One of the biggest uses of radioactive materials outside power generation and nuclear weapons is for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Production of isotopes such as molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) fell and left a world-wide shortage for the past few years. Fortunately, production has ramped recently.
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When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, there was a great fear that some of the nuclear warheads in Soviet satellite nations might fall into the hands of terrorists. Dick Cheney said that there were at least two hundred and fifty nuclear warheads that might possibly disappear. However, to date, not one Soviet nuclear weapon has been discovered outside of Russian control.
New Mexico has many federal facilities that deal with nuclear weapons, nuclear research and nuclear waste. The state will receive millions of dollars this year from an annual bill that supplies funding for national-defense-related facilities across the U.S. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed by both the U.S. House and Senate. It was sent to President Biden for his signature.
Neutrons are nuclear particles without any charge. They can be used for plant mutation breeding, in nuclear reactors for producing nuclear energy, for boron neutron capture therapy for cancer treatment, neutron imaging, neutron activation analysis and neutron microscopy. It easily passes through most materials and reacts with the nuclei of the target atom.
At the end of every year, we get to recap all of the odd, incredible and astounding animal findings of that year together. Sometimes there are wonderful new species discovered. Sometimes there are findings about old species we never would've dreamed. There are always new, wonderful and sometimes even creepy animal facts to be found and shared.