[ RadSafe ] What will 1 ug of Po-210 do?

[Olsson Mattias :MSO]

Let us make some rough assumptions about Po-210 in the body of a murder victim. Let's say that the dose is uniformly spread and consider only the first day after getting 1 microgram of the substance into the body. Now we can use some numbers to give a very rough estimate of what dose will be delivered:

1 ug = 4.8 nmol = 1.7E8 Bq
Energy per decay = 5.3 MeV = 8.5E-13 J
Dose rate (J/kg/s=Gy/s) = 2E-6 Gy/s
Effective dose after one day = 3.5 Sv

That would give you some sort of idea about what the dose is. 3.5 Sv would indeed make you feel somewhat sick... And that is only after one day.


-- 
PhD Mattias Olsson, FTKS
Forsmarks Kraftgrupp AB
SE-742 03 Östhammar
Sweden

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e. mso at forsmark.vattenfall.se