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Protecting the alpha pdf skin#

On the other hand, alpha radioactive nuclides can lead to serious health hazards when ingested or inhaled (internal contamination). Therefore the shielding of alpha radiation alone does not pose a difficult problem.

Protecting the alpha pdf skin#

Even the dead cells in the outer layer of human skin provide adequate shielding because alpha particles can’t penetrate it. A thin piece of paper can stop most alpha particles. For example, the ranges of a 5 MeV alpha particle (most have such initial energy) are approximately 0,002 cm in aluminium alloy or approximately 3.5 cm in air.

Therefore alpha particles have very short ranges. The stopping power of most materials is very high for alpha particles and heavy-charged particles.

The Bethe formula well describes the stopping power.

On the other hand, they deposit all their energies along their short paths.

Alpha particles heavily ionize matter, and they quickly lose their kinetic energy.

Alpha particles interact with matter primarily through coulomb forces (ionization and excitation of matter) between their electrons’ positive and negative charge of the electrons from atomic orbitals.

Alpha particles are energetic nuclei of helium, and they are relatively heavy and carry a double positive charge.

The following features of alpha particles are crucial in their shielding. Shielding of alpha radiation alone does not pose a difficult problem.

Shielding of ionizing radiation simply means having some material between the source of radiation and you (or some device) that will absorb the radiation.