Lightning and Thunder generate nuclear reactions and radiation

Radiation and harmful substances have been recorded in the rain that hit the ground over Japan, chirping the text through Twitter as a result of nuclear reactions in the sky caused by lightning strikes, researchers said.

Although this may seem a conspiracy from a science fiction film, scientists say there is no cause for concern as there is no health risk from radiation and it is no more harmful than the radiation our planet is already experiencing.

The results were reached by a team of researchers from Kyoto University in Japan and published in the journal Nature.

Since the 1980s, nuclear fission reactions have been thought to occur in the atmosphere during thunderstorms, due to gamma rays produced by high-energy electrons.

The results point to the second time that scientists see radioactive isotopes produced naturally in the atmosphere, the first time was in the form of particles produced by the cosmic rays of the sun and other stars.

Scientists have used observatories and satellites to detect these neutrons and positrons (positrons are the opposite of the electron and carry a positive electrical charge equal to the charge of the electron) and other particles since the 1980s, but so far it has been difficult to confirm that they are the product of nuclear reactions.

During a thunderstorm in February this year, Professor Enoto and his team observed "intense radiation" from two lightning strikes off the coast, using equipment installed at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata.

This was followed by an extended gamma ray line with the same energy properties that scientists expect to see from positrons and electrons after the nuclear reaction.

According to the paper published in Nature, the result could "provide a previously unknown channel to generate carbon isotopes, nitrogen and oxygen naturally on Earth" and at the very least prove that what happens in thunderstorms is much more than scientists originally thought.

Source:
https://www.sciencealert.com/thunderstorms-observed-triggering-nuclear-reactions-in-the-sky-lightning-gamma