Welcome to Nuclear Engineering 22.01 "Introduction to Ionizing Radiation." This course has no prerequisite (other than the knowledge gained in your freshman year at MIT). The material to be covered in this class can be broadly put into three sections. In Part I we'll be looking at "what radiation is", "where radiation comes from", and "how does it interact in material". In Part II we'll look at the consequences we can expect when ionizing radiation interacts with biological material. We look at an extremely broad range of doses and look at effects from the molecular level, to the cell level and the whole body level. We'll also look at effects at the population level.
In Part III we'll take the knowledge gained from Part I and, to some extent, from Part II, and look at a broad variety of uses of ionizing radiation including: radiation therapy, medical imaging, non-destructive evaluation, food irradiation, dating (the radionuclide way) and well-logging (in the search for oil).
By the end of the class you should be able to go to a party and, when someone declares them self to be anti-radiation, calmly explain that one-half of all cancer patients receive radiotherapy at some point in their treatment, that US approval of food irradiation not only makes sense for us but also makes us good citizens of the world and that industrial radiography can help reduce airline catastrophes. Then, when challenged on your choice of major (if you are in Course 22), you can comment on the excellent job prospects that you'll have either in the power industry, or in countless fields in which radiation is used as a tool. And finally, when the same individual asks how you can be comfortable with the health risks presented by radiation you'll be able (since you paid careful attention in class) to describe just what the radiation risk data are and what they mean, comment on where and (most importantly) why, data are missing, and provide some compelling information about the risks of ionizing radiation relative to other risks we encounter in day-to-day living. If you feel daring you could also mention that a good deal of evidence suggests that low levels of ionizing radiation are actually good for you.
The textbook for this class is James Turner's Atoms, Radiation and Radiation Protection (2nd edition, Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995). We will not be using the entire textbook but it is such a useful and user-friendly text that you will find it helpful at other times during your career as a NED student.
The grading scheme is as follows:
| Problem Sets |
35% |
| 2 Exams |
35% |
| Term Paper/Project and Presentation |
30% |
| Total |
100% |
|
There will be no Final Exam.