This webinar, in partnership with AURPO, focused on the theoretical and practical applications of ingrowth and decay calculations for long decay chains such as those arising from uranium-238 and thorium-232. 

 

The presentation can be found here (SRP members only).  The video of the webinar can be found at the bottom of this page.

 

The fundamental law of radioactivity and the Bateman equation can be used, with increasing levels of complexity, to predict parent, daughter, granddaughter etc. activities and thus decay chain secular or transient equilibria.  Whilst this is fascinating in its own right (!) our need to understand and be able to calculate ingrowth and equilibrium activities goes much further than this and impacts on the practical radiation protection measures we must consider, sometimes on a daily basis.  In this webinar we applied the theory of radioactive decay calculations to a range of relevant real world examples.  For example:-  

1) What can I expect to be present in my 100 g bottle of uranyl acetate (that is marked with a  date of 1968) and which I have just found in a cupboard!   

2) Working with uranium ore – how equilibrium calculations are needed so I can model inhalation / ingestion doses in my IRR17 radiation risk assessment.

3) The complications of chemical / physical partitioning in the environment.

4) I have a basement store containing a load of radium luminised articles. How do the physical properties of radium-226, and associated decay products, affect equilibrium & disequilibrium in this decay chain and what impact does this have on the doses my staff could receive when accessing and decommissioning this room? 

 

These and a few more hypothetical case studies were discussed.  

 

Presenter: Chris Murdock, Peak RPA Ltd
Chris Murdock is a certificated radiation protection adviser and radioactive waste adviser with more than 20 years’ experience in this field.  Chris originally specialised in environmental radioactivity with his PhD and post-doctoral research, looking at the use of the uranium-238 decay series & Chernobyl derived radionuclides as tracers of environmental processes.  These research applications have proven invaluable to Chris as he stepped into the world of the RPA and RWA.