insane radioactivity in the nuclear medicine operating room

tiny, radioactive iridium 192 seeds. 10 Curie. 370.000.000.000 atoms decaying every second. and i left my gamma scout with that intense radiation... making an interesting documentary about the levels of ionizing radiation in brachytherapy (to be precise: prostate cancer afterloading).

Category:

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• uranium

[THEOLDDEL]

Was that 3 full Sieverts?!? Are you curing him or sealing his Doom? 6 full Sieverts = 'Death Expected' according to a scale I read.

[bionerd23]

that only goes for a FULL BODY DOSE of 6 sieverts. for example, 6 Sv on your HANDS would hardly produce anything, not even a "sunburn". 6 Sv on your brain, though, and you're in serious trouble. so, you see, this is how it's done - by just admitting high doses into a tumor while making sure the vital rest of the body does not receive too much of a dose.

[truthIsStranger]

This is a fascinating and frightening video for me. I never trusted this medicine, I do expect it to be regarded one day as we do the lobotomy. But if the scout was in the other corner of the room, how can we say the exposure of these levels was only to his prostate gland?

I know you understand better than I do but would like to know, is he being shielded from the radiation in that room? It's not like you held the unit between his legs. =P

[bionerd23]

a fatal dose was only transmitted to the prostate, as the radionuclide used for this is largely a beta-emitter. the rest of his body received a significant radiation dose, too, with the area near his prostate (e.g. rectum) receiving damaging doses that are not fatal and are repaired within time. however, mild radiation sickness syndromes (fatigue, bleeding from rectum, pain that is managable with painkillers) can be expected from this treatment, but lasts for just a few days.

[Tasteslikedaniel]

3 seiverts straight to the taint. they should call it the fukushima stun gun

[dispatcher7007]

of course! There are detectors for all kinds of radiation, neutron radiation as well, but they're usually much more expensive.

But gamma-only measurements allow quite good for a quick dose check, as every decay (alpha/beta) goes with gamma emissions. Due to the short ranges of alpha and beta radiation, you wont detect them anyways, and you get struck by the gammas.

[whangie1]

So are there any Geiger counters that detect Aplha and Beta radiation too or do they all just detect gamma rays?

[AKENOXTRM]

it was 3000 uSv/h that means it was infact 3 mSv not full Sv ....

[dispatcher7007]

This is a gammascout! As the name implies, it detects only gamma radiation, where Sv=Gy!

And if you want to compare the effect on Life, Sv is the better unit, as it accounts for different effects of alpha, beta and gamma rays

[MrMeatFag]

aka gouch

[crottc]

really cool looking machine!

[IonactiveConsulting]

People - you should be talking in Gy not Sv ;)

[gardnerbm]

what if the machine gets stuck "on" do you bet on who is going to go out there to fix it?

[aeopmusic]

According to the IAEA, 50 mSv is the average exposure for humans per year.