RE: How much plutonium?????

["Heinmiller, Bruce" <heinmillerb@aecl.ca>]

The value for Reference Man is about 4300 Bq K-40.  But the average is
significantly less than this because not everyone is young-adult, Caucasian
and male.

Bruce Heinmiller CHP
heinmillerb@aecl.ca

> ----------
> From: 	Bernard L Cohen[SMTP:blc+@pitt.edu]
> Reply To: 	radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> Sent: 	Monday, May 08, 2000 12:11 PM
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	Re: How much plutonium?????
> 
> 
> On Mon, 8 May 2000, Michael McNaughton wrote:
> > 
> > There are about 100 radioactive decays per second in the body, mostly
> from
> > natural potassium-40.
> 
> 	--I couldn't rapidly find the amount of potassium in the human
> body, but meat has about 100 K40 decays per second per kilogram. Assuming
> the percentage of potassium is similar in meat and in the human body, and
> the mass of the body is 75 kg, there are 7500 decays per second in the
> body from K40.
> 
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