Artificial radiation: It helps to improve our life. Ionizing radiation exists in smoke detectors and is used to disinfect medical instruments and blood. It is also a by-product of nuclear power generation. The main ways of our exposure to artificial ionizing radiation are diagnostic medical examination: X-ray, CT, PET, fluoroscopy, nuclear medical examination and so on.
Principle of ionizing radiation
Alpha rays are a stream of charged particles, which are easily ionized wherever they go. Alpha rays have strong ionization energy and can be used. It also brings some harm, and it has great destructive ability to the tissues in the human body. Because of its large mass and poor penetration ability, its range in the air is only a few centimeters, which can be blocked by a piece of paper or healthy skin.
β -ray is also a kind of high-speed charged particle, its ionization power is much less than α-ray, but its penetration power is greater than α-ray, but its range with X and γ-ray is shorter than β-ray, so it is easily absorbed by aluminum foil, plexiglass and other materials.