Breakthroughs Today

This article has been reprinted on popular demand after it came out first in March 2011 at the heel of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident in Japan, following the devastation that that year's tsunami wrought in the country.   THE reactor fire in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has sent radioactivity into air, putting at high risk lives even as far away as Tokyo.   As of March 15, 2010, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported this radiation leak amounted to 400 millisievert (mSv) per hour. Exposure to over 100 mSv a year, said the World Nuclear Association, can already lead to cancer. To help control this radioactive cloud, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) considered using boric acid. So, what’s in boric acid that can help control radioactivity from spreading? [ Read to find out.]     This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 3 October 2012.

THE fire that broke in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has sent radioactivity into the air, putting at high risk lives even as far away as Tokyo. As of March 15, 2010 the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that this radiation leak amounted to 400 millisievert (mSv) per hour. Exposure to over 100 mSv a year, said the World Nuclear Association, can already lead to cancer. To help control this radioactive cloud, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) considered using boric acid. So, what’s in boric acid that can help control radioactivity from spreading? Allow me to divert from my column focus in view of the crisis in Japan. Boron, its basic element, is chemically inert, making it a good fire retardant, and resistant to boiling even with such strong acids as hydrochloric and sulfuric acids. One of its naturally occurring and stable isotopes, boron-10, is good at... [ Read more .] This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 23 March 2011.