What is the unit that is used? What are the thresholds for drinking water vs say irrigation water?
In: 5
Well okay- this is beyond an explain to a 5 year old, but I’ll give it my best shot.
First off- Radioactive water: H2O that’s actually giving off nuclear radiation is exceptionally uncommon. For a water molecule itself to give off radiation it would have to be formed with Tritium (hydrogen-3). For all intents and purposes- Hydrogen 3 water is not tested for except around places like particle accelerators where Hydrogen-3 is actually synthesized.
However I’m assuming you are meaning water as the thing that comes out of the taps of your home.
Generally in this water we concern ourselves with two things- dissolved solids and particulate counts. Practically speaking if you were to receive a radioactive dose from water it would be from radioactive material that’s within the water.
And from the best of my knowledge we measure that kind of radiation as we do any other kind of radiation, of which there are two main measurements we can concern ourself with, those being Activity and Absorbed dose.
Activity (measured in Curies or Becquerels) is the amount of radiation a material gives off in a given time. Basically the flow rate of radiation. This is what we would actively measure radioactivity of a sample of water with.
Absorbed dose is the quantity of radiation something receives- usually measured in Rads or Grays. This is how we’d measure the amount of radiation a sample of water would deliver to a human (or other object) over a given period.
Latest Answers