radioactivity so often gets a forged rap . Obviously , no one wants to swallow up a chunk of uranium , but some radiation is n’t just harmless , it can keep you alive . Hopefully , most of you are sitting not - too - far from a piece of rotten Pu right now – your sess detector .
Many of us have reason to dread Pu . It ’s radioactive . It makes bombs . It ’s list after the god of death . There ’s a lot of sinister stuff going on with that element . On the other hand , a specific descendant of plutonium has in all likelihood saved K of lives .
The trouble - making atomic number 94 is the isotope 239 , with 94 protons and 145 neutrons . There ’s another isotope of atomic number 94 , Plutonium-241 , with two more neutrons . It originate a procedure which chair to safer homes everywhere . Under the correct setting , plutonium can really climb up the periodic tabular array . One of its neutrons undergoes beta - decline , otherwise know as the self-generated ejection of an electron and an antineutrino . This bend the neutron into a proton , and changes the Plutonium-241 into Americium-241 .
Now armed with 95 proton and 146 neutrons , Americium-241 goes down another decay pathway . Every so often it pip out an alpha particle – a pigeonholing of two proton and two neutrons . Basically , an alpha particle is a shaved helium atom , free of electrons . As anyone who has worked with balloons bang , He is n’t a dire element . As long as a material that emits alpha atom is n’t swallow , it ca n’t do much hurt to a body . The particles ca n’t even pervade the top stratum of dead skin cells . What it can do is criticize the electrons off existing atoms . The molecule become positive ions , and free electrons .
If these ions and negatron are in an electronic equipment , and they finger a voltage across two metal plate , they can move between those two plates , creating an galvanic flow . So a lump of Americium-241 can keep a current going in , for example , a smoke detector . That is , it can keep it going until pot gets in the detector . Smoke grabs agree of the ion , stop over their movement between the two metal plates , and cutting off the stream . A grass detector will then set forth claxon away , letting people know that they ’ve either burned the roast , or that they involve to scramble out of the construction as soon as possible . So while radiation is n’t always a root of joy , under the right consideration , it can keep you live .
[ ViaEPA , The Particle Adventure , The Naked Scientists , World Nuclear Association . ]
PhysicsScience
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