Fusion, radiation applications and nuclear governance

Prelims

Medical radioisotopes are the radioactive isotopes nuclear medicine uses for scans and treatment, and India makes its own in a research reactor rather than a dedicated one.

• They decay in hours or days, so nuclear medicine cannot stockpile them and depends on a reactor having run recently and near enough.
• Molybdenum-99, iodine-131 and lutetium-177 are about 90 per cent of nuclear medicine use, and are made in the Dhruva reactor.
• An Isotope Production Reactor is expected around 2035.

Prelims

Mutation breeding exposes seeds to radiation to create changes within the crop's own genome, and the breeder then selects the plants worth keeping.

• Nothing is brought in from another organism, which is what separates it from a transgenic crop.
• In a gamma plant a measured dose of the same radiation kills what spoils food and what infests it.
• The food is exposed to the source and taken away again, and does not become radioactive itself.

See also: Herbicide tolerant mustard hybrids

Prelims and Mains

The United States and Saudi Arabia civil nuclear agreement is a 30 year agreement the two countries signed on 22 July.

• Enrichment raises the share of uranium-235 to 3 to 5 per cent for fuel and above 90 per cent for a weapon, using the same centrifuges.
• The Additional Protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency allows inspections at short notice.