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ambient radioactivity

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Zak28

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can intense UV from spark gaps or some other source cause atmospheric gasses to transmute and emit alpha or beta particles?
 

No.

I've done much Co60 gamma testing and nothing happens
there either. Samples are not "hot".

Now, you get to a proton, neutron or heavy ion source,
you'll see activation (but getting a detectable amount
takes a whole lot of fluence since it's a probabilistic
thing and nuclei are hard to hit dead-on, to where the
incident particle penetrates rather than deflects).
 

...get to a proton, neutron or heavy ion source, you'll see activation...

Would a neutron source bombarding ionised atomspheric gasses yeilds radioactivity? Also isnt high voltage high frequency discharge energetic enough to be a candidate for this?
 
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Nuclear reactions don't depend on ionization state of an element. Neutron capture of oxygen can e.g. produce radioactive N16.

Impossible to provoke nuclear reactions with the discussed methods. Need at least high MeV accelerators.
 

Neutron capture of oxygen can e.g. produce radioactive N16.

Oxygen has a decent (can be measured; much less compared to D) capture cross section for thermal neutrons and can produce 17O and gamma.

I do not know how 16N can come from 16O.

Much of these reactions take place in the upper atmosphere from cosmic ray bombardments (my info is old anyway)
 

Been a long, long time since I did any 'Nuclear & Radio-Chemistry' (sic) but, IIRC, the UV energies and intensities you or I could muster fall far short of causing nuclear reactions. Serious ionisation, yes. Material damage, yes. Nuclear stuff, no.

But, if you get sufficient energy density, you may get secondary effects, like the X-ray and gamma emissions from colliding supernova debris, that *may* play in the nuclear range.

Note: When I hand-aligned replacement UV discharge tubes for our older HPLC spectrophotometers, I wore big green 'frog' UV goggles, worked in a well ventilated area to mitigate the stink of ozone, made best-speed to minimise my exposure.
Due Care, Please ??
 

When I hand-aligned replacement UV discharge tubes for our older HPLC spectrophotometers, I wore big green 'frog' UV goggles, worked in a well ventilated area to mitigate the stink of ozone...

UV is bad for the eyes; it causes the protein in the eye lens to get milky (frosty) and get hard (denatured). Lots of UV in a short time will cause excessive tears and irreversible damage.

UV coming on the skin is also bad and can cause cancer. But all depends on the intensity and duration.

But when you are aligning the UV for the HPLC spectrophotometer, I find the goggles are a nuisance and but is a must if you are doing it as a part of job on a regular basis. The amount of ozone produced is also very small and a 2-3 mins exposure to this low concentration is not serious.

But due care is ALWAYS a very good advice. UV lamps in HPLC systems last years and you need not worry much about exposure. And forget about radioactivity coming from UV...
 

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