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RE: Toxic Trivia (Polonium)
I did a quickie Excel calculation and came up with 0.5g is 2200 Ci. I guess
it doesn't surprise me that it gives up so much heat. There are cases, such
as weapons production, where we actually deal with relatively large masses
of radioactive material. Where would one find half a gram of Po-210? It
sounds like a small amount, but activities of such magnitude are only
consolidated for specific uses.
Gus
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C. A. Gus Potter
Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque, New Mexico
(505) 844-2750
capotte@sandia.gov
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Hypes [mailto:phypes@lanl.gov]
Sent: February 09, 2000 2:33 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Toxic Trivia (Polonium)
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(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
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Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
<html>
(snip) <br>
>Polonium is so radioactive that a 0.50 gram sample will reach
temperatures <br>
>greater than 500 degrees all by itself. The radiation energy is so
great <br>
>that an <br>
>amount too small to see would be a lethal dose! <br>
(snip) <br>
> <br>
>Any comment on the heating of Po-210 or the toxicity rating? <br>
> <br>
> <br>
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 -
<a href="http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/"; eudora="autourl"><font
color="#0000FF"><u>http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/</a></font></u><font
color="#000000">),
and read the following: <br>
"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."<br>
<br>
I calculated a specific power of 141.2 W/g. Just in case anyone is <br>
curious, the formula for specific power can be found in NUREG/CR 5550,
<br>
Passive Nondestructive Assay of Nuclear Materials. The formula is<br>
<br>
Power (in watts) = 2119.3Qm/(T^.5)A<br>
<br>
Where Q is the MeV/dis <br>
m is the mass of
the sample <br>
T^.5 is in
years<br>
A is the atomic
weight (mass number)<br>
</font><br>
<div>___________________________________________________________</div>
<div>Philip Hypes</div>
<div>Los Alamos National Laboratory</div>
<div>Safeguards Science and Technology Group (NIS 5)</div>
<div>(505) 667-1556 phypes@lanl.gov</div>
<br>
<div>Opinions expressed are purely my own unless otherwise noted</div>
</html>
--=====================_199514466==_.ALT--
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