AW: [ RadSafe ] Half-lives

[Franz Schönhofer]

Mike, Steven and RADSAFErs.

I fully agree with your comment that it depends on the field you are working
in! As a member of the working group of the Austrian Standardisation
Organisation on "Waste Disposal by Decay" I can tell you that we defined
radionuclides as shortlived according to the practicability of storing
radionuclides from nuclear medicine applications for decay. This is another
example of the often attacked, but still valid ALARA principle.

I can look for details, but please ask me only for them if you are very
interested in it - it would be a lot of work to find it in my files.  

Best regards,

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag
von Brennan, Mike (DOH)
Gesendet: Samstag, 20. September 2008 01:18
An: radsafe at radlab.nl
Betreff: RE: [ RadSafe ] Half-lives

It depends on the field you are working in.  When I talk to medical
people, "long" is anything with a half-life greater than 90 days.
"Short" is measured in minutes or several hours.  When I do radon work,
"short" is in minutes, "long" is Pb-210 (22 years).  When I work in
environmental radiation, Co-60 (five years) is short, Cs-137 (about 30
years) is "medium".  "Long" is anything that is easier to express in
scientific notation.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Steven Dapra
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 4:05 PM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Half-lives

Sept. 19, 2008

	Is there a convention for dividing half-lives into groups for
very long (such as U-238), long, medium, short, and very short?  If
there is, what are the dividing points for the various lengths of time?

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com

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