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Different types of radiation will result in biological effects of varying intensities. Radiation weighting factors are...

Different types of radiation will result in biological effects of varying intensities. Radiation weighting factors are utilized to account for these differences. Penetrating gamma-rays have a weighting factor of 1, while alpha-particles have a weighting factor of 20. Please explain why alpha-particles are weighted so much more heavily than gamma-rays.

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The radiation produces the ionization of atoms (ionizing radiation). This primary process has further biological effects (DNA, tissue damages). The effect of alpha radiation (a “heavy” particle) is at short distance, but very distructive due to its relative high mass and high effective area/cross section of interaction. . The gamma ray is highly penetrating, but for the same energy is less distructive (lower effective area of interaction). As a densely ionizing radiation (by mass and cross section), the alpha radiation damages the DNA mostly in a non-reparable way.

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