دانلود کتاب تشعشع: یک حامل انرژی

After nuclear accidents such as Three Mile Island in USA, Chernobyl in Ukraine, and Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, many people were evacuated and lost their homes, because of radioactive fall-out from the damaged reactors. Even today, a number of people cannot return to the places they lived before the accident. Although the initial impact of the accidents was quite large, the harm caused by exposure to radiation seems gradually disappearing. Nevertheless, these accidents make people more nervous of the exposure to radiation. The number of people who feel that radiation is “scary/fearful” has increased, along with the number of people who refuse to accept nuclear power plants. In fact, all of the nuclear power plants in Japan were stopped for several years after the Fukushima accident at 2011. At that time, a shortage of electricity could be avoided, because the electricity generated by the nuclear plants has been replaced by that generated in thermal power plants burning coals and oil. The coal and oil plants are not desirable due to environmental impacts and resource issues, but people accepted this provisional measure. In recent years, due to concerns about global warming, many governments have decided not to build new power plants burning coal and tried to replace them with renewable energy mostly solar cells and windowpower.Any power source has disadvantages or creates some risks. The number of people who is affected by global warming is far larger than the number of people who suffered in nuclear accidents. Generally, the negative effects or demerits of using powerful technology necessary to sustain modern civilization seem to be compensated by insurance. The typical example is traffic accidents; the number of people involved is quite large. Nevertheless, most people accept the risk of traffic accident and compensate their potential harm by money from insurance. On the other hand, the risk to use nuclear power seems to be discussed on completely different base from other risks accompanying with utilization of energy or power. Many people refuse to accept nuclear reactors. Probably that is because they are afraid of after-effects of exposure to radiation which could appear for themselves later, on their children through influence of genes, cancer risk in offspring and so on, which most people believe, cannot be covered by insurance. Utilization of large energy or power always accompanies some risk when the energy or power is released by accidents in a different way from the original purpose. Therefore, the risk should be shared by the beneficiaries. One of the main reasons for hesitating to use nuclear power is that people have not accepted this principle, or the risk of radiation is considered to be an exception from the principle. There seem two major reasons for that. One is that people fair “radiation” without having clear reason. The other is that “radiation” is mysterious and it is difficult to evaluate the risk, i.e., what kind of effects occur and how the effects of the radiation exposure appear. Therefore, it is quite natural that there are pros and cons on the acceptance of nuclear energy.Unfortunately, the debate is often conducted without sufficient knowledge or correct understanding of radiation. The debate should consider long-term energy security with sufficient knowledge or correct understanding of radiation. Based on above-mentioned general background, the first Japanese edition of this book was published aiming at assisting readers (1) to understand “radiation,” i.e., what radiation is or means and why radiation is dangerous, (2) to get correct understanding that the radiation is carrying energy, and (3) to accept that the radiation is not “scary” but “dangerous but controllable and useful.” Hopefully, this English translationwill help readers to do so. Chinese translationwill be also published by University of Science and Technology of China Publishing House as ISBN 978-7-312-05302-3. The author very much appreciates Dr. Richard More for his review of English writing.