To begin with, radiation is not limited to atomic energy produced by the nuclear industry and nuclear weapons but is all around us, coming as it were from natural and man-made or artificial sources. It is a salient part of life.  Radiation can be said to be any energy that is transmitted or absorbed and comes in the form of particles, rays or waves which travel through space.  Sunlight with its ultraviolet rays is a form of radiation which brings in a suntan or causes cancer. The rainbow is a visible form of radiation.

In discussing radiation, the term radioactivity cannot be far behind. But before discussing radioactivity, we need to look even farther behind.  One of the basics we have learned in our science classes is that all matter in this world is made up of atoms. We have been taught that an atom is composed of a central part or core called the nucleus. We were further taught that the nucleus is made up of particles called protons which are positively charged and neutrons which have no charge or are neutral. Orbiting or going around the nucleus are particles called electrons which are negatively charged.

For a particular atom, the number of protons determines the kind of atom that it is. For example, an atom that contains one proton is called hydrogen. Always, the number of electrons would equal the number of protons and thus an atom is electrically neutral. Thus, an atom of hydrogen would have one proton and one electron and thus exist happily balanced.  But there exists a form of hydrogen that not only contains one proton but also a neutron in its nucleus. This form of hydrogen is called deuterium. There is still another form of hydrogen that contains two neutrons and is called tritium.  Deuterium and tritium are called isotopes of hydrogen.

But the tritium nucleus is what we would call an unstable atom because it contains excess energy. As in most areas in life, the desired state of an atom is to be stable. To attain stability an unstable atom gives off the excess energy in the form of radiation. It actively gives off radiation, thus the term radioactive. The energy level or content of the particles or waves is strong enough to produce ions. Thus, the term ionizing radiation. These ions which are produced interact with the medium the radiation goes through. The changes caused by the interaction are manifested as the effects of radiation that are feared. But these are the same ions that also produce the effects of radiation that are beneficial. X-rays ,which are electrically generated, are like gamma rays from radioactive materials. Both are  ionizing radiation.

Renewed interest in nuclear energy
Interest in atomic or nuclear energy was stoked again with the nuclear plant accident in Fukushima, Japan as an aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami which hit its plants in March this year. As Eulinia M. Valdezco, National President of the Philippine Association for Radiation Protection (PARP), points out, the nuclear plants were built to withstand the strongest earthquake in the last 100 years and to withstand six meters of tsunami.  But the tsunami which hit it last March 11 was all of fourteen meters.  This was unexpected.  When the earthquake struck, the nuclear reactors at Fukushima automatically shut down (as designed) and the emergency generators for the cooling system were activated but, however, were overwhelmed by the tsunami.

The Japan nuclear crisis brings to mind the Chernobyl accident in Russia.  Valdezco explains that the Russian-type reactor had a design with no containment.  Going back further, the PARP President recalls the Three-Mile Island (TMI) nuclear plant accident which occurred sometime in March 1979 in the United States. Unlike the Chernobyl Plant, TMI had a containment. And although it caused upheavals in the nuclear power industry, in the TMI accident there was no radioactivity released to the environment. No deaths were attributed to the accident.

Closer home, there is the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) which according to Valdezco complied with all the safety standards or requirements as they stood more than 20 years ago or at the time when it was built. The BNPP was constructed but not operated. Like the TMI, the BNPP has a containment.  As a result of the lessons learned in the TMI accident, the design features of the BNPP were upgraded and this added to the cost of the plant. The sister plant of the BNPP in Korea built at the same time did not have its safety design upgraded. But all these years, the Korea plant has been operating safely, providing cheaper electricity.

Valdezco emphasizes, however, that the safety standards the BNPP complied with were the standards 20 years ago and since standards evolve as more knowledge and lessons are learned, there is need to make a reassessment of its safe operability in accordance with current international safety standards and good practice if ever the operation of the BNPP is considered.

Valdezco uses the term competitive to describe the overall cost of running the BNPP. Understandably, the BNPP was mothballed because of the depiction of nuclear or atomic energy as a spectre as a result of the Chernobyl accident. But as the saying goes, a single sparrow does not a summer make. A single nuclear power plant accident does not obliterate the positive factors or pluses of the nuclear or atomic energy. It is to be noted that earthquake-prone Japan had 54 nuclear power plants at the time the earthquake struck in March.  With the Philippines, owning the distinction of having one of the the highest electricity rates in the world, it is time for an honest-to-goodness objective look at the feasibility or possibility of operating the BNPP to generate electricity. It is time to focus on the peaceful uses of atomic or nuclear energy.

