Byproduct of fission

Quick not on the byproduct of fission.

When a neutron breaks a nucleus, the size of the two parts will be more controlled by chance than anything.

This site will help understand the probabilities of this happening.

https://wwwndc.jaea.go.jp/cgi-bin/FPYfig

Scott Kelly radiation exposure for 1 year in space.

I was curious of the exposure of the astronaut Scott Kelly would receive with this one year in space.

NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly reached the halfway point of his historic ‪#‎YearInSpace‬mission on the International Space Station. On Sept. 15, he completed 2,736 orbits around the world traveling 72 million miles. By the end of his mission, Scott will have circumnavigated the globe 5,472 times. He captured this video and wrote 'Come full circle with me, and fly one full orbit of our beautiful planet.'

I was said that he would receive 5250 times more radiation that what we receive from a flight from Los Angeles to New york.

Using this web site, we can get the number of microSievert received:

So 20.19 uSv * 5250 = 105,997.5 uSv or rounded to 106 mSv.

How does this compare to other radiation exposure?

• The effective dose limits for a nuclear energy worker is set at 50 mSv in any one year
• So 106 is more than double the limit imposed for nuclear energy workers.
• The background radiation in Quebec is maximum of 0.5 uSv/hr, so in 1 year, this is around 4.4 mSv.
• So 106 is 24x the normal radiation you would receive from home in Quebec
• In April 2011, the Fukushima radiation zone was measured and the red zone was in the range of 19-91 uSv/hr.  So taking the average 55 uSv/hr, this gives us around 482 mSv per year.
• So he would be exposed to around 2/9th the radiation of Fukushima exclusion zone a few weeks after the disaster. 
• The most recent Fukushima survey I found was from this greenpeace web site. I took the most recent readings from 2014 and took the high red point closest to the failed power station.  This gives us an exposure of 0.83uSv/hr at 1 meter above ground, which is close to the average height of an adult.  

• So this 0.83uSv/hr is around 7.3 mSv for 1 year exposure.
• Thus Scott would be exposed to 14.5x more radiation than the worst measured point near the power station inside the Fukushima exclusion zone.
• Another point of comparison is the region of Ramsar Iran where we have a yearly exposure of around 260 mSv. 
• In this case, the population of Ramsar Iran is exposed in average at a level of 2.45x what Scott Kelly will be exposed in space. According to the study linked above...

Inhabitants of Ramsar have lived for many generations in these high background areas. Cytogenetic studies show no significant differences between people in the high background compared to people in normal background areas.

Here's a table showing the different levels:

Exposure type	uSv/hr
Background radiation	0.30
Fukushima 2014 exclusion "red zone" 3 years after	0.83
Nuclear power worker average max allowed	5.71
1 year average for Astronaut Scott Kelly exposure	12.10
Ramsar Iran average exposure of population	29.68
Fukushima 2011 "red zone" avg 2 months after event	55.00

The source used was natural Uranium:

Natural uranium (NU, U_nat) refers to uranium with the same isotopic ratio as found in nature. It contains 0.7% uranium-235, 99.3% uranium-238, and a trace of uranium-234 by weight (0.0055%). In terms of the amount of radioactivity, approximately 2.2% comes from uranium-235, 48.6% uranium-238, and 49.2% uranium-234.

The decay chain of Uranium 238 is:

 Which consist mostly of Alpha and Beta emitters.  Thus explain why the piece of wood blocks most of it.

Astronauts would be exposed to mostly cosmic gamma rays, which penetrates almost everything and is very hard to be shielded from.

Update: From https://twitter.com/Quantling

Here's a good graph to put radiation level in perspective:

Discovery Science explains radiation exposure in planes

I was watching discovery channel... this section I found interesting about exposure limits and wanted to double check the numbers...

From : http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/radiation/introduction-to-radiation/radiation-doses.cfm

The effective dose limits for a nuclear energy worker is set at 50 mSv in any one year

So this is 50 milli Sievert per year... or 50/365 = 137 micro Sievert / day or 137/24 = 5 uSv/hr.

Normal background around my place in Quebec, north of Montreal is 0.50 uSv/hr.

So this limit is 10x the normal background I get.

But to compare with what you get in a plane... let's take as an example the short trip to Toronto I took... http://radio-activity-studies.blogspot.ca/2013/01/radiation-durant-un-voyage-en-avion.html

While cruising at 35,000 feet you get exposed to 3.5uSv/hr or 7x the background.

So to get to 50,000 uSv (50mSv), you would need to spend 595 days in the air at the elevation.

So the numbers 321 days is a bit low, but that depends on the background, elevation and which regulation they used to calculate.  The more elevation you get, the higher the radiation dose you get.

