1999 Ford ExplorerNewly installed alarm.
Alpha emits electrons beta emits 2 neutrons and 2 protons ,generally i didn't understand the meaning of these 2 statements. an alpha is a He nucleus and doesn't necessarily emit anything. a beta is an electron or a positron, and also doesn't emit anything. older smoke detectors (which use ~0.2 ug of americium-241) can be quite hot at the source. i've measured these myself. there are ~5.5 MeV alphas (which is the point of using this source in this application), but also a *very* strong ~60 keV gamma line. the problem w/ the idea of using a very hot source to power a generator in a home is the shielding you'd require. a source hot enough to heat water and power a turbine (or enough RTGs) would bake anyone in that home. let your power company do it - modern reactor technology is extremely advanced and e.g. pebble bed reactors cannot possibly go critical all radiation is not bad. see medical and dental x-rays, thallium stress tests, radiation treatment of cancers etc etc. radiation is used for a whole host of other beneficial reasons. you receive ~360 mrem/year of radiation from natural sources. (cosmics, radon, medical/dental sources, food, building materials, etc). so, not only is all radiation not bad, but you're getting radiated anyway and there's no way to escape it cheers
If you have made it this far your obviously have the skill and knowledge needed. So relax and apply what you know and be prepared to learn a ton more from the experienced people you will be working with..
