Thoriated Tungsten in element collection?

[Guest Vic]

Hi, a welder friend of mine gave me a thoriated tungsten tig electrode for my element collection. After a bit or research I found out that it is the one that contains 2% thorium, signified by the red band around the top. Although mildly radioactive, I'm thinking that it wouldn't be a good idea to store it near my bismuth and aluminium samples.

 

Is this correct?

[jdurg]

You don't have to worry about storing it near your Bi and/or Al samples. Thoriated Tungsten means that it's an alloy of Th and W. As a result, the thorium atoms are heavily surrounded and mixed in with other tungsten atoms. Due to the mixing, those alpha particles aren't going to be going anywhere with much force, so the Bi and Al atoms wouldn't even be able to absorb them. If you have the sample in any type of container at all (like a plastic container or glass vial), then no alpha particles will even come out of there at all.

[H2SO4]

what would happen if you had a solid piece of thorium by Bi or Al. Would the Bi turn into Astatin ewhich ius more radioactive? What could Al possible turn into?

[jdurg]

Again, they'd have to be close enough for the escaping alpha particles to be absorbed by the Bismuth. Then, they have to be going at the proper speed for the bismuth to absorb the alpha and transmute into astatine. Astatine is far more radioactive than Thorium is simply because it has a MUCH shorter half-life and emits more energy when it decays. If enough of the Bi converts to astatine, it can pose a pretty significant problem due to the radioactivity, but it takes a pretty good amount of time to generate a lot of At, and any that forms probably wouldn't go anywhere.

 

If Al absorbs an alpha particle, it will throw off a neutron when it decays which is the big problem. Neutrons aren't very good for your overall health. All of this can be avoided, however, if you are properly storing your radioactive materials within glass containers which are stored within lead lined boxes.

[budullewraagh]

the alpha source+bismuth problem is significantly worse. astatine is incredibly radioactive. the neutrons from the aluminum arent good at all, but astatine is really a terror to deal with