INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER

Project # 245 "Radleg"

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UNITS of MEASUREMENT

Radionuclides’ activity and radiation dose values, as a rule, are presented in the Overview in the International System of units:

Becquerel (Bq) - a unit of radionuclide activity in a radiation source. 1 Bq corresponds to 1 decay per second for any radionuclide.
Gray (Gy) - a unit of absorbed dose. 1 Gy = 1 J/kg
Sievert (Sv) - a unit of equivalent dose. For X-ray, gamma- and beta-radiation 1 Sv corresponds to absorbed dose of 1 J/kg.
Non-system units - are used in the Overview either in parallel, or in those cases, when official sources are cited or primary measurements’ data, taken from original publications, are presented:
Curi (Ci) - a non-system unit of radionuclide activity in a radiation source. 1 Ci = 3.7x1010Bq
Roentgen (R) a non-system unit of exposure dose. 1 R = 2.58x10-4 C/kg.

If the energy of an ion pair formation in the air at 0° C and 760 mm Hg is taken as equal to 34 eV, 1 R would correspond to absorbed dose in the air equal to 8.8x10-3 Gy and to absorbed dose in a biological tissue equal to 9.3x10-4 Gy (on the average).

Rem - a non-system unit of equivalent dose (a biological equivalent of roentgen). 1 rem = 0.01 Sv

To form multiple units the next prefixes are used:

Prefix Numeric value
micro (m) 10-6
milli (m) 10-3
centi (c) 10-2
kilo (k) 103
mega (M) 106
giga (G) 109
tera (T) 1012
peta (P) 1015
exa (E) 1018


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