• Question: In which ways does your research affect the environment, and how can you prevent this from happening?

    Asked by anon-201729 to Andy, Emily, George, Meirin, Sarah, Sophia on 12 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: George Fulton

      George Fulton answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      I test radioactive materials, but these are much less radioactive than nuclear waste. I work right next to a farm and every year the crops are tested to make sure there is no effect of the nuclear fusion plant on the crops and as of yet, the crops have been all clear 🙂

      In the future, my research should help enable nuclear fusion to be a real and scalable energy source. This means that non-renewables like coal and gas won’t be necessary, so in the long term, I believe my work will benefit both society and the environment.

    • Photo: Meirin Oan Evans

      Meirin Oan Evans answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      Particle physics research isn’t really harming the environment. The biggest particle physics experiments in the world are 100m underground. This was planned from the start, partly to avoid affecting the environment on the surface!

    • Photo: Sarah O'Sullivan

      Sarah O'Sullivan answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      In theory my research will help us understand what’s in the melted fuel “corium” at reactor sites like Fukushima and Chernobyl so we can make more informed decisions about cleaning those areas up, which ultimately will help the environment. It’s a bit far removed from my day to day work though

    • Photo: Sophia Pells

      Sophia Pells answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      Radiation can harm the environment so special precautions are taken. When patients are injected with radiation they are kept in hospital until enough radiation in their body has decayed away so they won’t be any harm to other people or the environment. If someone has received a lot of radiation or a type of radiation that is long-lived, the hospital may have to collect any waste from patient toilets and put it into a tank of radioactive waste (lovely) and leave it until it is safe to go to the sewers.

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