How far can radiation travel?

Answer 1

Indefinitely, unless it contacts something and gets absorbed by it, like the Ozone layer. Radiation from the earliest days of the big bang, approximately 14.5 billion years ago is still reaching us, having travelled (by definition) 14.5 Billion light years.

Answer 2

There is no limit. It just keeps going until it runs into something that absorbs it.

Exactly the same as any other star, which is the reason that we can see light

that comes from things that are 13 billion light-years away from us.
If the radiation doesn't hit anything or isn't absorbed by anything, it could radiate to infinity theoretically.
it will shine until it hits an object (say a planet or meteor)
What?

Answer 3

This is actually a much more complex question to answer than you might imagine.

It depends on many factors:

• design of the bomb
• yield of the bomb
• height/depth of burst
• terrain
• surface material
• weather and wind conditions
• etc.

Also there are two different kinds of radiation to consider:

1. prompt radiation
2. delayed radiation

In the case of prompt radiation the answer is somewhat simpler to determine, as this radiation travels in straight lines similar to the way light travels, thus it is limited to the immediate area around ground zero. This radiation is a mixture of IR, visible light, UV, x-rays, gamma rays, and neutrons released in a flash at the moment of detonation. The amounts of each released depend on the design and yield of the bomb; the spread depends almost entirely on the height of the burst (the higher the burst, the wider the spread on the ground) but can be reduced by terrain (e.g. hills) that block it from certain areas.

In the case of delayed radiation we are talking mostly here about fallout radiation. This radiation is carried by the fallout particles, which can be large hunks of rock or metal down to tiny micron sized dust particles, and is produced by radioactive decay over a period of time depending on the radioisotopes producing it. The radiation emitted is a mixture of alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. The amount of fallout generated depends on the design and yield of the bomb, height/depth of burst, and surface material; the spread depends almost entirely on weather and wind conditions. The most fallout is produced by high yield surface or shallow subsurface bursts and the widest spread is produced by strong winds with little or no precipitation.

I am sorry I am unable to give any numerical values, the problem is just too complex to compute without first making many (possibly invalid) assumptions. Even with these assumptions, to compute the spread of delayed radiation would require running a weather simulation on the computer (which I don't have at this time). In many real world atmospheric nuclear tests dangerous levels of fallout landed in places far outside the predicted areas due to changes in weather between the pretest prediction and the actual shot time.

Answer 4

There is no limit. It just keeps going until it runs into something that absorbs it.

Exactly the same as any other star, which is the reason that we can see light

that comes from things that are 13 billion light-years away from us.

Answer 5

Depends on atmospheric conditions and winds. There is a possibility that the distance would be infinate. Nuclear radiation takes centuries to disipate.

Answer 6

Gamma Rays can travel the furthest out of Beta, Alpha and gamma rays