Ionizing Radiation in the US - Video Lesson

We felt that it was important to address ionizing radiation in the United States, both natural and man made. This is a chart that shows on the top the natural ionizing radiation. And on the bottom, it shows the man made radiation. And you can see they're about fifty percent of the chart. The natural is fifty percent, and the man made is about fifty percent. The natural radiation sources are cosmic, and this comes from the sun and the stars, and that accounts for about five percent of the total. We also have internal radionuclides, potassium, and other natural metabolites that account for about five percent of the total. And then the terrestrial or soil accounts