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1. What is meant by ‘radioactivity’?
Ans: Is a spontaneous disintegration in the nucleus of an unstable atom to
form a nuclide of different Z by emission of radiation from the nucleus
2. What are the old and S.I. units for measuring an activity of a radionuclide?, and
how are they correlated ?
Ans: Old Unit: Curie (Ci); S.I. Unit: Becquerel (Bq)
I Ci = 3.7 x 10 10 Bq
3. Determine the atomic mass (A), atomic number (Z), no. of protons (#P), neutrons
(#N) of the radionuclides in the following table. Based on the completed
information in the box, complete the symbol for each species.
13 6 6 7 13
C
6
? 17 17 18 35
Cl
?
? 26 26 30 56
Fe
?
? 1 1 2 3
H
?
? 52 52 76 128
Te
?
? 50 50 70 120
Sn
?
4. Calculate the activity of Co60 in kCi and TBq after 5 years, if the current activity
is 100 kCi. Given the T ½ = 5.27 years.
l = ln 2/ T ½
= 0.693 / 5.27
= 0.1317
l t = 0.1317 x 5 = 0.6584
A(t) = 100 x e 0.6584
5. Complete the following radioactivity decay schemes
60 60 0
a. Co Ni + e
27 28 1
137
b. Cs 137
Ba + 0 e
55 56 1
90 90 0 90 0
c. Sr Y + e Zr + e
38 39 1 40 1
85 85 0
d. Kr Rb + e
36 36 1
226 222 4
e. Ra Rn + He
88 86 2
Ans: Is the time required for an activity of a radionuclide to reduce by half.
T1/2 of Cs137 is 30 years; C14 (5736y); H3(12.33y); Co60(5.27y); Ir
192(73.83d); U238(4.47x10 9 y); Th232(14x10 9 y)
7. A company bought a gamma projector using Iridium192 having activity of 50 Ci.
The source need to be changed once the activity reached 5 Ci.
a. Determine the time (in days) this change will take place. Given T ½ =
73.83 days,
A(t) = A0 e l t
Ao = 50 Ci
A(t) = 5 Ci
T ½ = 73.83 d
t = ? d
T ½ Ao
t = ln = 73.83/ 0.693 x (ln (50/5)) = 106.54 x ln 10 = 245.31d
0.693 A(t)
b. Suppose you want to change the source once in 5 years, what would be the
activity of the source to procure?
Ao = 5 x e 0.693 x 1825 / 73.83
= 5 x e 17.13
= 5 x 27,508,345.79 Ci = 137.5 x 10 6 Ci = 137.5 MCi
8. What are the old and S.I. units for absorbed dose, equivalent dose and effective
dose?, and how are they correlated ?
9. Calculate the dose equivalent and effective dose of a radiation worker whose lung
and skin have been subjected to a total 20 Gy of alpha radiation from a uranium
source.
Ans: Absorbed Dose (D) = 20 Gy
WR (alpha) = 20
WT (lung) = 0.12
WT (skin) = 0.01
ð H = D x WR =20 x20 = 400 Sv
ð E (lung) = H x WT (lung) = 400 x 0.12 = 4.80Sv
ð E (skin) = H x WT (skin) = 400 x 0.01 = 0.04 Sv
10. What are the sources of natural and manmade ionizing radiation? What is the
average annual dose of ionizing radiation received by members of the public?
Ans: Sources of radiation
• Natural radiation in the environment (Cosmic, terrestrial )
• Medical exposure
• Occupational exposure
• Artificial radioactivity in the environment
products
• Medical X ray (0.1 mSv per chest x ray), nuclear medicine (diagnostic
and therapeutic) [0.3 mSv/y]
• Nuclear weapon test radioactive fallout (.006 mSv/y)
• Nuclear power (0.008 mSv/y to the public), industries (process control,
QC)
• Consumer products: smoke detectors, luminous watches, gas mantles,
TV. [very low]
15%
17%
Radon
0%
Inte rnal
Me di cal
O the rs
11% Gam ma
C osmi c
9% 48%