic device industry, managing new product development for the safety restraint, aerospace, oil and gas, and space markets. He self-published his first book on radiation and health in 2014. His company, Synergy Energy Systems, was formed in 2008 to consult, develop innovative products, and publish information around his varied interests. When not working on the airbag crisis, you can find him working on his latest project, Living With Radiation.

Book preview

LIVING WITH RADIATION

HEAL AND PROTECT: A NUCLEAR WORLD

David Thomas Schumann

Living With Radiation – Heal and Protect: A Nuclear World

Published by David Thomas Schumann at Smashwords

Copyright © 2016 by David Thomas Schumann

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN 978-0-9975610-6-7 (Smashwords, eBook)

First Edition, 2016

Smashwords Edition

Disclaimer: The information provided in this book is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. This book is not meant to be used, nor should it be used, to diagnose or treat any medical condition. For diagnosis or treatment of any medical problem, consult your own physician. The publisher and author are not responsible for any specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision and are not liable for any damages or negative consequences from any treatment, action, application or preparation, to any person reading or following the information in this book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1-INTRODUCTION

Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

Purpose and Path

The Beginning

2-IONIZING RADIATION

Properties

Nuclear Science

Measurement

Body Radiation Measurements

3-HEALTH EFFECTS

The Miracle of Life

Health Effects of Radiation

Mutation

Free-Radicals and Ionization

Cancer

Issues with Risk Models

Man-Made Internal Radiation

Biological Half-life

4-SOURCES

Background Radiation

Medical Radiation

The Worst Radiation

Nuclear Weapons

Depleted Uranium

Nuclear Energy

Industry Sources

5-HEAL

A Radiation Diet

Countering Free-Radicals

Nutritional Supplements

Detoxification

6-PROTECT

Avoidance and Awareness

Background Radiation

Nuclear Incidents

7-CONCLUSION

Gratitude

About the Author

8-Radioactive Isotope Database

9-Glossary

10-Selected Bibliography

FORWARD

A vision is the basis for this book. This vision is centered on a unified and informed humanity driving policies on nuclear energy and weapons in progressive ways that recognize the unique and persistent threat that stems from nuclear technology.

This global response will be intelligent and thorough. It will eliminate the threat with the great heart and mind of humanity. Nuclear technology was a step but now we are ready for the next step and energy innovation.

There are common interests and hopes in all of us and we have a responsibility to preserve what was given to us for future generations. Together we will learn to remove the radiation from our environment, contend with the legacy of pollution left to us, and heal and protect our bodies against the health threats.

This book is intended to help foster this progression, and to serve others so they may live to their fullest capacities, in health and happiness.

The author would like to thank, especially, his baby sister and her successful struggle against cancer for the inspiration to finish this book that was started in 2011, after the terrible nuclear accident on the Pacific Ocean.

Warmest thanks and blessings,

David Thomas Schumann

INTRODUCTION

Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

Purpose and path

The Beginning

Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Disaster

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake caused a terrible tsunami, and the world was reminded of just how vulnerable man-made technology is in the face of incredible Earth forces.

The earthquake had already caused some damage to the nuclear reactors in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, including early power losses. When the tsunami reached the shore, cresting into a monstrous wall of water and slamming into the facility, significant damage resulted in fires, explosions, loss of containment of nuclear fuels, and global spread of radioactive pollution.

To this day, the reactor remains crippled and continues to release radiation into the environment. Most people think the crisis is over and the issues are contained, but we are far from being in the clear. Decades more of persistent work and good luck is required before the threat of Fukushima can be considered to be contained. There is a real probability that additional devastation lies ahead.

On that tragic day, the power grid that powered the plant was damaged by the earthquake. Back-up generators and secondary systems took over, but eventually failed as they were flooded by the tsunami or further damaged by the accident. The massive pumps lost power and stopped the needed cooling of the nuclear reactor cores and spent-fuel rods. The reactor cores began to overheat and melt through their outer casing, leading to the eventual meltdowns in three of the four reactors operational that day. Without this cooling water circulating constantly, the cores and the spent-fuel rods had various degrees of melting leading to explosions, critical damage to the facility, and significant release of nuclear pollution into the environment.

The nuclear engineers and personnel were thrust into a desperate situation. Back-up power, pumps, and secondary systems were all failing. The Prime Minister of Japan on that day, Naoto Kan, demanded that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) workers remain at the facility to deal with the nuclear disaster as some wanted to evacuate. The reactor core and spent fuel needed to be cooled in any way possible to protect Japan, and especially Tokyo.

