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Some Global Environmental Issues of the 21st Century

  • Chapter
Radionuclides and Heavy Metals in Environment

Part of the book series: NATO Science Series ((NAIV,volume 5))

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Abstract

There are two complimentary approaches to studying the environment effects of fuel use and energy conversion. The first is to be completely systematic and to follow through each technology in great detail, and itemize each impact, whether large or small. The second, followed here, is to pick out those items that either dominate the risk or impact, or dominate the public perception thereof, and try to understand them in some detail. I pick the following:

  1. (a)

    What is the effect upon health of particulate air pollution at today’s levels? Experts increasingly believe that particulates kill 70,000 people a year in the USA, but it has not yet been officially admitted by any government.

  2. (b)

    I will discuss another global environmental effect of a heavy metal: the pollution of water supplies, particularly in the Bengal Basin (West Bengal and Bangladesh) by arsenic and the implications this has for the world.

  3. (c)

    I will then argue that the future of the world demands administrative control of a number of environmental issues. This is most clear when we discuss high intensity radioactive sources and plutonium.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    R. Wilson

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  1. R. Wilson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia

    Marina V. Frontasyeva

  2. Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia

    Vladimir P. Perelygin

  3. Kernchemie FB 15, Philipps-Universität, Marburg, Germany

    Peter Vater

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© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Wilson, R. (2001). Some Global Environmental Issues of the 21st Century. In: Frontasyeva, M.V., Perelygin, V.P., Vater, P. (eds) Radionuclides and Heavy Metals in Environment. NATO Science Series, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0993-5_46

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0993-5_46

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0059-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0993-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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