Nuclear radiation characteristics

Excellent, comprehensive treatments of the principles and fundamentals of nuclear activation analysis - including applications fundamentals - are found in the following five consecutive chapters in the first edition of Treatise on Analytical Chemistry Finston (1971a) (Radioactive and isotopic methods of analysis nature, scope, limitations, and interrelations) Finston (1971b) (Nuclear radiations characteristics and detection) Crouthamel and Heinrich (1971) (Radiochemical separations) Seaman (1971) (Tracer techniques) and Guinn (1971) (Activation analysis). A series of seven similarly comprehensive chapters appeared in the updated second edition Lieser (1986), (Fundamentals of nuclear activation and radioisotopic methods of analysis) Herpers... 

Finston HL (1971b) Nuclear radiations characteristics and detection. In Kolthoff IM, Elving PJ and Sandell EB, eds. Treatise on analytical chemistry. Part I (Theory and practice), Vol 9, section D-6, Radioactive methods, pp. 5427-5466. John Wiley Sons, New York. 

Regulations and Guidelines Applicable to Thorium B-1 Characteristics of Nuclear Radiations... 

At one time it was believed (Ref 3) that detonability was detd by the burning rate. It must be understood clearly that high order detonation is a bulk phenomenon and not one governed by the classic proplnt burning theories. The tendency to detonate is a characteristic intrinsic with each formulation which must be studied in shock environments as it is found in a card gap or flyer plate test (see later in this article) or Susan and Wenograd tests (Ref 19) Likewise, density is not a useful measure of the detonability of a proplnt except perhaps to the extent that low density formulations may be porous. A more valid measure of the safe-life of proplnts is the depletion with time of stabilizers such as the nitroamines which are found in double base proplnts or the loss of the plasticizer. Such determinations can now be performed routinely in a quantitative fashion by means of liq chromatography Nuclear Radiation Hazard... 

The very small amount of the element astatine formed by nuclear bombardment of bismuth may be volatilized off of the bismuth and collected in a solution of nitric acid. The behavior of the new halogen in a number of reactions is determined by treating the solution and tracing the course of the radiation characteristic of the element. The following are typical experiments ... 

The radioiodine 123I, on the other hand, is very useful in nuclear medicine because it has good radiation characteristics for scintigraphy, such as decay by electron capture, a half-life of 13 h, and y emmision of 159 keV. However, the much shorter half-life, together with the more complex radionuclide production, makes this radionuclide less available and more expensive compared to 131I. 

The initial data for calculation of nuclear powered plant (NPP) radiation characteristics are the activity values in NPP equipment and process media. To a considerable extent the activity value depends on NPP running regime. 

By detailed comparison with the elution of lanthanide ions and by extrapolating data for the lighter actinides such as Np3+ or Pu3 +, the order of elution of the heavier actinides can be accurately forecast. Even a few atoms of the element can be identified because of the characteristic nuclear radiation. 

Siffert, P., and Coche, A., General Characteristics of the Interactions of Nuclear Radiations with Matter and their Consequences, in G. Bertolini and A. Coche (eds.), Semiconductor Detectors, Wiley, New York, 1968, pp. 279-300. 

Not all of the 300 naturally occurring isotopes are stable. Unstable nuclei (protons and neutrons) spontaneously transform (decay) to achieve stability and are the radioactive materials syn. radionuclides or radioisotopes. Many other radioactive isotopes are made artificially by bombarding atoms with neutrons or charged particles in processes that occur in nuclear energy reactors and particle accelerators. As nuclei decay, they emit one of four types of radiation characteristic of the atom ... 

The binding of radionuclides by a cement matrix is determined by their chemical nature, and is not dependent on their radiation characteristics. In most nuclear wastes the radionuchdes that are preserrt constitute only a small fraction of the total mass, and are intermixed with non-radioactive species. If some of them possess cherrrical toxicity, then such products are classified as mixed wastes. 

RUBTSOV, P., RUZHANSKY, P., Radiation Characteristic Estimation of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel in Reactors of Nuclear Submarine and Icebreaker Lenin Dumped near Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, State Institute for Applied Ecology, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, Moscow (1995). 

KOLOBASHKIN, V.M., et al.. Radiation Characteristics of Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, Moscow (1983) (in Russian). 

The basic idea of activation analysis is that irradiation by appropriately chosen penetrating radiation induces nuclear reactions in the nuclei of the analyte, and the reaction products (which usually are radioactive) emit radiations characteristic of the identity and quantity of the... 

Much of the basic chemistry of thorium and uranium tvas known in 1942, but the nuclear decay characteristics of most of the (FPs) were not. Furthermore, the chemistry of many of the FPs and transuranic (TRU) elements was not known in sufficient detail. Promethium, technetium, and all the TRU elements were new to science and much had to be inferred from an element s position in the periodic table. The chemical and physical effects of radiation imposed additional difficulties and imcerlainties in the proposed processes, as they do even today. 

---