radiation units

radiation units Units of measurement used to express the activity of a radionuclide and the dose of ionizing radiation. The units curie, roentgen, rad, and rem are not coherent with SI units but their temporary use with SI units has been approved while the derived SI units becquerel, gray, and sievert become familiar.

The becquerel (Bq), the SI unit of activity, is the activity of a radionuclide decaying at a rate, on average, of one spontaneous nuclear transition per second. Thus 1 Bq = 1 s^–1. The former unit, the curie (Ci), is equal to 3.7 × 10¹⁰ Bq. The curie was originally chosen to approximate the activity of 1 gram of radium–226.

The gray (Gy), the SI unit of absorbed dose, is the absorbed dose when the energy per unit mass imparted to matter by ionizing radiation is 1 joule per kilogram. The former unit, the rad (rd), is equal to 10^–2 Gy.

The sievert (Sv), the SI unit of dose equivalent, is the dose equivalent when the absorbed dose of ionizing radiation multiplied by the stipulated dimensionless factors is 1 J kg^–1. As different types of radiation cause different effects in biological tissue a weighted absorbed dose, called the dose equivalent, is used in which the absorbed dose is modified by multiplying it by dimensionless factors stipulated by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The former unit of dose equivalent, the rem (originally an acronym for roentgen equivalent man), is equal to 10^–2 Sv.

In SI units, exposure to ionizing radiation is expressed in coulombs per kilogram, the quantity of X- or gamma-radiation that produces ion pairs carrying 1 coulomb of charge of either sign in 1 kilogram of pure dry air. The former unit, the roentgen (R), is equal to 2.58 × 10^–4 C kg^–1.