Radioactivity and dose converter
1 Bq = 1 disintegration per second
Convert a radioactivity (becquerel, curie and their multiples), an absorbed dose (gray, rad) or an equivalent dose (sievert, rem). These three quantities answer three different questions: how many disintegrations, how much energy deposited, and what biological effect is expected.
1 Becquerel (Bq) = 2.702702703E-11 Curie (Ci)
Raw value: 2.70270e-11
Scientific dossier
What the tool computes, what it assumes, where it stops being valid, and where its data comes from.
Method & formulas1 Bq = 1 disintegration per second
1 Bq = 1 disintegration per second
1 Ci = 3.7 × 10¹⁰ Bq (exactly)
1 Gy = 1 J/kg
1 Sv = 1 Gy × w_R
The becquerel counts disintegrations, the gray measures energy deposited per unit mass, and the sievert weights that deposit by the harmfulness of the radiation through a factor w_R (1 for photons and electrons, up to 20 for alpha particles). Gray and sievert share the dimension J/kg without being interchangeable.
- Bq
- · Becquerel (Bq)
- kBq
- · Kilobecquerel (kBq)
- MBq
- · Megabecquerel (MBq)
- GBq
- · Gigabecquerel (GBq)
- TBq
- · Terabecquerel (TBq)
- Ci
- · Curie (Ci)
- mCi
- · Millicurie (mCi)
- µCi
- · Microcurie (µCi)
- µGy
- · Microgray (µGy)
- mGy
- · Milligray (mGy)
- Gy
- · Gray (Gy)
- kGy
- · Kilogray (kGy)
- rad
- · Rad (rad)
- nSv
- · Nanosievert (nSv)
- µSv
- · Microsievert (µSv)
- mSv
- · Millisievert (mSv)
- Sv
- · Sievert (Sv)
- rem
- · Rem (rem)
- Ci
- · Non-SI unit, defined as exactly 3.7 × 10¹⁰ Bq. This value comes from a historical definition (approximate activity of one gram of radium-226), not from SI coherence.
Validity domainGoing from absorbed to equivalent dose requires the radiation weighting factor w_R, and going to effective dose additionally requires tissue weighting factors.
Going from absorbed to equivalent dose requires the radiation weighting factor w_R, and going to effective dose additionally requires tissue weighting factors. These are not unit conversions but parameterised radiation-protection calculations. A converter silently applying w_R = 1 would be right for photons and wrong by a factor of 20 for an alpha emitter. The three quantities are therefore kept separate here, and the engine refuses the crossing.