I recently went down a virtual rabbit hole on the “Demon Core” incidents in the late 1940’s and it got me thinking about protective equipment in regards to dealing with radiation. How does it work? Are there certain materials or designs that are more effective than others?
Apologies in advance if this has already been answered.
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When you are working with nuclear materials, unless there is something like the demon core incidents, the rays that hit you are the least thing to worry about. Sure, over time they do harm, but if you monitor your exposure and do not stay in the radioactive area for longer than necessary, the damage is minimal. That is what dosimeters are for, basically a little badge you wear that measures the radiation you received and when you have gotten too much, you cannot work in radioactive areas anymore until your body had time to heal or you risk your health. Now obviously, that is not a “straw that broke the camel’s back” situation; really every bit of radiation does very minor harm, but there needs to be a line on how much harm is acceptable somewhere. People who die from acute radiation poisoning, like those exposed to the demon core, typically get hit with more radiation within a few seconds than most normal people, including nuclear technicians or airline personnel, experience in a lifetime.
As others have already brought up, the biggest acute danger from working within radioactive areas is radioactive dust getting inside your body. If that happens, there are two things much worse than environmental radiation. First, the radioactive material is much closer to your organs than it would be were it outside your body. Second, you no longer leave the source of radiation behind the moment you exit the area, you take it with you. Basically, the exposure never ends, and over time you will absorb the full dose of radiation that particular piece of radioactive material could provide, unless you somehow get it out of your body first. It sticks with you for however long it takes to decay, but the faster it decays, the heavier it hits you:
Take iodine 131, a powerful alpha source. That stuff deposits in your thyroid and half of it decays every few days. With enough of that stuff, you can practically burn away your thyroid, which is why after nuclear power plant accidents you may see iodine tablets being distributed to people in the nearby area, to flush out the iodine 131 with nice and stable iodine 127. Conversely, if you have an overgrown thyroid, one treatment might be giving you a small dose of iodine 131 to basically destroy the excess, but that process requires careful calibration or you end up with too little functioning thyroid.
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