Re: Radioactive SparkPlugs

[brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>]

At 09:16 2/10/98 CST6CDT, Steven Ratliff wrote:
> On 1/30/98 Tim Sullivan wrote:
> [.................]
> > Dose from gammas goes up as R^2, so the time to
> > receive a significant dose goes down fast as you start handling it up
close.
> > If it was designed to ionize air, that is more effectively accomplished
with
> > betas. That raises the possiblity that the source may be unsealed which
> > increases the risk of spreading the material around, or ingesting it. Also,
> > that means that the total dose will increase much faster than R^2 as you
> > get  close to handle it.
>
> Why in this case will the dose increase much faster than R^2?
>
> Steven T. Ratliff

I expect that Tim meant that not only does dose-rate go up with 1/R^2
in the usual inverse square law way, but radio-active material retained
 on the body provides an additional dose.

I could be wrong.


brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK