Radiation damage models

Product yields in the radiolysis of water are required for a number of practical and fundamental reasons. Model calculations require consistent sets of data to use as benchmarks in their accuracy. These models essentially trace the chemistry from the passage of the incident heavy ion to a specified point in time. Engineering and other applications often need product yields to predict radiation damage at long times. Consistent sets of both the oxidizing and reducing species produced in water are especially important to have in order to maintain material balance. Finally, it is impossible to measure the yields of all water... 

Recently there has been interest in the sorptive behavior of natural clays toward metal ions potentially present in radioactive wastes. Initial studies of the transplutonium elements have been carried out to define their sorption behavior with such materials ( ). However, it is also important to understand the stability of the clay-actinide product with regard to radiation damage and to be able to predict what changes in behavior may occur after exposure to radiation, so that accurate transport models may be constructed. 

The long-standing interest of Boyd and his coworkers in radicals and radical ions has led to many papers since 1993 on hyperfine structures. These papers have pushed the conventional multireference configuration interaction methods to the limits of the available computers, tested the predictive ability of various functionals commonly used in DFT calculations, and, among other topics, modeled the effect of a noble gas matrix on the hyperfine structures of radicals. Recent research focused primarily on radicals formed as a consequence of radiation damage to DNA. 

In order to understand the effects of radiation damage to DNA it is necessary to consider larger model systems such as nucleotides, base pairs, and stacked bases. The question then becomes whether or not it is possible to do reliable calculations on such large systems. The literature is full of various attempts to study these complex systems. Some attempts have been more successful than others. 

It is useful to discuss these results within a model of the radiation-damaged polymer. Our original report (.10) on x-irradiation of PTFE concluded that the damaged material was a highly cross-linked and branched network. The new observations, reported here, permit further elaboration of the model. 

Models of radiation damage have been explored and are well developed. For many years, accidental releases of ionizing radiation have been universally feared. Alternatively, radiation has been used in controlled, defined amoimts as a therapy for certain tumors in both companion animals and humans. Taken together, all studies provide a cohesive and comprehensive picture of radiation toxicity. There are sufficient details of radiation effects to make credible estimates of risk resulting from radiation exposure (Harley 2001, 2008). 

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