Bottom line, flying is safer than working in a nuclear power plant (if exposed to the limit, which never happens)

My latest nuclear and radiation related twitter post

Study: #Cancer rate of children around #nuclear power plant, nothing to worry about, contrary to anti nuclear fears. http://t.co/WSep4sAYyM

— Simon Filiatrault (@SimonFili) September 4, 2013

Do Animals in Chernobyl’s Fallout Zone Glow? #radiation http://t.co/33XVQJJJE2

— Simon Filiatrault (@SimonFili) August 28, 2013

Did you know that #radiation is used to clean exhaust gases from #coal fire plant! And many other uses http://t.co/XBFNZCsrmn

— Simon Filiatrault (@SimonFili) August 3, 2013

The importance of adaptive response in #cancer prevention and therapy. #lnt #hormesis #radiation http://t.co/p3tYa0gUQE

— Simon Filiatrault (@SimonFili) August 1, 2013

#Nuclear Power Economics http://t.co/jLY71ZBYd3 Lots of common sense that we don't see a lot on the nuclear community.

— Simon Filiatrault (@SimonFili) July 28, 2013

Fukushima contaminated water, some calculation

From this tweet:

Tepco measures Tritium concentration at 290Bq/L in ground water at a location near Fukushima-Daiichi. Nearby, on July 18, it was 1,700Bq/L.
— NucNet Nuclear News (@NucNetupdates) July 25, 2013

Using numbers from this WHO page. You can calculate that for every Becquerel (Bq) of water contaminated with Tritium, you will get 1.8E-8 mSv of exposure for an adult.

1.8E-8 mSv/Bq for tritium

Thus, we can calculate for worst case of 1,700 Bq/L.  This will give us 1700Bq * 1.8E-8 = 30,3E-6 mSv per liter consumed by 1 adult.

Let assume now that this adult will drink 2 liters of this water at this concentration every week for 1 year.  Which is practically impossible, but just for calculating a worst case scenario.

This give us: 30E-6 mSv/L * 2 L/week * 52 weeks/year =  0,00312 mSv/year or 3,12 uSv/year.

Is this a big radiation exposure?

You can compare this to the exposure I measured while taking is trip from Montreal to Toronto
http://radio-activity-studies.blogspot.ca/2013/01/radiation-durant-un-voyage-en-avion.html
Where I was exposed for a less that 1 hour to 350uR/hr or 3.5uSv/hr.

Conclusion is, you will be exposed to more radiation on a typical plane trip than drinking 2 liters per week for 1 years of Fukushima Tritium contaminated water.

Did I made a mistake on my calculation?  Let me know.

Nice demo of radioactive stuff - Démonstration de produit radioactif

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Useful Mutants, Bred With Radiation ! - Mutants utiles, crée par rayonnement!

Saviez-vous que de nombreuses variétés de nourriture ont été créés avec l'aide de rayonnement, par mutation génétique!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/science/28crop.html?_r=0&src=tp&pagewanted=print

Did you know that many varieties of food were created with the help of radiation, by genetic mutation!

Irradiated food - Nourriture irradié

Un ami à acheté ce produit pour chien qui contient du poulet irradié (Traitées par radiation).  J'ai donc testé pour voir si un niveau détectable de radiation était présent.

A friend bought this product for dogs that contains irradiated chicken (Treated by radiation). So I tried to see if a detectable level of radiation was present.

See a difference? voyez vous une différence?

Radioactive chips - Croustilles Radioactive

Je savais que les croustilles était radioactive a cause du potassium 40, mais je ne me doutais pas que c'était plus que les bananes et que ça pouvait varier autant d'une marque à une autre.  J'imagine que ça dépend de la provenance des pommes de terres ainsi que de l'épaisseur de la coupe.  Miss Vickie's étant plus épaisse, ça me semble expliquer la plus forte dose.

I knew that chips were radioactive because of potassium 40, but I had no idea that it was more than bananas and it could vary as much from one brand to another. I guess it depends on the origin of potatoes as well as the thickness of the cut. Miss Vickie's being thicker seems to explain the higher dose.

Natural Uranium - Uranium Naturel

J'ai reçu aujourd'hui deux tubes de 5 g d'uranium naturel sous forme de poudre. J'ai mesuré le niveau de rayonnement par rapport au fond dans cette courte vidéo.

I received today two tube of 5g of natural Uranium in powder form.  I measured the radiation level compared to background in this quick video.

Intro to gamma rays

http://bcove.me/7eliqvl8

Petit déjeuner radioactive? Radioactive breakfast anyone?

J'ai testé quelques assiettes  et bol et je vois 2.5x à 3.5x la radiation de fond. C'est partout!

