How long would it take to develop radiation sickness if you stood next to a piece of Plutonium?

With nothing like a radiation suit or lean plating to dampen the effects of the beta,alpha, and gamma radiation? As a matter of fact, just how radioactive is Plutonium/ And what is its' primary radiation output (Alpha, Beta, Gamma)How long would it take to develop radiation sickness if you stood next to a piece of Plutonium?
Things are not simple, they are complicated. That is the reason we old people make young people study math, physics and all kinds of stuff. Radiactivity is complicated (I should know. My Mom was one of the lead radiactivity physicians in my country).



So. Plutonium. Radiation sickness.



First of all, radiation is, of course, a very dangerous phenomena, not to be taken lightly, so I assume we are having just a theoretical discussion. I am 52-years-old and for me walking on the sidewalk is dangerous enough. For melanin-deficient people, that is caucasian or white people (I am Hispanic and melanin-normal, that is, dark skinned) getting exposed to solar radiation is no joking matter either. So, no actual standing next to plutonium, please! (Yeah, where would we find... Nevermind!).



Second of all, I assume we are not talking about a "critical mass" piece of Plutonium because if it becomes critical that means to be standing next to an exploding nuclear bomb. Radiation sickness would be the least of one's problems.



If it is just a piece of non-critical plutonium the main concern is radiation. Now, most isotopes of plutonium are just alpha-emitters. Alpha radiation is not penetrant at all. An effective "radiation shield" for alpha radiation would be a piece of paper or a couple of inches of air.



So nothing would happen to you if you just "stand" next to the piece of Plutonium.



What's a guy to do?



OK, you STICK the plutonium to your skin. No air shield. No nothing. Would you get radiation sickness? Probably not because, again, your skin would be shielding enough. What you would get is a pretty ugly sore or burn but on the thin superficial layer of your skin in actual touching contact to the plutonium. If it is large enough (large enough piece of plutonium, think a plutonium blanket) you would die from a large skin burn, just like people in house fires. Skin gets destroyed, you lose water, nutrients, get infections.



You would be dead, but the good news is you would not be dead of radiation poisoning but from just a plain burn caused by radiation.



I know. You still would be dead.



What else can one do with Plutonium? I know this was not the question but one could INJECT, EAT or INHALE Plutonium. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#T鈥?/a> actual accidents have happened but reportedly there have been no deaths. Apparently the dose was low enough that no radiation sickness happened, not even cancer was reported.



Now, what has happened, and again, this was not the question, was "criticality incidents" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#C鈥?/a> This is when the mass of plutonium approaches "critical mass". Technically this means that it is no longer "just" radioactive plutonium (emmitting alpha rays) but it starts to undergo nuclear fission, though not exploding and vaporizing 100 blocks of city. When approaching criticality plutonium undergoing nuclear fission (no longer "just" plutonium) DOES EMIT GAMMA RAYS, neutrons and all kinds of things.



Both in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Sloti鈥?/a> and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#C鈥?/a> you can read that people exposed to a FEW SECONDS of this radiation died in 9 and 28 days. They did die of actual radiation sickness. But I repeat, technically this is not the answer to your question because they were exposed to a sub critical (not enough to explode) mass of plutonium undergoing nuclear fission which is NOT the same as "just" plutoniumHow long would it take to develop radiation sickness if you stood next to a piece of Plutonium?
Big enough piece and you will be in the middle of a nuclear explosion.



It's primary output is alpha particles. Standing next to it does not seem to be dangerous. It is when injected or ingested or inhaled that it becomes dangerous.



But as the mass approaches critical mass (about 10 kg, less in solution) the radiation output becomes very high and has killed several people already.



.How long would it take to develop radiation sickness if you stood next to a piece of Plutonium?
None of the three as far as plutonium239 is concerned. It tends to fission and to emit neutrons in so doing, which, if they are captured by other plutonium nuclei, will trigger further fission.

So if you are next to plutonium not undergoing a chain reaction, nothing will happen to you. But if you pile some pieces of plutonium together and get close to critical, then you might start a chain reaction and you would be irradiated very seriously, maybe lethally, in no time.