It is fortunate that no one was seriously hurt in this incident. But there is an important lesson we can learn from it: Ignorance may hurt more than radioactivity. That a house should lose its value in spite of the fact that its radioactive contamination has been removed, that a little boy should be shunned as though radioactivity were infectious like the plague—these are examples of suffering caused by one of the greatest sources of human misery: unreasoning fear.
The greatest potentialities of fission products for the future might lie in still a different direction. Radioactivity can induce mutations. To what extent this is a danger we have discussed in an earlier chapter. In the hands of a breeder who tries to bring about changes in animals or plants radioactivity could become exceedingly useful.
Of course it is true that most mutations are harmful. It is also true that artificial mutations have been produced for many decades. But now it is possible to place simple and cheap tools in the hands of many more people. Therefore the chances will increase to find among the many wrong mutations the few and decisive changes which lead to improvement.
Do we dare to place dangerous materials in so many hands? We should not do so without making certain that only competent and responsible individuals will get radioactive materials. This can be done. Druggists have dispensed poison; doctors and biologists have bred in their laboratories the multiplying menace of germs. All this was done and is being done with safety and to the great benefit of all people.
The use of radioactivity should be even more safe because this material is easy to detect. If poisons or germs become lost, they may be hard to find. Radioactive materials, however, give unmistakable evidence of their presence. It is, of course, never easy to find a needle in a haystack. But the chance to find it is much better if it is a radioactive needle.
Radioactive by-products need not remain what they seem to be today: dirt and danger to be disposed of and hidden. But in the immediate future we shall incur some expense to keep radioactivity in a safe place.
Some gaseous by-products like the long-lived krypton⁸⁵ (half-life: 10.4 years) might continue to give rise to real difficulties and to considerable expense. The trouble is, of course, that a noble gas like krypton will not be bound to any material by strong bonds. It may be inadvisable to let long-lived gases escape. On the other hand, their adsorption or their storage at low temperature or high pressure may prove to cost a considerable amount of money.
We have been talking about the problem of handling the by-products of nuclear power. This problem will not appear in proper proportion unless we also give some thought to the by-products of the kind of power we are using at present.
That we do not like smoke and smog is obvious. To what extent these residues of incomplete burning can cause cancer or other damage we do not know. Chemistry is more tricky than radiation. Our lack of knowledge about the slow biological effects of chemicals is much greater than our remaining uncertainties about radiation.
In addition to the obvious annoyance and worry caused by the products of incomplete combustion there exists an interesting question connected with the result of complete combustion. The carbon that has been deposited through the geologic ages as coal and as oil is being used up gradually and converted to a colorless, odorless, harmless gas—carbon dioxide. There is always some carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. The amount is approximately 300 parts per million of common air. All the carbon that has been burned since the beginning of the industrial revolution could have increased the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by ten per cent to the value of 330 parts per million.