Physics:Curie (unit)

Short description: Non-SI unit of radioactivity

Curie
A sample of radium, the element which was used in the original definition of the curie.
General information
Unit of	Activity
Symbol	Ci
Named after	Pierre Curie and Marie Curie
Conversions
1 Ci in ...	... is equal to ...
rutherfords	37000 Rd
SI derived unit	37 GBq
SI base unit	3.7×1010 s−1

Sample of cobalt-60 that emits 1 μCi (microcurie) of radioactivity; i.e. 37,000 decays per second.

The curie (symbol Ci) is a non-SI unit of radioactivity originally defined in 1910. According to a notice in Nature at the time, it was to be named in honour of Pierre Curie, but was considered at least by some to be in honour of Marie Skłodowska–Curie as well, and is in later literature considered to be named for both.

It was originally defined as "the quantity or mass of radium emanation in equilibrium with one gram of radium (element)", but is currently defined as 1 Ci = 3.7×10¹⁰ decays per second after more accurate measurements of the activity of ²²⁶Ra (which has a specific activity of 3.66×10¹⁰ Bq/g).

In 1975 the General Conference on Weights and Measures gave the becquerel (Bq), defined as one nuclear decay per second, official status as the SI unit of activity. Therefore:

1 Ci = 3.7×10¹⁰ Bq = 37 GBq

and

1 Bq ≅ 2.703×10⁻¹¹ Ci ≅ 27 pCi

While its continued use is discouraged by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other bodies, the curie is still widely used throughout government, industry and medicine in the United States and in other countries.

At the 1910 meeting, which originally defined the curie, it was proposed to make it equivalent to 10 nanograms of radium (a practical amount). But Marie Skłodowska–Curie, after initially accepting this, changed her mind and insisted on one gram of radium. According to Bertram Boltwood, Marie Skłodowska–Curie thought that "the use of the name 'curie' for so infinitesimally small [a] quantity of anything was altogether inappropriate".

The power emitted in radioactive decay corresponding to one curie can be calculated by multiplying the decay energy by approximately 5.93 mW / MeV.

A radiotherapy machine may have roughly 1000 Ci of a radioisotope such as caesium-137 or cobalt-60. This quantity of radioactivity can produce serious health effects with only a few minutes of close-range, unshielded exposure.

Radioactive decay can lead to the emission of particulate radiation or electromagnetic radiation. Ingesting even small quantities of some particulate emitting radionuclides may be fatal. For example, the median lethal dose (LD-50) for ingested polonium-210 is 240 μCi; about 53.5 nanograms. However, millicurie quantities of electromagnetic emitting radionuclides are routinely used in nuclear medicine.

The typical human body contains roughly 0.1 μCi (14 mg) of naturally occurring potassium-40. A human body containing 16 kg (35 lb) of carbon (see Composition of the human body) would also have about 24 nanograms or 0.1 μCi of carbon-14. Together, these would result in a total of approximately 0.2 μCi or 7400 decays per second inside the person's body (mostly from beta decay but some from gamma decay).

As a measure of quantity

Units of activity (the curie and the becquerel) also refer to a quantity of radioactive atoms. Because the probability of decay is a fixed physical quantity, for a known number of atoms of a particular radionuclide, a predictable number will decay in a given time. The number of decays that will occur in one second in one gram of atoms of a particular radionuclide is known as the specific activity of that radionuclide.

The activity of a sample decreases with time because of decay.

The rules of radioactive decay may be used to convert activity to an actual number of atoms. They state that 1 Ci of radioactive atoms would follow the expression

N (atoms) × λ (s⁻¹) = 1 Ci = 3.7 × 10¹⁰ Bq,

and so

N = 3.7 × 10¹⁰ Bq / λ,

where λ is the decay constant in s⁻¹.

Here are some examples, ordered by half-life:

Isotope	Half-life	Mass of 1 curie	Specific activity (Ci/g)
209Bi	1.9×1019 years	11.1 billion tonnes	9.01×10−17
232Th	1.405×1010 years	9.1 tonnes	1.1×10−7 (110,000 pCi/g, 0.11 μCi/g)
238U	4.471×109 years	2.977 tonnes	3.4×10−7 (340,000 pCi/g, 0.34 μCi/g)
40K	1.25×109 years	140 kg	7.1×10−6 (7,100,000 pCi/g, 7.1 μCi/g)
235U	7.038×108 years	463 kg	2.2×10−6 (2,160,000 pCi/g, 2.2 μCi/g)
129I	15.7×106 years	5.66 kg	0.00018
99Tc	211×103 years	58 g	0.017
239Pu	24.11×103 years	16 g	0.063
240Pu	6563 years	4.4 g	0.23
14C	5730 years	0.22 g	4.5
226Ra	1601 years	1.01 g	0.99
241Am	432.6 years	0.29 g	3.43
238Pu	88 years	59 mg	17
137Cs	30.17 years	12 mg	83
90Sr	28.8 years	7.2 mg	139
241Pu	14 years	9.4 mg	106
3H	12.32 years	104 μg	9,621
228Ra	5.75 years	3.67 mg	273
60Co	1925 days	883 μg	1,132
210Po	138 days	223 μg	4,484
131I	8.02 days	8 μg	125,000
123I	13 hours	518 ng	1,930,000
212Pb	10.64 hours	719 ng	1,390,000
223Fr	22 minutes	26 ng	38,000,000
212Po	299 nanoseconds	5.61 ag	1.78×1017

Radiation related quantities

The following table shows radiation quantities in SI and non-SI units:

Ionising radiation related quantities

Quantity	Unit	Symbol	Derivation	Year	SI equivalence
Activity (A)	becquerel	Bq	s−1	1974	SI unit
	curie	Ci	3.7 × 1010 s−1	1953	3.7×1010 Bq
	rutherford	Rd	106 s−1	1946	1,000,000 Bq
Exposure (X)	coulomb per kilogram	C/kg	C⋅kg−1 of air	1974	SI unit
	röntgen	R	esu / 0.001293 g of air	1928	2.58 × 10−4 C/kg
Absorbed dose (D)	gray	Gy	J⋅kg−1	1974	SI unit
	erg per gram	erg/g	erg⋅g−1	1950	1.0 × 10−4 Gy
	rad	rad	100 erg⋅g−1	1953	0.010 Gy
Dose equivalent (H)	sievert	Sv	J⋅kg−1 × WR	1977	SI unit
	röntgen equivalent man	rem	100 erg⋅g−1	1971	0.010 Sv

See also

• Geiger counter
• Ionizing radiation
• Radiation burn
• Radiation exposure
• Radiation poisoning
• United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation