How does uranium not contaminate nature with radioactivity if its naturally occuring?

479 viewsOther

How does uranium not contaminate nature with radioactivity if its naturally occuring?

In: Other

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It does. But radioactivity is caused by radioactive breakdown and in Uranium this happens really really slowly (the halflife, the time it takes for half the atoms in a sample to undergo radioactive breakdown, is 4.4 billion years for U-238 which is by far the most common version of Uranium) so it releases only very little radioactivity over your lifetime.

But still. Uranium breakdown is the reason why your granite countertop is slightly more radioactive than the material around it.

It’s also the reason why you might have to screen your basement for radon contamination. Once U-238 breaks down it breaks down into a series of relatively fast collapsing atoms until it reaches Radium-226. Which in turn breaks down into Radon-222. Radon-222 is a gas, so it escapes the material it was inside and slowly filters out of the rock to where it could come into close contact with humans. Radon radiation is an alpha emitter, which generally isn’t a problem since it’s stopped by very thin material (like the surface of human skin), but since Radon is also a gas it might end up in your lungs. So elevated levels of radon gas isn’t great.

You are viewing 1 out of 5 answers, click here to view all answers.