I’m working on an essay and I am way too dumb to understand this. So, as a long shot, anybody got an explanation on hand for me, a 5-year old?
In: Chemistry
The normal sodium that you find in salt and which is present in your body and blood is 23Na. It is unaffected by most natural radiation such as alpha, beta and gamma radiation. But when it is hit by neutron radiation, which is only found when a nuclear core goes nuclear, it changes into 24Na. The higher the radiation the more 24Na is formed. You can take a blood sample of someone you suspect of having been exposed to neutron radiation and measure how much 24Na there are compared to 23Na. This then corresponds with the amount of neutron radiation the patient have gotten. This is the same type of measurement used for carbon dating.
As per [this study](https://academic.oup.com/rpd/article/186/2-3/202/5614307?login=false):
Specific rates/amounts of radiation exposure will create a specific amount of Sodium-24 in the plasma. Measuring the amount of Sodium-24 in the plasma will give you an idea as to level of radiation exposure experienced by a particular patient.
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