What is Alpha Radiation?

Alpha radiation is a heavy, very short-range particle and is actually an ejected helium nucleus. Some characteristics of alpha radiation are:

Most alpha radiation is not able to penetrate human skin.

Alpha-emitting materials can be harmful to humans if the materials are inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through open wounds.

A variety of instruments has been designed to measure alpha radiation. Special training in the use of these instruments is essential for making accurate measurements.

A thin-window Geiger-Mueller (GM) probe can detect the presence of alpha radiation.

Instruments cannot detect alpha radiation through even a thin layer of water, dust, paper, or other material, because alpha radiation is not penetrating.

Alpha radiation travels only a short distance (a few inches) in air, but is not an external hazard.

Alpha radiation is not able to penetrate clothing.

Examples of some alpha emitters: radium, radon, uranium, thorium.

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What is Ionizing Radiation?

Ionizing radiation can be measured using units of electron volts, ergs, and joules. The electron-volt (abbreviated eV) is a unit of energy associated with moving electrons around. An electron is “tightly bound” in a hydrogen atom (one proton and one electron). It takes energy to move this electron away from the proton. It takes 13.6 electron-volts of energy to move this electron completely away from the proton. We say then that the atom is “ionized.” In the jargon, the “ionization energy” of the tightly bound electron in hydrogen is 13.6 electron volts. Tungsten would be the best choice for ionizing radiation, for more details, you could visit here.

Radiation Detector In Your Smartphone

A smartphone camera can make you a walking gamma ray detector. Without needing any extra hardware, you could get a warning on your phone when you're approaching potentially harmful levels of gamma radiation.

They concluded that the phones have the processing power to detect gamma radiation with their built-in cameras and to measure levels on the phone. With the help of a program on a remote server, the app captures and measures an average energy level, then uses a model to figure out what types of radioactive material could be emitting the radiation. Basically, once your phone has been calibrated with the app, you'll have a radiation detector in your pocket.

The scientists are considering a commercial partnership to develop the app for the general public. In the meantime, there are other apps that can give you an estimate of the gamma radiation around you.

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Tungsten Alloy Radiation Shielding Applications

A particularly dense material with excellent shielding properties is needed to ensure that the surrounding tissue is protected and the radiation guided only to the intended locations--high density tungsten alloys are widely used as medical and industrial tungsten alloy radiation shielding applications.Tungsten alloys are used for radioactive source containers, gamma ray protection, radiation shields, x-ray shielding and source holders for oil-well, logging, and industrial instrumentation. We can also use our tungsten alloys to make collimators and shielding for cancer therapy machines, and as syringe protection for radioactive injections.There is no licensing required for tungsten alloy materials. Tungsten alloys are stable at high temperatures. You can use one-third less material than lead for the same energy-absorbing effectiveness, meanwhile it is non-toxic.

Tungsten Alloy Shielding Extrusion Process

Extrusion, which is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. Tungsten alloy shielding material can be pushed or pulled through a die of the desired cross-section in extrusion process. The extrusion process may also increase the strength of tungsten alloy shielding.
The process begins by heating the stock material (for hot or warm extrusion). It is then loaded into the container under the press. A dummy block is placed behind it where the ram then presses on the material to push it out of the die. Afterward the extrusion is stretched in order to straighten it. If better properties are required then it may be heat treated or cold worked. The extrusion ratio is defined as the starting cross-sectional area divided by the cross-sectional area of the final extrusion. Compare with forging, one of the main advantages of the extrusion process is that this ratio can be very large while still producing quality parts. For the extrusion process, only one compression can cause extrusion ratio is about 60%~80%. In forging process, one compression cause extrusion ratio is no more than 20% ,otherwise the scrap rate will be greatly enhanced.

Medical Devices Tungsten Polymers

Tungsten polymers used to produce catheters and other devices that are inserted into the body for diagnostic or interventional procedures are commonly filled with substances opaque to x-ays, thereby rendering the medical devices visible under fluoroscopy or x-ray imaging. These fillers, or radiopacifiers—tungsten(typically dense metal powders)—affect the energy attenuation of photons in an x-ray beam as it passes through matter, reducing the intensity of the photons by absorbing or deflecting them. Because these materials exhibit a higher attenuation coefficient than soft tissue or bone, they appear lighter on a fluoroscope or x-xay film. This visibility provides the contrast needed to accurately position the device in the affected area. Image contrast and sharpness can be varied by the type and amount of radiopacifier used, and can be tailored to the specific application of the device.

Tungsten Radiation Shielding Forging Process

Forging is a main machining process to produce tungsten radiation shielding.Tungsten and several tungsten alloys have been successfully forged over a wide range of temperatures from as low as 1800 to 3500F. In rocket nozzle forging, a billet height reduction of approximately 80% at forging temperatures below the critical recrystallization temperature is considered essential. This imparts the fine-grained, fully wrought, fibrous structure that is characteristic of high strength and good ductility at low transition temperatures.
Tungsten is generally forged in the hot-cold work temperature range where hardness and strength increase with increasing reductions. Both systems exhibit increasing forgeability with decreasing grain size.The greatest use for tungsten forgings has been in rocket nozzle applications. Production forging of tungsten nozzle inserts has been largely limited to billets prepared by powder metallurgy techniques because of their earlier availability than cast tungsten.