[ RadSafe ] Gamma background radiation at ground level

[McNaughton, Michael]

Filipe: background from terrestrial radiation is 5 to 15 microR/h, depending on the type of soil. Background from cosmic radiation is 5 to 10 microR/h depending on the altitude.  The supernova caused an increase of 0.5 microR/h at all locations so the increase was 2% to 5%. During a storm, gammas from Bi-214 and Pb-214 cause up to a factor of 2 increase, depending on the rate of the rain or snow fall.

Mike McNaughton
LANL

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Felipe Gaitan
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 9:59 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Gamma background radiation at ground level

Mike - What's the relative increase (%) in these two examples? Thanks, Felipe