Tungsten Alloy Container For Radioactive Substances

Radioactive substances mean the materials are capable of spontaneously decaying and emitting radiation energy. They are usually metals with high atomic energy, such as uranium and plutonium. Radioactive substances have many uses in various fields. In industry, they can be used for nuclear electric power generation, fracture detection of welding points and metal parts, static elimination, industrial X-ray detection and diameter measure; in agriculture, they can be used in plant breeding, sterilization and pest control and researching fertilizer uptake and loss; in medical applications, they can be used to diagnose and treat diseases; in the military, they can be used in nuclear weapons, nuclear submarines and nuclear fuel, operation teapot. Generally, the rays emitted by radioactive substances are α rays,β rays and γ rays which are all harmful for human body. So tungsten alloy is a best choice to store radioactive substances due to its great radiation shielding performance.

Radioactive substances can enter into human body through respiratory tract, the digestive tract, skin and mucous membrane, and continue to emit various rays inside body to induce internal exposure. Radioactive substances cause health problems by killing cells in the body, and the degree and type of damage done depends on the dose of radiation received and the time over which the dose is spread out. Receiving high doses of rays in a shorter time usually causes more acute damage, as greater doses kill more cells. Larger doses will, in addition to those symptoms above, cause hemorrhaging, sterility and skin to peel off; an untreated dose of more than 3.5 Sv will be fatal, and death is expected even with treatment for doses of more than 6 Sv.

Tungsten alloy container plays an important role in the storage of radioactive substances, it is often used to store the radioactive substances while shielding the radiation released from the radioactive substances. Early shielding material is mainly lead metal, but there are some problems in the long-term use of lead shielding. Lead and its compounds are harm to human body by causing poisoning. But tungsten alloy is non-toxic and has high density, thus it has great radiation shielding effectiveness to shield and absorb rays emitted by radioactive substances.

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