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Expanding alpha self-attenuation simulation by radioisotope dioxides
The relative self-attenuation effect for different radionuclides were simulated to calculate the average yield and average energy thereof like the previous into AmO2 particulates. These include Americium-241, Neptunium-237, and Uranium-234, 235, and 238. Plutonium-240 was also an intended nuclide of interest but could not be simulated; attempts were met with a segmentation fault, and a…
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Fine-tuning simulation of radioactive particulate self-attenuation
Geant4 is a Monte Carlo simulation which requires a set of probable outcomes to process radiation events. These sets are called “physics lists” and are necessary to figure out what particles will do as time goes on. As it turned out, the necessary alpha particle physics list was not properly defined in the previous simulation…
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Theoretical radiation exposure loss from radioactive particulate matter
While exploring the properties of radioactive particulates in the context of exposure to resuspended radionuclides, I could not determine whether the size of a radioparticulate played a role in the delivery of ionizing radition. Alpha-emitters are especially problematic in the environment as the alpha radiation delivers more of an effective dose to tissue compared to…
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Background and material gamma spectra of air sampler filters using neutron activation analysis
I’m using a high-purity Germanium detector to investigate the concentrations of tracer metals in a calm, indoor environment. Glass fiber filters were used for their efficient capture of 1 micron particulates, which is the form of the tracer powder Europium oxide. Though measurements of the tracer quantities are difficult to see and uncertain, the background…
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Radioactive wild boar migrations trouble farms and raise contamination concerns
Contaminated boars bring physical and agricultural hazards The Swedish environmental consultancy Calluna has alerted Gävle hunters about packs of “extremely” radioactive wild boar moving north of Stockholm (The Telegraph, 2017). Ulf Frykman told the Telegraph that the organization tested 30 samples of boar and found 24 above the safe level of radioactivity; some by over…
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Water drops and atomic flops
I am currently stabilizing a reusable air-equivalent solvent in which to disperse radioactive colloids to study the changes to aerosol properties introduced by radiation effects using the GROMACS (van de Spoel, 2005) molecular dynamics package. The native all-atom force-field parameters for the TIP4P water model (Horn et al, 2004) was used, but had to be…