Note: there are no "cookbook" answers to the following questions. You have to think about things.
- You are a brown trout living in a high alpine lake in Colorado. You have a cousin (a rainbow) living in a farm pond next to the Department of Energy's Hanford Site. Describe why your annual radiation doses might differ.
- Describe why they might be the same.
- A human baby and an adult both drink milk containing 131I; both drink 1 L d-1. Which would you expect to have the higher concentration of 131I in their thyroid? Why?
- 3H is detectable in the environment. Where did it come from?
- An elephant and an amoeba both went for a swim in a pond contaminated with137 Neither of them drank the water. Which would you expect to have the highest concentration of the contaminant? Why?
- A mule deer is consuming vegetation from a contaminated pasture. The vegetation has an average activity concentration of 1 Bq g-1 of 137 Assuming the deer eats 1.5 kg d-1 and that the effective half-time for 137Cs in the deer is 500 days. What equation would you use to calculate the activity in the "deer" compartment with time? Generate a plot (using excel or by hand) and submit it with your answer.