Background radiation sources

Background Radiation. If the radiation from a radioactive source is measured, the spectmm also includes contributions from the radiations from the surrounding environment. This includes radiations from the radioactivity in the materials in and around the detector, including the stmcture of the building or nearby earth. There is also cosmic radiation that comes from space and interacts with the earth and atmosphere to produce radiations that may enter the detector, and thus is observed. 

Background Radiation—The amount of radiation to which a member of the general population is exposed from natural sources, such as terrestrial radiation from naturally occurring radionuclides in the soil, cosmic radiation originating from outer space, and naturally occurring radionuclides deposited in the human body. 

Plasma sources were developed for emission spectrometric analysis in the late-1960s. Commercial inductively coupled and d.c. plasma spectrometers were introduced in the mid-1970s. By comparison with AAS, atomic plasma emission spectroscopy (APES) can achieve simultaneous multi-element measurement, while maintaining a wide dynamic measurement range and high sensitivities and selectivities over background elements. As a result of the wide variety of radiation sources, optical atomic emission spectrometry is very suitable for multi-element trace determinations. With several techniques, absolute detection limits are below the ng level. 

The line width of the X-ray source is on the order of 1 eV for A1 or Mg Ka sources but can be reduced to better than about 0.3 eV with the use of a monochromator. A monochromator contains a quartz crystal which is positioned at the correct Bragg angle for A1 Ka radiation. The monochromator narrows this line significantly and focuses it onto the sample. It also cuts out all unwanted X-ray satellites and background radiation. An important advantage of using a monochromator is that heat and secondary electrons generated by the X-ray source cannot reach the sample. 

Photomultipliers are generally used to convert the spectral radiation to an electrical current and often phase-sensitive lock-in amplifiers are used to amplify the resulting current. AES and AFS require similar read-out systems because both methods are measuring small signals. The difficulty associated with both these methods is the separation of the signal for the atomic transition of interest from the background radiation emitted by excited molecular species produced in the atom reservoir. AFS phase locks the amplifier detection circuit to the modulation frequency of the spectral source. Modulation of the source is also used in AAS. 

Enriched or should be used for the reactor irradiation to eliminate unwanted background radiations from the other tellurium isotopes. Radiation damage to the source is unimportant since annealing (13) the ZnTe after irradiation did not change line intensity or width. 

Figure 3 is the absorbance spectrum of a sample of the ambient laboratory air drawn into the cell. Here, in accord with the usual procedure, the initially determined spectrum was first corrected for radiation that had reached the detector without having passed through the sample (room temperature background radiation entering the optical path via imperfect optical components and nonoverlap of the source and detector pupils and fields), ratioed against a zero-sample spectrum, and converted to absorbance. Trace (A) shows the spectrum from 3600-600 cm l. The massive absorbances seen here truncated at 1% transmission are due to water vapor and to carbon dioxide. 

Radiation exposure from both natural and human sources varies widely. Background radiation depends on the local geology and elevation. Areas where radioactive rocks are located close to the surface or where mining has exposed mineral deposits have higher background levels. Higher... 

Background Radiation amount of natural radiation detected in the absence of nonnatural radioactive sources Base a substance that yields hydroxide ions in solution or accepts protons Becquerel SI unit for activity equal to one disintegration per second, abbreviated Bq... 

Life on earth has evolved in the presence of naturally occurring ionizing radiation, which is continuous and ubiquitous. In addition to natural background radiation exposure, mankind is now exposed also to radiation from various man-made sources. 

Besides the double beam instrument that eliminates background due to light fluctuations from the source by measuring the background radiation from the flame, a second radiation source can be used to determine the absorption of the matrix. 

K is a (3 -emitting nuclide that is the predominant radioactive component of normal foods and human tissue. Due to the 1460-keV 7 ray that accompanies the (3 decay, it is also an important source of background radiation detected by 7-ray spectrometers. The natural concentration in the body contributes about 17 mrem/y to the whole body dose. The specific activity of 40K is approximately 855 pCi/g potassium. Despite the high specific activity of 87Rb of 2400 pCi/g, the low abundance of rubidium in nature makes its contribution to the overall radioactivity of the environment small. 

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