Q: Sir, why is the Higgs-Boson
particle known as the God Particle?
A: Before we get into the
Higgs Boson particle we have to first understand how these particles and their
theories come across. Before we could only see those particles that were larger
than the wavelength of light. So seeing something that is smaller than the
wavelength is very difficult. Although, now scientists have found ways of doing
that, but still it is a challenge. So instead of seeing it with light, you
start seeing with x-rays, because the wavelength of x-rays is smaller so you
can see smaller things. You can see things through electrons for which we have
Electron Microscope. But, we are talking about particles that are even smaller
than all these. So the people have created theories. But of course, if we just
a create theory and bring out the mathematics of it that doesn’t get accepted
unless there is an experimental evidence. So, according to that theory of
standard model there were some other particles that should be there; several of
these particles were found but some still weren’t detected.
A scientist by the
name Higgs had predicted that there must be a Boson like particle with a
certain mass. Now Boson is named after our Indian scientist, Bose; which is a
family of particles. So the people started searching for that particle but the
experimental facility for that wasn’t up to the mark. With facilities that were
existing till the Large Hadron Collider at CERN became operational, it was not
possible to identify that particle.
That was also one of the reasons for
setting up the multi-billion facility: the Large Hadron Collider. The scientist
who predicted that of course wrote a paper on the particle. It was such an
elusive particle, and there are many such elusive things even now over which
work is being done. Now apparently, how much truth is in it I don’t know, but
apparently the story goes that in his paper he used the phrase that ‘this God
Damn Particle is Elusive!’ Now since this was a scientific paper, the editor of
the journal said that ‘no, you cannot use such language’. So that phrase wasn’t
published in the journal. But then people said that instead of calling it ‘God
Damn Particle’ at least let’s call it ‘God Particle’, because it was extremely
elusive. But, this is hearsay; there is no hard documented basis for it. But,
this is the story.
Q: Sir, Can we use the Nuclear
Waste for beneficial purpose?
A: The principle of
sustainability says that there are a lot of things to learn from nature. One
important lesson of that is to think that there is nothing which can be
declared waste. Everything is a waste for a particular processes or a
particular operation, nut it will have value somewhere else. If we organize ourselves on that road, then
we maintain mother earth in a sustainable manner. So that’s the broad
principle. Now, coming to nuclear waste: Why would you call something a nuclear
waste? Because there is radioactivity. Chemical waste is because there is
chemical toxicity; it could be poisonous or can create harm in some or the
other manner. So anything that has toxicity or no useful value, we call it
waste. In nuclear waste the harm is associated with radiation in excess
quantity and it has no useful value. Because toxicity by itself can be no
criteria, as there are many pesticides which are toxic in nature and of course
have to be used in a scientific manner, but are otherwise toxic.
If nuclear
waste emits radiation and has no other use then why should we suffer from that
radiation? That was the concern. Now, the problem is that in many countries
particularly the west where nuclear development took place first with weapons.
The nuclear Bomb came into existence earlier than the nuclear power reactor.
So
the people of the countries which acquired nuclear Bomb were quite worried that
if other countries also get this technology then they could also make a bomb
and then it would become a threat. It is like Bhasmasura, Bhasmasura is very
powerful but if it goes out of hand then it can kill you also. They thought
like that and they said that the Nuclear Weapons are made out of Plutonium.
Plutonium is not available in nature. Plutonium is produced in a nuclear
reactor when Uranium is eradicated. So they said that is eradiated uranium
should simply be buried and nobody should recycle that. Because if it is recycled then they will get
plutonium and they can make a nuclear bomb, which they saw as a threat. So, if you use uranium for the power reactor
and simply bury it afterwards, it’s a waste, it is a serious problem. In United
States they have several lakh tones of spent fuel just waiting for disposal.
This waste even cannot be disposed; they talk about creating a repository, a
geological repository, bury it deep underground so that no harm will come to
humanity. But, if you do that maybe after 100 or 200 years a large part of the
radioactivity will die down, radioactivity has a half life, it keeps on
decaying. But, Plutonium half life is very long hence you are creating a
Plutonium mine. When they realized this Plutonium mine consequence, they said even
that you cannot do. So the advanced countries have still not been able to solve
the Nuclear Waste Problem. Hence world over there is this fear that Nuclear
Waste is a big problem. Now, actually it need not be like that.
For example in
countries like India & France, we don’t follow that policy, we say we must
recycle. When you recycle, most of the material whether it is Plutonium or
Uranium can be recovered, and once you recover you can make new fuel out of it,
put it back in the reactor and again get energy. So what is left is fission
products. So the 99% problem is solved.
Now the 1% problem that is the
radioactive fission product, even some of them are very useful. For example you
carry out vulcanization of tires or cross linking of polymers this can be done
in many ways, there can be chemical, there can be thermal; similarly radiation
is one method. Instead of creating
special radiation source, countries like China, thought why we don’t use this
radioactive fission products. Also you can carry out radiation processing of
food. For that you create radioactive Cobalt and that becomes the source. Now
much cheaper and much more effective way is to separate Caesium which is a
fission product in Nuclear Waste and you create radiation source out of that
Caesium.
If you do this then you have saved money on creating radioactive
source, preservation of food products, you have eliminated the waste problem
because you have recycled. So like that there are several uses that have been
found. In India we are in the phase of carrying out research, to bring down the
radio-toxicity of the nuclear waste down to that of Uranium mine, because
radio-toxicity without any use is waste. And Uranium mines have been in
existence in nature since generations and we have lived with it. So we bring
down the radio-toxicity to the level of Uranium mine in a matter of 300 years.
That is the objective of research and a lot of progress has been made. In fact,
France was the first to set up such an objective and so has India. And once
this you do that there is no waste. This is true in anything, say agriculture.
In agriculture there is a lot of waste, you burn it, it creates smoke, it
creates problem. You make compost it becomes good manure. So what is waste and
what has value depends on the philosophy of the person.
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