Valdezco points out that unknown to many, the beneficial uses of nuclear energy in medicine, agriculture, industry and research are being applied in the Philippines. Because radiation can have harmful effects, there is need for an authorizing or licensing process to govern its use. She likens the hazardous process of driving vehicles which is regulated. But driving is a necessary part of living. In the same way, radiation could be hazardous. But it also sustains life.  As has been said, x-rays are also ionizing radiation like gamma rays produced by radioactive materials. But can one imagine a hospital without x-ray services? The use of x-rays is regulated by the Department of Health. The use of nuclear energy in the Philippines is regulated by the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, an agency of the Department of Science and Technology.

As Valdezco stresses, “We have always lived with ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.” The difference between ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation is in the energy level.  Non-ionizing energy like microwaves, radiowaves, do not have enough energy to cause the production of ions.  But they can excite the atoms and also produce effects.  Much still has to be studied on the effects on non-ionizing radiation.

We have always lived with radioactivity. Radiation is in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the soil we stand on. The radiation levels are different from place to place. We are exposed to radiation every day and our bodies have adapted to the daily onslaughts.  The body has repair mechanisms and we are able to deal with the natural radiation, the background radiation so to speak.  Mankind has evolved in a naturally radioactive environment.

For instance, the ordinary banana is rich in potassium. Along with the ordinary potassium it has potassium-40, which is radioactive. Potassium-40 occurs naturally and has a long half-life. To explain the meaning of half-life,  we must go back to what was said earlier. Radioactive elements are unstable and the desired state is to be stable. To become stable the radioactive atom gets rid of its excess energy by giving off radiation. Half-life is the time it takes to reduce the amount or radioactivity to one-half the original value. Take iodine-131 which is radioactive and is good for healing thyroid cases.  It has a half-life of eight days. In scientific parlance, I-131 takes eight days to decay to half its amount of radioactivity.  So that given enough time to decay a radioactive material would eventually lose its radioactivity and behave like normal, stable atoms – so unlike the threats posed by heavy metals in the environment which are there forever unless removed.

The food we take may have radioactive elements like bananas as has just been mentioned. Eating bananas would make us take a little bit of radioactivity but we have done so since time immemorial. Our bodies have coped with it. At this point, Valdezco mentions the name of former Congressman Mark Cojuangco who is known to keep on mentioning the potassium-40 in bananas. Cojuangco has for a long-time single-handedly espoused the activation of the BNPP, and for good reason.

Atomic or nuclear energy is something that mankind has lived with since time immemorial.  Radioactivity or radiation, judiciously used and properly regulated, is not the spectre it is generally framed to be.

Radiation may pose technological hazards. But it is well studied. No other industry polices its ranks more stringently than the nuclear industry. For example, before radioactive materials are exported, the producer of the radioactive material requires a certification from the regulating authority of the country importing the radioactive material that the importer is properly authorized.

A family of scientists
Valdezco before her retirement from government service was Chief Science Research Specialist and Head of the Nuclear Regulations, Licensing and Safeguards Division of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute. She is a Professor, Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas.

The World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Office engaged Valdezco as consultant to assist them in assessing the situation in Fukushima or the Japan nuclear crisis. Her other credentials include being the External Consultant, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization’s (ANSTO) Regional Project on Source Security.  She is also a Member, Market Surveillance  Committee, Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), Philippine Electricity Market Corporation.

She has likewise served as an Expert of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Radiation Protection and Radioactive Waste Management in various countries. She is a Member of the International Nuclear Law Association.  She is currently serving her second 4-year term  in the IAEA Radiation Safety Standards Committee, one of the advisory committees to the IAEA Deputy Director General  on the development of international safety standards and was the Asian representative  in the International Working Group on Sustainability of Radiological Emergency Preparedness and Response.

Her educational background include a degree in B.S. Physics (cum laude), Feati University, completed as a scholar of the National Science Development Board (NSDB).  The NSDB was the forerunner of the DOST.  She also has a degree in M.S. Applied Physics (Medical Physics), UST, completed as a DOST scholar,  as well as a Diploma in International Nuclear Law (with honors), University of Montpellier, in Montpellier, France.

It is interesting to note that Valdezco rose to be where she is now through sheer guts and ability. The eldest of ten children of the late Arturo and Conchita Mendoza, Valdezco put in that she was not the only NSDB scholar in the family. Her brothers, Reynaldo and Rolando Mendoza were also NSDB scholars. Rolando was one of the early graduates of the Philippine Science High School (PSHS). Reynaldo graduated with a B.S. Chemical Engineering (magna cum laude), Feati University. Rolando has a degree in B.S. Chemistry from the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Eulinia Valdezco is married to a nuclear engineer, Jesus Valdezco,  a graduate from  U.P. in Diliman.  Mr. Valdezco is one of the few Filipino nuclear engineers in the country. He obtained his Masters in Nuclear Engineering from the Imperial College of London, England. The couple has seven children and five grandchildren. True to the family tradition, their son, John Henry, is also a PSHS graduate and graduated with a B.S. Electrical Engineering degree from U.P. at Diliman.
Jesus Valdezco has this to say of his wife.  “She is one of a kind”.