Using other pumps and dropping ocean water on the reactors worked to cool the melted fuel, stabilize the situation, and prevent further catastrophe. Using ocean water to cool the cores was desperate because as it boiled off it deposited salt and minerals on the fuel rods, creating an insulating layer that makes them harder to cool. As Naoto Kan remarked, skillful management and, indeed, divine protection prevailed but not before significant radiation was released and the facility was forever damaged (6).

Large amounts of the worst radioactive pollutants were released, including uranium and plutonium fuel fragments. When nuclear fuel melted through its casing and six inches of containment steel, it pooled on the concrete floors of the reactors where it continued to burn. Extremely radioactive fission products escaped directly into the air as various gases were released from this burning. The water used desperately to cool the fuels became radioactive and was subsequently discharged back into the ocean. When hydrogen (resulting from the reactions of the melted fuel rods with water) was ignited, the explosion allowed even more radiation to escape and blasted fragments of fuel rods a mile or more from the facility.

The site of this nuclear disaster is one of constant activity today as workers struggle to contain and prevent any worsening of the situation. Radioactive pollution continues to be released from the site and will likely continue for hundreds of years.

The melted fuel is beyond reach for now and TEPCO doesn’t know the location or condition of it all. The escaped fuel cannot be approached because it’s too radioactive. Even the most sophisticated robots can’t get close enough to ascertain their fate and resting place. In the meantime, this fuel continues to contaminate our biosphere until it can be recovered and put into some storage that protects us from it.

The spent-fuels resulting from nuclear energy production are one of humanity’s great threats and challenges. Once nuclear fuel rods have been used to create energy, they will still burn and have lasting, residual heat after they have served their primary purpose. Once irradiated, they are extremely radioactive and must be stored, cooled, and protected in large pools of water adjacent to nuclear reactors, often on the roof.

These pools are constantly refreshed with water to keep the spent nuclear fuel from overheating and melting. If the cooling water boils off or leaks out, hundreds and thousands of spent fuel rods could melt into an unimaginable pile of smoldering nuclear fuel that could not be contained or extinguished. It would release more radiation than all the world’s past nuclear testing by far, and it would destroy and degrade life across the globe.

Fukushima-Daiichi was perilously close to this fate after the tsunami struck and it remains so today. Hundreds of spent fuel rods sit one hundred feet off the ground atop a damaged nuclear facility, cooled by pumps and electricity, in a structurally compromised building. If it were to suffer an earthquake or tsunami of similar magnitude, it could collapse, leading to the worst nuclear disaster in history as hundreds of tons of nuclear fuel rods would burn and release radioactive poison across both hemispheres of the world.

Even without a worsening of the disaster, large areas of Japan have been covered with radiation that will persist and affect future generations. Sickness and death has already affected many people, and the levels of radioactive pollutants found there now assure many more will be affected. Thyroid cancers in children and adults have begun to appear, as expected, the earliest cancers to develop from radioactive iodine exposure. The soils and food supplies are contaminated and thousands have been evacuated, never to return to their homes. Others are living in areas with dangerous levels of radiation. This radiation is not only a burden for Japan, but for the whole world.

The radiation plume in the ocean reached the U.S. west coast measurably in 2014. Fallout and hot particles were deposited across the globe in the days and weeks following the accident. The air in the northern hemisphere is now more radioactive from the huge release of radioactive noble gases. The concentration of radiation in the ocean continues to increase.

Fukushima wasn’t the first nuclear accident and it won’t be the last. Our greatest challenge is the amount of similar facilities and aging nuclear reactors designed poorly for the magnitude of Earth forces they should expect to endure.

The fault line in the United States with the history for the most violent earthquake is not in California, but rather in the Midwest. The San Madrid fault line runs from Illinois down the Mississippi River, past St. Louis, Missouri, Memphis, Tennessee and Arkansas, and down through Mississippi to the Gulf. Along this fault line multiple nuclear reactors are located so they can use the water wealth of this region to cool their nuclear fires. A large earthquake in this region could result in multiple nuclear reactor meltdowns and thousands of tons of spent-fuel at risk.

Conflicts, disasters, and the inherent difficulty of storing radioactive wastes will continue to plague nuclear energy, ensuring that future accidents will happen again. Nuclear facilities have back-ups, but will always have the issues of power supply and reliance on regional and national power grid infrastructure to contend with. It’s not a question of whether there will be additional nuclear disasters, just a question of how often it will happen and to what degree.

For these reasons