Do wooden wall or window glass give good protection from penetrating radiation (2024)

e2718281 said:

Do wooden wall or window glass give good protection from penetrating radiation such as gamma rays?

Wood would stop beta particles, and window glass would stop low energy betas. Both would stop alpha particles - but that is not an issue now.

Gamma rays are highly penetrating, and it would take many inches - on the order of a foot or more to provide adequate protection for beta radiation. Distance is another factor.

The greater the beta or gamma ray energy, the greater the thickness needed for shielding.

thank you, Astronuc.

for example, to decrease the radiation to 1%, how much thickness is necessary?
(Most Japanese houses are made ​​of wood...)

e2718281 said:

thank you, Astronuc.

for example, to decrease the radiation to 1%, how much thickness is necessary?
(Most Japanese houses are made ​​of wood...)

Thickness depends on the type of material and whether or not the source is beta, gamma or a combination, and their respective energies. The thicker the better.

Quick reference for radiation exposure and shielding:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_protection" [Broken]

I have used X-ray diffraction for crystalline analysis. I know how to protect the body from radiation in the lab. But I am not specialist in radiation.

In f*ckushima, residents living within 20km (~13 miles) of the nuclear station must evacuate their homes. But they naturally don't have materials for radiation protection such as lead glass,
and their houses are made of wood unfortunately.
So please let me know If anybody have gamma rays or x-rays transmittance data for wood and glass.
Of course, I also am searching papers.

Common analogies are:

Alpha is stopped by your clothing.
Beta is stopped by the top layers of your skin.
Gamma is attenuated (reduced) by water / lead, etc.

Alphas are actually ionized 2He4 particles, which are relatively large - and therefore stopped by just about everything.

Betas are actually electrons, so they interact fairly quickly and are absorbed.

Gammas are energy, and the intensity of the gamma stream is reduced by 1/10th for each "10th" thickness of a material. Lead attenuates them really fast (relatively) since it's so dense... water pretty quickly... and the body not so much.

Hence if you have a material that is two "tenth-thicknesses" in thickness, the resulting gamma energy would be 1% of the energy entering the material. (10% * 10% * Energy).

It is worth noting however, that if you ingest / inhale contamination (radioactive materials), you will be irradiated from the inside...

myth_kill said:

It is worth noting however, that if you ingest / inhale contamination (radioactive materials), you will be irradiated from the inside...

The reason that people are supposed to stay inside is so that:

1) radiation from the atmosphere does not shine on them
2) radioactive particles do not settle on them, which is an external source at the skin
3) radioactive particles/gases are not inhaled, which would irradiate from within.

Iodine is taken up by the thyroid gland. KI put nonradioactive I in the system to prevent uptake of radioiodide.

Rb and Cs behave like Na and K, and Sr and Ba behave like Ca, so it's important to minimize the uptake of the radiosotopes of those elements, which could be taken up in the body and cause damage where Na, K or Ca are used in the body.