Pamela Jones
Nuclear Radiation 101 part 2 and last
How did you go with my question at the end of the last blog? I am about to hand you a kilogram of a radioactive substance. I have 2 choices. One has a very short half-life and one has an extremely long half-life. Which one is the safest?
The radioactive substance with the short half-life is very dangerous. It has a short half-life because it is decaying quickly and sending out a lot of energy and particles. The substance with a long half-life decays very slowly and may even be safe to hold with very little protection. As a teenager, I held a bar of uranium in my bare hands during a special visit to Lucas Heights. These days they would insist on gloves. In the fifties, Queen Elizabeth II was given a plastic bag containing a large amount of plutonium to hold during her visit to Sellafield.
What implications does this insight have when considering nuclear waste management?
Here is Dr Don Lincoln describing more about radiation.
When discussing the levels of radiation experienced on Earth except in exceptional circumstances, I find it easier to understand if the units are in millisieverts or a thousandth of a sievert.
Don’s Examples of Radiation Levels Expressed as mSv per Year
Woodchopper in woods USA 3
City Dweller with medical tests USA 6
Just from your own body 0.4
Plane trip across the Atlantic 0.025
Whole body CT Scan 10
Nuclear worker maximum allowed 50
Cancer risk starts 100
Radiation sickness 400
Severe radiation poisoning 2000
Usually kills but may survive with medical care 4000
Death certain 8000
The first 6 items in the table are all examples from the USA. Background radiation levels around the world vary enormously as my next blog illustrates.
My Blog has become My Nuclear Journey 