Can you filter radioactive iodine from water

A liter of water weighs one kilogram. Adults should avoid any water with more than becquerels per kilogram, according to the government's current standards. Based on reports collected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology , there have not been significant levels of radioactive iodine or cesium in most of Japan's 47 prefectures studied since March 24, when becquerels per kilogram of iodine were found in Tochigi , a city about kilometers north of Tokyo and about kilometers from Fukushima.

The Institute of Public Health had reported a level of becquerels per kilogram in Tokyo's drinking water on March 23 but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government later stated that reading was incorrect and much higher than the actual level, which was 79 becquerels per kilogram the following day. Despite reassurances that Japan's water is, for the most part, safe for drinking, there was a run on bottled water last week in areas of the capital, leading stores to restrict purchases to one bottle per customer.

Tokyo's government last week promised to distribute 3. Radioactive removal Most radioactive radionuclides—including iodine and cesium and —can be removed from water. Others, such as tritium, a heavy form of hydrogen that is the most ubiquitous radioactive pollutant produced by nuclear power plants, cannot be filtered out of water.

Whether and how an isotope could and would be removed depends on which it is. Unlike drinking water contaminated with microbial pathogens such as Escherichia coli , giardia or cryptosporidium, water containing radioactive material cannot be made potable by boiling, bleach or exposure to ultraviolet light. Instead, isotopes must be removed using activated charcoal filtration, reverse osmosis or water softening, to name a few methods. Radioactive material may also fall out of a water supply by settling to the bottom of a reservoir or via adsorption adhesion onto the surface of soil particles in a reservoir.

Another option with some radioactive contaminants is to wait until they radioactively decay to safe levels—a period known as half-life, which greatly varies with the particular isotope, from seconds to tens of thousands of years. There is no single approach to removing radioactive iodine, cesium or other radionuclides from water.

One difficulty with filtering out radioactive isotopes is that the filters and membranes would become radioactive waste that must then be disposed of carefully, says Rob Renner, executive director of the Water Research Foundation. Rather than mass purify radioactive materials, they are currently placed deep underground until radioactive decay keeps it from being harmful.

Electro filtration method: Separation of liquid and solid phases to extract the pure substance with the use of electrodes. Filtration through a substance that reduces the radioactive material in question and then using a substance that will bind this reduced radioactive material will allow it to be separated from the remaining solution.

This method has recently acquired a patent and is still undergoing experimental procedures but remains effective.

In nature water generally contains a plethora of impurities. These impurities can include small microbes to something as dangerous as radioactive substances.

Methods such as boiling, Chlorination use of household chlorine bleach , and purification tablets remove microorganisms. More rigorous modes of purification are used to rid the water of other wastes including radioactive materials. Groundwater is a common example in which radium, a radioactive element, is mixed with the water. This way produces a black sludge of radioactive water which is unhealthy for consumer usage. The radium can be removed through ion exchange or the conditioning of water.

Other unnatural occurances of radioactive materials require more meticulous methods. Distillation removed salts, heavy metals, and radioactive fallout since water itself cannot become radioactive, the radioactive components are referred to as radioactive fallout.

Filtering the water will also remove the radioactive fallout. Introduction Before we can understand how to purify these substances, it is important to understand the chemistry involved within to get a deeper understanding.

Water radiolysis generates a variety of ROS that cause extensive oxidative damages to biologically critical macromolecules, leading to cell death [40] , [42] — [45]. Therefore, providing a method to counter radiation hazards caused by accidentally ingested radioactive waters and foodstuffs will be a great contribution to human health.

ERW produced from tap water by this apparatus could contain as much as 0. This hydrogen concentration in ERW is relatively high for a flow-type electrolysis apparatus when compared with the concentration of 1. Such dissolved molecular hydrogen has been shown to exert radioprotective effects in both in vitro and in vivo studies [49] — [53]. Molecular hydrogen in ERW prepared from tap water suppressed neuroinflammation in mice [48] , and extended the life span of C.

Additionally, molecular hydrogen was demonstrated to act as a neuroprotective agent and ROS scavenger [67]. Moreover, ERW produced from an electrolysis unit incorporating Pt-electrodes has been shown to contain 0. Pt nanoparticles exhibit protective effects that are attributed to their suppressing ROS production caused by UV-light-induced epidermal inflammation [69]. Model ERW prepared from NaCl, KCl or NaOH solutions has been shown to exert beneficial effects such as anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, and life-span extension of nematodes because of its ROS scavenging ability in numerous in vitro and in vivo studies [73] — [78].

Therefore, molecular hydrogen and Pt nanoparticles dissolved in ERW could synergistically contribute to protect gastrointestinal damage caused by ingested radioactive foodstuffs. Furthermore, to maximize protective efficacy against radiation-induced gastrointestinal damage, the consumption of various supplemental foods such as naringin [42] , probiotics [57] , [66] , Kefir [79] , melatonin [80] and curcumin [81] are reported to be beneficial.

In conclusion, we demonstrated that radio-cesium and -iodine are efficiently removed by an apparatus containing a micro-carbon CM cartridge filter, prior to ingestion. Therefore, the test apparatus is considered to be a potential alternative tool to minimize radiation hazards caused by contaminated foodstuffs.

The authors thank Nihon Trim Co. The authors are also grateful to Ms. Yuri Fujimoto and Chika Kubota for their technical assistance. Browse Subject Areas? Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field.

Download: PPT. Radioisotopes CsCl [0. Table 2. Table 3. Statistical analysis All experiments were performed in triplicate. Results Analysis of Cs and I elements in the filtered water Prior to radioisotope experiments, CsCl and KI solutions were prepared as described in the Materials and Methods section and their removability was tested. Figure 2. Measurement of Cs and I elements in filtered waters.

Removal efficiency of CsCl and Na I in the filtered water Because the test apparatus removed Cs and I ions efficiently, assays were extended to examine the removability of CsCl and Na I. Figure 4. Measurement of I elements in sample waters. Effect of electrolysis on the removal efficiency of Cs and I In parallel with the preceding experiments, we evaluated the effects of the electrolysis step in terms of efficiencies for Cs and I removal from the filtered radioactive water.

Figure 5. Effects of electrolysis on filtered radioactive sample waters. Acknowledgments The authors thank Nihon Trim Co. References 1. J Environ Radioact 83— View Article Google Scholar 2. Hamada N, Ogino H, Fujimichi Y Safety regulations of food and water implemented in the first year following the Fukushima nuclear accident.

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