Physics and the environment

Reducing atmospheric pollution, mitigating climate change, monitoring environmental radioactivity: these are some of the big challenges facing society that the technologies of nuclear physics and particle physics may help address. In recent years, INFN has actually developed a lot of experience in using analysis techniques with particle beams to determine the composition of atmospheric particulate matter, a mixture of solid and liquid particles suspended in air. It has also created maps of local radioactivity in various Italian regions and kicked off projects to characterise radioactive waste and standardise its management. To give a few examples, as part of ITALRAD, the Italian Radioactivity Project, radioactivity maps of various Italian regions, like Umbria, Tuscany, and the Veneto, were created. This was done using nuclear technologies applied to the environment and advanced gamma-ray spectroscopy analysis techniques, identifying the presence of both naturally occurring and anthropic radioactive elements to provide useful recommendations to local authorities.

The prototype created by the Laboratory for Nuclear Technologies for mapping natural radioactivity, also useful for emergency purposes in the event of nuclear contamination because it allows large-scale investigations in a short time (© INFN)

Researchers at LABEC, (Laboratory of nuclear techniques for the Environment and Cultural Heritage (© INFN)

In addition, at LABEC, the Laboratory of nuclear techniques for Environment and Cultural Heritage in Florence, samples of atmospheric particulate matter are collected to analyse them with ion beams produced by the laboratory’s accelerator. Known as Ion Beam Analysis (IBA), this technique makes it possible to find out the elementary composition of the particulate matter in a fast, non-destructive, and non-invasive manner. Together with the IBA measurements, complementary analyses are also performed to reconstruct, for example, the phenomena of transporting particulate matter or identifying the sources from which it was produced. The findings from various nuclear analysis techniques may be usefully combined and synthesised to obtain information that is fundamental both for developing effective policies to reduce pollution and for understanding climate change.