Aircraft and nuclear reactors, where are the most exposed places for radiation?

A transcontinental flight at a time when the Sun is so active is not a safe option for you.

Sitting on a flight, you are temporarily away from the hustle and bustle of the world below. It is certainly an interesting feeling that every passenger wants to enjoy.

However, in the meantime, not many people know that at a height of kilometers above the ground, we are moving away from the protective cocoon of the planet.The higher you fly, the more likely you are to expose yourself to radiation from outer space.

Sitting on a flight, you are temporarily away from the hustle and bustle of the world below.

In fact, you will not be able to see, also known as cosmic ionizing radiation . But at any moment, tens of thousands of these rays are still accelerating in space and smashing into our atmosphere from all directions.

comes from particles that used to be the core of atoms, such as iron and nickel, moving at nearly the speed of light. They may have traveled millions of years through space, before the time of random crashing into the Earth.

For a person standing on the planet's surface, these cosmic rays do not pose much of a health risk. The reason for the magnetic field and the Earth's atmosphere has been and is being the task of blocking them, protecting all the life under our planet, including you.

"Cosmic rays are not a significant risk of ground exposure , " said Eddie Semones, a radiation worker at NASA. "In fact, you are more exposed to natural radioactive materials on Earth than radiation coming from space."

But above the ground is another story. Cosmic rays will likely penetrate, when you are sitting on a flight.

When a cosmic ray strikes the atmosphere, it activates to create a beam of ionizing radiation. Heavy particles flying from the universe deprive electrons from atoms and molecules, so that they can penetrate into our bodies.

These rays can cause tissue and DNA damage, pose a health risk and are linked to cancer, reproductive and cognitive problems, according to animal experiments.

That is why we should not live in heaven. However, cosmic rays are not the only type of radiation that pilots and flight attendants face.

When a cosmic ray hits the atmosphere, it creates a beam of harmful ionizing radiation.

The danger from space

When on a jet flight, we will face a higher amount of cosmic radiation. Therefore, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranked pilots and crew members working on airplanes as workers exposed to radiation.

According to a 2009 report by the United States Radiation Protection and Measurement Council, the crew working on airplanes is the subject of the highest exposure to average annual radiation among all people. workers exposed to radiation in the United States.

This means they are exposed to more radiation than engineers working near the nuclear reactor.

At current nuclear power plants, the work process has been built very strictly, aiming to minimize the amount of radiation affecting people. Since the Cold War, robots and safety processes have helped 'this industry evolve,' Semones said.

But the airline industry is different. The crew not only had to face the cosmic rays , another type of radiation closer to them came from the Sun itself. These are gamma rays, X-rays and high-energy proton storms.

At periods of strong sun activity, there are several waiting days for the wind to carry the seeds of the earth into the earth. Normally, the magnetosphere and the atmosphere will protect us, but the higher you go, the more you go to the edge of those shields.

The annual exposure of a crew member is about 3mSv - the unit that measures the amount of ionizing radiation absorbed that harms the body. In addition to crew on flights, only space astronauts are more exposed than them.

Accordingly, only 10 days in space, an astronaut was infected with about 4.3 mSv of harmful ionizing radiation through the skin. The figure is equivalent to more than 4 years of a person living on the ground.

That's why NASA doesn't allow astronauts to stay on the ISS Station for more than a year. If you do so, their risk of cancer will increase, for example, breast cancer is more than 3%.

In any moment, tens of thousands of cosmic rays are launching into our atmosphere.

There is no set limit for crew

While the astronaut's exposure to radiation was given due attention, this problem was often left open to the crew on civilian flights.

Even the CDC did not know where the radiation exposure was safe for them.'"There is no official dose limit for the crew in the United States." The reason is: "We do not know what extent of the cosmic radiation is safe for human beings."

There are very few studies on humans on this topic, most of which only examine radiation exposure on nuclear bomb victims and those who have radiotherapy. Animal studies have been done, but not always a good reference for humans.

However, there are some international guidelines that show radiation exposure limits for everyone. The International Radiation Protection Committee advises crew members not to expose more than 20mSv / year. In comparison with a normal person exposed only below 1mSv per year.

According to CDC, to minimize exposure, airline employees should try to limit their work on long flights, at high altitudes or fly near the North or Antarctica, all of which make Increased risk of exposure to them.

If female airline employees are not pregnant, in the first 3 months they should not work on airplanes. Women should also avoid flying when the Sun is strong, because only one flight during this time can expose a radiation higher than the limit for pregnant women for 9 months.