RE: How much plutonium?????

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

Ignoring alpha dose from uranium-series nuclides, for internally deposited
nuclides, betas contribute almost all of the dose (nominally 90%).  Also,
the C-14 activity is almost equal (particularly for females) to the K-40
activity (although the C-14 dose contribution is much smaller).  Your
3000-Bq figure is correct only for K-40 alone.  I'm sticking with my 6000 to
7000 Bq total activity.

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 12:41 PM
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	RE: How much plutonium?????
> 
> 
> On Mon, 8 May 2000, Heinmiller, Bruce wrote:
> 
> > Bernie, with regard to 20% of 15 000 gamma rays from within, this would
> be
> > 3000, but the only significant (in terms of activity) gamma-ray emitter
> in
> > the body is K-40.  The average K-40 activity is nominally 3000 Bq, but
> the
> > gamma-ray yield is only 10.7%.
> 
> 	--My mis-statement.
> I started from knowing that the body is struck by 15,000 gamma rays per
> second, and 20% of the total dose is from internal emitters. What I missed
> is that for internal emitters (but not for external sources), beta decays
> contribute as much dose as gammas. My statement should have been that
> there are about 3000 radioactive decays per second inside the body.
> 
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