Re: Simple little total activity question...

[LIPTONW@detroitedison.com]

The best guidance that I've seen on this is in the shipping regulations, 49 
CFR 173.433(c), which states: 
 
"... a single radioactive decay chain in which the radionuclides are present 
in their naturally-occurring proportions, and in which no daughter [Who said 
the regulations are PC!] nuclide has a half life either longer than 10 days
or 
longer than that of the parent nuclide, will be considered as a single 
radionuclide, and the activity to be taken into account and the A1 or A2
value 
to be applied will be those corresponding to the parent nuclide in the
chain.  
Otherwise, the parent and daughter radionuclides will be considered as a 
mixture of different nuclides." 
 
The opinions expresssed are strictly mine. 
It's not about dose, it's about trust. 
 
Bill Lipton 
liptonw@detroitedison.com 
 
You wrote: 
 
Radsafers: 
 
This one has been bugging me for a while. 
 
Say you have a sample which contains 1 Bq of U-238, plus all of it's 
progeny in equilibrium, and no other radionuclides.  What is the total 
activity of the sample?  Is it 14 Bq or 15 Bq?  I'm not really clear on 
whether or not one should count Pa-234m and Pa-234 separately or as one.