Tested a bowl and some plates and saw this... 2.5x to 3.5 times the background.  It's everywhere!

Radiation durant un voyage en avion - Radiation during a plane trip

Cette semaine, je suis allé de Montréal (Québec), à Toronto (Ontario) au Canada et retour. Le vol a duré moins d'une heures dans les deux sens. J'avais mon compteur Geiger avec moi et j'ai capturé le niveau de rayonnement pendant le vol qui est principalement d'origine de rayonnement cosmique. J'ai ensuite utilisé l’information d'élévation de ce site web. J'ai ensuite tracé l'altitude en vol et le niveau de rayonnement en fonction du temps. J'ai également tracé l'intensité de rayonnement en fonction de l'altitude, montrant l'équation qui n'est pas linéaire mais un polynôme du troisième degré. Plus vous montez, plus vous serez exposés aux rayonnements.

Vous voyez un niveau supérieur dans la matinée, que durant la soirée, peut-être puisque le soleil était dans le ciel, pour la section Montréal à Toronto. Pour le vol du matin, le plus haut niveau était d'environ 50x le niveau de fond. Pour le vol de retour le soir, il était d'environ 45x le fond. Ceci est calculé avec le maximum divisé par le minimum.

Vous voulez savoir plus sur les rayon cosmique, consultez Wikipédia.



This week, I went from Montreal (Quebec) to Toronto (Ontario) in Canada and back.  The flight lasted less than 1 hours both ways.  I had my Geiger counter with me and captured the radiation level, during the flight, which is mostly cosmic ray.  I then used a flight altitude information web site to get the elevation.  I then plotted the radiation level and elevation (feet) with time. I also plotted the radiation level versus the elevation, showing the equation which is not linear but a third degree polynomial.  The more you go up, the more radiation you are exposed to.

You see a higher level in the morning, than during the evening, possibly because the sun was in the sky,  for the Montreal to Toronto section. For the morning flight, the highest level was around 50x the background level.  For the return flight at night, it was around 45x the background. This is Max over Min.

Want to know more on cosmic rays, check Wikipedia.

Montreal -> Toronto, 8:20 AM / 8:20.

Toronto -> Montreal 6:30 PM / 18:30

Data Excel Data

UPDATE: 1 Nov 2014

More information can be found here on radiation in plane
http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q5647.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20130723025848/https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q5647.html


And you can use this web page to measure the in-flight exposure
http://jag.cami.jccbi.gov./cariprofile.asp

Like We've Been Saying --Radiation Is Not A Big Deal

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/01/11/like-weve-been-saying-radiation-is-not-a-big-deal/print/

Radiation Hormesis, or, Could All That Radiation Be Good for Us?

http://m.tech.snmjournals.org/content/31/1/11.full

Radioactive CFL Radioactif

Après la lecture de ce document très technique, j'ai testé quelque lumière fluorescente compact (CFL) et j'ai été surpris du résultat!  208% plus haut que la radiation de fond.

After reading the quite technical document, I tested a few compact fluorescent light (CFL) and was surprised about the result! 208% above background.

Ce type de lumière est maintenant très populaire pour diminuer notre "empreinte" carbone, ou simplement diminuer notre consommation.  Mais saviez vous que ce que vous installez partout dans votre maison est radio-actif?  Si vous êtes de ceux qui croit que n'importe quel niveaux de radio-activité peut causer le cancer, vous devriez vous posez des questions... Pour ma part, ça ne m'inquiète pas du tout.

This type of light is now very popular to reduce our carbon "footprint", or simply reduce our consumption. But did you know that what you install around your home is radioactive? If you are one of those who believes that any levels of radioactivity can cause cancer, you should ask questions ... For my part, I do not worry at all.

Thoriated tungstene rod - Electrode tungstène thorié

J'ai mis la main sur un paquet de 3 électrodes au tungstène thorié, contenant 2% de dioxyde de Thorium (ThO2). Environ 10x la radiation de fond

I got my hands on a pack of 3 thoriated tungsten electrodes, containing 2% Thorium dioxide (ThO2). Around 10x background.

Plus d'info - more Info: http://www.iem-inc.com/prmade9.html

Important studies on low dose radiation - Études importantes sur les radiations base

Source d'information - Information source

Lire l'introduction - Read the introdution

Thé radioactif - Radioactive tea

Aujourd'hui j'ai reçu une boite de thé qui arrive directement de Chine, voici l'analyse.
Today I received a box of tea that directly comes from China, here's the analysis

Location of tea: http://goo.gl/maps/j3DIW

Radiation sur - Mars - Radiation

Belle article sur la radiation mesuré durant le voyage vers mars et sur mars.
Nice article abut radiation during the voyage to Mars and the stay there.

Lien - Link