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Re: Toxic Trivia (Polonium)



(snip)
>Polonium is so radioactive that a 0.50 gram sample will reach temperatures
>greater than 500 degrees all by itself. The radiation energy is so great
>that an
>amount too small to see would be a lethal dose!
(snip)
>
>Any comment on the heating of Po-210 or the toxicity rating?
>
>
After calculating the specific power of Po-210, I scrolled a little further down on the web page I was using as a reference (from the periodic table on the web, LANL - http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/), and read the following:
"The energy released by its decay is so large (140W/g) that a capsule containing about half a gram reaches a temperature above 500C. The capsule also presents a contact gamma-ray dose rate of 0.012 Gy/h. A few curies (1 curie = 3.7 x 1010Bq) of polonium exhibit a blue glow, caused by excitation of the surrounding gas."

I calculated a specific power of 141.2 W/g. Just in case anyone is
curious, the formula for specific power can be found in NUREG/CR 5550,
Passive Nondestructive Assay of Nuclear Materials. The formula is

Power (in watts) = 2119.3Qm/(T^.5)A

Where Q is the MeV/dis
          m is the mass of the sample
          T^.5 is in years
          A is the atomic weight (mass number)

___________________________________________________________
Philip Hypes
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Safeguards Science and Technology Group (NIS 5)
(505) 667-1556  phypes@lanl.gov

Opinions expressed are purely my own unless otherwise noted