[ RadSafe ] Re:U-238 spontaneous fission

[Otto G. Raabe]

At 10:25 AM 6/18/2008, Peter Bossew wrote:
>A short calculation:
>The effective  SF decay rate of 238U is lambda=2.678e-24 s-1.
>1 mol = 238 g of 238U contains A=6e23 atoms with an activity of 
>lambda*A=1.6 SF decays per second
>I did not find a nu value for spontaneous fission of 238U; for fast 
>fission it is 2.819 (http://www-nds.iaea.org/sgnucdat/a6.htm ), 
>which is a conservative estimate for SF (I think). Thus we find 
>1.6*2.819=4.51 n/s per mol due to SF, or 0.019 n/s = 68 n/h per g 
>238U. For 1 ug this is about 1 neutron every 609 days. Wow.
>68 agrees well with the quoted number 59.5.
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Obviously a trivial exposure. If someone is really concerned about 
neutron exposures, there is a much higher exposure to neutrons in a 
transcontinental flight in a commercial airlplane.

Otto

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Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
Center for Health & the Environment
University of California
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
E-Mail: ograabe at ucdavis.edu
Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
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