Nonconjugated Conductive Polymers Are the Best Materials for Protection Against Radioactive Iodine
Datanews India Science Desk
New Delhi, March 3, 2025: Professor Mrinal Thakur, Director of the Photonic Materials Research Laboratory, Auburn University, AL (USA) stated that Governments and private entities should take appropriate actions to protect against radioactive iodine emitted by nuclear reactors, wastes and other emitting systems.
Professor Thakur invented novel protective systems based on Nonconjugated Conductive Polymers which are uniquely suited to this application. The U.S. patent on this invention was issued to Professor Thakur. Scientific Journal article was published in Radiation Protection and Environment, Thakur, 2021.
Unlike Conjugated Polymers (undoped state) Nonconjugated Polymers (undoped state) are stable in air and water and have the best efficiency in capturing iodine from air and water. Therefore, Nonconjugated Conductive Polymers are the best materials for providing protection against radioiodine.
Nonconjugated Conductive Polymers were first reported by Professor Thakur in Macromolecules back in 1988. The issues related to its lack of recognition were discussed in other press releases.
Nobel-nominated scientist Professor Thakur stated that about 3% by weight of the byproducts in nuclear reactors (standard or small modular) is radioiodine. Although much of it is trapped or absorbed within the reactor, some is leaked out through air and water. The most concerning is the fact that the threshold amount of radioiodine that can cause illnesses including thyroid canceris extremely low! Therefore, providing proper protection is imperative.
Among radioactive species emitted by nuclear reactors and other systems, radioactive iodine is particularly dangerous since it remains as a vapor at ordinary temperature and can travel long distances by air-currents. Radioactive iodine emitted from Fukushima plants, Japan, crossed the Pacific Ocean to arrive at California, USA and was reported to have caused illnesses in babies! Being partially soluble in water radioiodine can get in seafood, grass and dairy products.
Radioactive iodine is readily absorbed by human body and causes thyroid cancer and other serious ailments. Professor Thakur contends that if the said protection were in place in Fukushima, radioiodine would not have spread so much, certainly not up to the United States!
In hospitals and clinics, the doctors, nurses and attendees are often worried of being exposed to radioactive iodine during and after radioiodine therapy of patients having thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism. Patients emit radiation for a number of days after taking a capsule containing radioiodine. Use of apparels made of the nonconjugated conductive polymers significantly reduces the potential exposure to radioiodine and lessens the anxiety. Thyroid cancer cases in USA have tripled in the last three decades (NBC news, August 2016) probably because of the large number of nuclear reactors (about 100 of those) in USA.
Professor Thakur stated that large sheets of nonconjugated conductive polymers covering nuclear reactors and waste storage facilities will act as protective shields against radioiodine emission or leakage since iodine atoms will be captured by the polymers. Important buildings and dwellings may also be protected using these shields where radioiodine may be present in air due to other sources. These shields should save lives and the environment in case of radiation leakages from nuclear reactors: in normal day-to-day operations, due to accidents, and disasters up to the magnitudes of Fukushima-Daiichi and Chernobyl.
It is hoped the newly elected Government in USA along with India and other countries will move forward toward utilizing this technology for the common good.
Image / Photographs Explained
Featured Image Source Wikipedia
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen protest against nuclear energy near nuclear waste disposal centre Gorleben in northern Germany where a trainload of treated waste arrived from France. The signs say, “Only the risk is certain. Atomic power? No, thanks.!”
Photo/Image
- Fukushima (Japan) Nuclear Disaster: Unit 3 after the explosion on 15 March 2011: Source – Wikipedia
- Fukushima Disaster: The town of Namie(population 21,000) was evacuated as a result of the accident. This photograph was taken by Steven L. Herman, Herman was one of the few journalists to spend time in the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant “hot zone” and visit the grounds of the crippled facility in April 2011. Source – Wikipedia
- Fukushima accident
- A man is checked for radiation exposure after having been evacuated from the quarantine area around a nuclear power station in Fukushima prefecture, Japan, that was damaged in the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
Wally Santana/AP Images Source Wikipedia
A pheochromocytoma tumor is seen as a dark sphere in the center of the body (it is in the left adrenal gland). The image is by MIBG scintigraphy, showing the tumor by radiation from radioiodine in the MIBG. Two images are seen of the same patient from front and back. The image of the thyroid in the neck is due to unwanted uptake of radioiodine (as iodide) by the thyroid, after breakdown of the radioactive iodine-containing medication. Accumulation at the sides of the head is from salivary gland due to uptake of I-131 mIBG by the sympathetic neuronal elements in the salivary glands. Meta-[I-131]iodobenzylguanidine is a radio-labeled analog of the adrenergic blocking agent guanethidine.[25] Radioactivity is also seen from uptake by the liver, and excretion by the kidneys with accumulation in the bladder.
Drahreg01 – Own work Source Wikipedia
5. Per capita thyroid doses in the continental United States resulting from all exposure routes from all atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 to 1962. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ National Cancer Institute study claims that nuclear fallout might have led to approximately 11,000 excess deaths, most caused by thyroid cancer linked to exposure to iodine-131. Source: Wikipedia
