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RE: Toxic Trivia (Polonium)

The only historical accumulation of Po-210 I'm aware of was part of an effort to fuel some of the earliest RTGs.  One of which was the SNAP-3 power source which used 3,000 Ci of Po-210 to produce 5 W(electric) of power. This power source is the one that was taken to the White House in January 1959 to brief President Eisenhower.  Historically Po-210 was displaced as the availability of Pu-238 and Sr-90 increased. Ref: Atomic Power in Space (DOE/NE/32117-H1).

Andy Tompkins
Woodstock, GA 

jatalbq@mindspring.com


with At 03:57 PM 2/9/00 -0600, you wrote:
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

Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
-- A computer error message in Haiku form

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

--=====================_199514466==_.ALT
Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"

(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


--=====================_199514466==_.ALT--

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