Radioactivity involving

The process of radioactive decay (also known as radioactivity) involves the ejection from a nucleus of one or more nuclear particles and ionizing radiation. Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus splits into smaller nuclei, with the simultaneous release of energy. Most radioisotopes undergo radioactive decay processes and are converted into different smaller atoms. 

Errors Inherent to the Radiocarbon Dating Method. The decay of radiocarbon is radioactive, involving discrete nuclear disintegrations taking place at random dates derived from the measurement of radiocarbon levels are therefore subject to statistical errors intrinsic to the measurement, which cannot be ignored. It is because of these errors that radiocarbon dates are expressed as a time range, in the form... 

Roentgen s discovery of x-rays stimulated great interest in this new form of radiation worldwide. Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908) accidentally discovered the process of radioactivity while he was studying x-rays. Radioactivity involves the spontaneous disintegration of unstable atomic nuclei. Becquerel had stored uranium salts on top of photographic plates in a dark drawer. When Becquerel retrieved the plates, he noticed the plates contained images made by the uranium salts. Bec-querel s initial discovery in 1896 was further developed by Marie Curie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1859-1906). Marie Curie coined the word radioactive to describe the emission from uranium. 

One of the areas in which the skills of radiochemists are used is the area of low-level chemistry and low-level counting. Areas as diverse as the detection of solar neutrinos or the study of environmental radioactivity involve low-level techniques. For example, despite concentration of the radiotracers of interest during sampling procedures in environmental studies, quite often one is left with a sample containing... 

The total amount of radioactivity involved and the amounts bound to the antibody were measured for 2 min on a well-type gamma counter. The found values were corrected for non-specific binding and the concentrations of APS-314d in samples were obtained from the calibration curve smoothed by a 4-PL model. 

Radioactivity involves the spontaneous emission of radiation by an unstable nucleus. 

After two years of research at Oxford, Soddy served as a demonstrator (laboratory instructor) at McGill University in Montreal, Canada (1900-1902), where he worked with Ernest Rntherford, studying the gaseous emanation of radinm and showing that radioactivity involved the disintegration of radioactive atoms to form new elements. He called the process transmutation, a term that he borrowed from alchemy. 

Sampling of liquid streams for process control and accountability of fuel poses unusual problems because of the radioactivity involved. Landry describes the numerous ingenious sampling devices which are used. Most designs depend on a gas lift to recirculate the liquid to a shielded sampling box where a representative sample is removed. 

This is the last chapter in Part I of the general chemistry review. In this chapter, we will discuss the different aspects of radioactivity. Radioactivity is a nuclear phenomenon. It results from natural nuclear instability or externally induced nuclear instability. We will limit our discussion of nuclear chemistry to the basic aspects of radioactivity involving radioactive emissions such as alpha emission, beta emission, gamma rays, positron emission, and electron capture. We will also review other ideas such as the half-lives of radioactive substances and the mass-energy equation. 

The simplest arrangement to measure radioactivity involves measurement of the ionization caused by radiation in a gas filled chamber. The number of ionized particles generated in the gas by direct interaction (primary interaction) with radiation can be Increased several fold by various methods discussed below. The photographic methods of determination of radioactivity also depend upon ionization action of the rays which makes the grains of silver bromide sensitive to the developer. 

By the early 1900s, additional radioactive elements were discovered, principally by Marie and Pierre Curie. Rutherford and Frederick Soddy made another profoimd finding The chemical properties of a radioactive element change as it undergoes radioactive decay. This observation suggests that radioactivity involves fundamental changes at the subatomic level— in radioactive decay, one element is changed into another, a process known as transmutation. 

There are other less common types of radioactive decay. Positron emission results in a decrease by one unit in the atomic number K capture involves the incorporation of one of the extranuclear electrons into the nucleus, the atomic number is again decreased by one unit. 

Radioactive isotopes show excellent properties as tracers since they are detectable in very low concentrations (i.e. high dilution) and with high specificity. Further y-emitting radioactive tracers can be measured in situ, through pipe and vessel walls which enables e.g. studies of processes under high pressures, and processes involving a gaseous phase. 

The "time of flight" mass spectrometer has been used to confirm that this highly radioactive halogen behaves chemically very much like other halogens, particularly iodine. Astatine is said to be more metallic than iodine, and, like iodine, it probably accumulates in the thyroid gland. Workers at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have recently used reactive scattering in crossed molecular beams to identify and measure elementary reactions involving astatine. 

OtherApphca.tlons. Many appHcations of adsorption involving radioactive compounds simply parallel similar appHcations involving the same compounds in nonradio active forms, eg, radioactive carbon-14, or deuterium- or tritium-containing versions of CO2, H2O, hydrocarbons. For example, molecular sieve 2eohtes are commonly employed for these separations, just as for the corresponding nonradio active uses. 

The Natural Reactor. Some two biUion years ago, uranium had a much higher (ca 3%) fraction of U than that of modem times (0.7%). There is a difference in half-hves of the two principal uranium isotopes, U having a half-life of 7.08 x 10 yr and U 4.43 x 10 yr. A natural reactor existed, long before the dinosaurs were extinct and before humans appeared on the earth, in the African state of Gabon, near Oklo. Conditions were favorable for a neutron chain reaction involving only uranium and water. Evidence that this process continued intermittently over thousands of years is provided by concentration measurements of fission products and plutonium isotopes. Usehil information about retention or migration of radioactive wastes can be gleaned from studies of this natural reactor and its products (12). 

Radioactivity occurs naturally in earth minerals containing uranium and thorium. It also results from two principal processes arising from bombardment of atomic nuclei by particles such as neutrons, ie, activation and fission. Activation involves the absorption of a neutron by a stable nucleus to form an unstable nucleus. An example is the neutron reaction of a neutron and cobalt-59 to yield cobalt-60 [10198 0-0] Co, a 5.26-yr half-life gamma-ray emitter. Another is the absorption of a neutron by uranium-238 [24678-82-8] to produce plutonium-239 [15117 8-5], Pu, as occurs in the fuel of a nuclear... 

Syntheses of radioactive tracers involve all of the classical biochemical and synthetic chemical reactions used in the synthesis of nonradio active chemicals. There are, however, specialized techniques and considerations required for the safe handling of radioactive chemicals, strategic synthetic considerations in terms of their relatively high cost, and synthesis scale constraints governed by specific activity requirements. 

A related mechanism of degradation involves the direct interaction of the radioactive emission with other tracer molecules in the preparation. This phenomenon is likely to occur in high specific activity compounds stored at high radiochemical concentrations in the absence of free-radical scavengers. 

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