- #1
Dazz4C
- 28
- 0
Hi Everyone,
I was just preparing for an exam I have next week regarding the use of Po-210 on Aleksandr Litvinenko. As I came across doing some calculations, something got me puzzled...the 'whole body dose' of energy is extremely low and to me shows no real significance. I'll show you what I mean.
In my exam, I am required to calculate a plausible amount of Po-210 that may have been used to kill Litvinenko.
Now to do this, the amount of dosage was equal to:
[tex]\frac{1 mol of Po-210 in grams*whole body dose}{Energy released by decayed atoms}[/tex]
Now, I've already gone and found the other two variables (1Mol of Po-210 in grams, and Energy released) but will not write the calculation down as some other students might google this and come across it :P.
Anyway; here's the calculation for the whole body dose.
100% Death is guarenteed at 4.5 to 6 Siverts. For this example, I'll use 6 Sv (Siverts). Calculation of Siverts can be expressed by:
Siverts = Absorbed Dose (Grays) * Quality Factor
Now, we let the Siverts = 6; and let the Quality Factor = 20 because we are dealing with Alpha particle radiation. So therefore:
6 = AD * 20
AD = 6/20 = 0.3 Gy
Gray can also be written as J/Kg. Therefore, 0.3 Gy = 0.3 J/Kg. Therefore, for each Kilogram of bodyweight 0.3J of energy released by Polonium is absorbed.
Now, as I can't really find many sources on Litvinenko's weight; we'll assume a body weight of say, 85Kg (Fit male; he was ex-KGB)
So for the whole body dosage:
85Kg * 0.3J/Kg = 25.5 Joules
This is what I mean...25.5 Joules is not a lot. Humans consume and use more energy than that. Absorbing 25.5 Joules seems rediculous, unless I went wrong somewhere.
So..TL;DR - Can someone explain to me the significance of the Whole Body Dose (other than simply stating that it's used in calculation, because I've figured out how much Po-210 was used)
P.S. Sorry for not using LaTeX...school filter stops the Latex Reference from loading.
I was just preparing for an exam I have next week regarding the use of Po-210 on Aleksandr Litvinenko. As I came across doing some calculations, something got me puzzled...the 'whole body dose' of energy is extremely low and to me shows no real significance. I'll show you what I mean.
In my exam, I am required to calculate a plausible amount of Po-210 that may have been used to kill Litvinenko.
Now to do this, the amount of dosage was equal to:
[tex]\frac{1 mol of Po-210 in grams*whole body dose}{Energy released by decayed atoms}[/tex]
Now, I've already gone and found the other two variables (1Mol of Po-210 in grams, and Energy released) but will not write the calculation down as some other students might google this and come across it :P.
Anyway; here's the calculation for the whole body dose.
100% Death is guarenteed at 4.5 to 6 Siverts. For this example, I'll use 6 Sv (Siverts). Calculation of Siverts can be expressed by:
Siverts = Absorbed Dose (Grays) * Quality Factor
Now, we let the Siverts = 6; and let the Quality Factor = 20 because we are dealing with Alpha particle radiation. So therefore:
6 = AD * 20
AD = 6/20 = 0.3 Gy
Gray can also be written as J/Kg. Therefore, 0.3 Gy = 0.3 J/Kg. Therefore, for each Kilogram of bodyweight 0.3J of energy released by Polonium is absorbed.
Now, as I can't really find many sources on Litvinenko's weight; we'll assume a body weight of say, 85Kg (Fit male; he was ex-KGB)
So for the whole body dosage:
85Kg * 0.3J/Kg = 25.5 Joules
This is what I mean...25.5 Joules is not a lot. Humans consume and use more energy than that. Absorbing 25.5 Joules seems rediculous, unless I went wrong somewhere.
So..TL;DR - Can someone explain to me the significance of the Whole Body Dose (other than simply stating that it's used in calculation, because I've figured out how much Po-210 was used)
P.S. Sorry for not using LaTeX...school filter stops the Latex Reference from loading.