CBRNe, Terrorism, Medical and Major Incident Management by Chris Breen

Author:Chris Breen [Breen, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781477592458
Amazon: 1477592458
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2012-06-04T04:00:00+00:00

Beta particles

Beta particles are fast, and light. They have a medium penetrating power and are stopped by a sheet of aluminium or plastics such as Perspex. Beta particles ionise atoms that they pass, but not as strongly as alpha particles do. The particles have a longer range than alphas, but ionise much less strongly, with the result that they do around 1/20th of the damage done by the same dose of alpha particles.

However, they do have more penetrating power, which means that they can get through your skin and affect cells inside you.

Gamma Waves

Gamma rays are waves, not particles. This means that they have no mass and no charge. Gamma rays have a high penetrating power - it takes a thick sheet of metal such as lead, or concrete to reduce them significantly. Gamma rays do not directly ionise other atoms, although they may cause atoms to emit other particles which will then cause ionisation. We do not find pure gamma sources - gamma rays are emitted alongside alpha or beta particles. Strictly speaking, gamma emission is not 'radioactive decay' because it does not change the state of the nucleus; it just carries away some energy.

Gamma rays hardly ionise atoms at all, so they do not cause damage directly in this way. However, gamma rays are very difficult to stop, you require lead or concrete shielding to keep you safe from them. When they are absorbed by an atom, those atom gains quite a bit of energy, and may then emit other particles. If that atom is in one of your cells, this is not good!

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