Radioactivity, physics

A. Ghiorso and G. T. Seaborg Systematics of alpha-radioactivity. Physic. 

Lykknes, A., Kragh, H. and Kvittingen, L. (2002). Ellen Gleditsch Pioneer woman in radioactivity. Physics in Perspective 6 126-155. 

Experimentation in the late 1930s had first brought the isotope to the attention of scientists. See Milo Sampson, Louis N. Ridenour, and Walker Bleakney, The Isotopes of Cobalt and Their Radioactivity, Physical Review, 50, second series, no. 4, August 15, 1936, andj. R. Risser, Neutron-Induced Radioactivity of Long Life in Cobalt, ... 

The method is based on the international standard ISO 4053/IV. A small amount of the radioactive tracer is injected instantaneously into the flare gas flow through e.g. a valve, representing the only physical interference with the process. Radiation detectors are mounted outside the pipe and the variation of tracer concentration with time is recorded as the tracer moves with the gas stream and passes by the detectors. A control, supply and data registration unit including PC is used for on site data treatment... 

The slightly different physical properties of deuterium allow its concentration in ordinary hydrogen (or the concentration of a deuterium-containing compound in a hydrogen compound) to be determined. Exchange of deuterium and hydrogen occurs and can be used to elucidate the mechanism of reactions (i.e. the deuterium is a non-radioactive tracer). Methanol exchanges with deuterium oxide thus ... 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST is the source of many of the standards used in chemical and physical analyses in the United States and throughout the world. The standards prepared and distributed by the NIST are used to caUbrate measurement systems and to provide a central basis for uniformity and accuracy of measurement. At present, over 1200 Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) are available and are described by the NIST (15). Included are many steels, nonferrous alloys, high purity metals, primary standards for use in volumetric analysis, microchemical standards, clinical laboratory standards, biological material certified for trace elements, environmental standards, trace element standards, ion-activity standards (for pH and ion-selective electrodes), freezing and melting point standards, colorimetry standards, optical standards, radioactivity standards, particle-size standards, and density standards. Certificates are issued with the standard reference materials showing values for the parameters that have been determined. 

Radon is the heaviest of the hehum-group elements and the heaviest of the normal gaseous elements. It is strongly radioactive. The most common isotope, Rn, has a half-life of 3.825 days (49). Radon s scarcity and radioactivity have severely limited the examination of its physical properties, and the values given ki Table 3 are much more uncertain than are the values Hsted for the other elements. 

Although the size separation/classification methods are adequate in some cases to produce a final saleable mineral product, in a vast majority of cases these produce Httle separation of valuable minerals from gangue. Minerals can be separated from one another based on both physical and chemical properties (Fig. 8). Physical properties utilized in concentration include specific gravity, magnetic susceptibility, electrical conductivity, color, surface reflectance, and radioactivity level. Among the chemical properties, those of particle surfaces have been exploited in physico-chemical concentration methods such as flotation and flocculation. The main objective of concentration is to separate the valuable minerals into a small, concentrated mass which can be treated further to produce final mineral products. In some cases, these methods also produce a saleable product, especially in the case of industrial minerals. 

The use of radioactive tracers was pioneered by Georg von Hevesy, a Hungarian physical chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in 1943 for his work on radioactive indicators (1). Radioisotopes have become indispensable components of most medical and life science research strategies, and in addition the technology is the basis for numerous industries focused on the production and detection of radioactive tracers. Thousands of radioactive tracers have been synthesized and are commercially available. These are used worldwide in tens of thousands of research laboratories. 

Conservation of Energy. Because the naturally occurring radioactive materials continued to emit particles, and thus the associated energy, without any decrease in intensity, the question of the source of this energy arose. Whereas the conservation of energy was a firmly estabUshed law of physics, the origin of the energy in the radioactivity was unknown. 

Properties. Strontium is a hard white metal having physical properties shown in Table 1. It has four stable isotopes, atomic weights 84, 86, 87, and 88 and one radioactive isotope, strontium-90 [10098-97-2] which is a product of nuclear fission. The most abundant isotope is strontium-88. 

Adsorption of Radionuclides. Other appHcations that depend on physical adsorption include the control of krypton and xenon radionuchdes from nuclear power plants (92). The gases are not captured entirely, but their passage is delayed long enough to allow radioactive decay of the short-hved species. Highly rnicroporous coconut-based activated carbon is used for this service. 

Nuclear-physical methods ai e the basic ones in controlling environmental pollution which results from nucleai -power complexes and power plants work. Oil and gas production leads to the extraction of radio nuclides of natural origin in considerable amounts, which later spread from oil-slimes and water wastes in the neighborhoods of oil and gas producing entei prises. Similaidy, toxic and radioactive elements can pollute environment in case of mineral deposits extraction. 

The neutron activation technique mentioned in the preceding paragraph is only one of a range of nuclear methods used in the study of solids - methods which depend on the response of atomic nuclei to radiation or to the emission of radiation by the nuclei. Radioactive isotopes ( tracers ) of course have been used in research ever since von Hevesy s pioneering measurements of diffusion (Section 4.2.2). These techniques have become a field of study in their own right and a number of physics laboratories, as for instance the Second Physical Institute at the University of Gottingen, focus on the development of such techniques. This family of techniques, as applied to the study of condensed matter, is well surveyed in a specialised text... 

Given the damage states, the analysis flows much as shown in Figure 6.3-1, depending on the process. For a nuclear power plant, thermal-hydraulic analyses determine the spatial temperature of the damaged core, and consequently the ability of the core to retain radioactive materials. Analysis of the physical processes reveals the amounts of hazardous materials that may be released. 

Section 8.1 provided a description of a core melt. This section backs up to describe thermal-hydraulic calculations of the phenomena before, during, and after the accident, and other calculations to estimate the radioactive release from containment. In this accident physics cannot be analyzed separately from in-plant transport. 

Physical methods Physical methods include photometric absorption and fluorescence and phosphorescence inhibition, which is wrongly referred to as fluorescence quenching [1], and the detection of radioactively labelled substances by means of autoradiographic techniques, scintillation procedures or other radiometric methods. These methods are nondestructive (Chapt. 2). 

Physical detection methods are based on inclusion of substance-specific properties. The most commonly employed are the absorption or emission of electromagnetic radiation, which is detected by suitable detectors (the eye, photomultiplier). The / -radiation of radioactively labelled substances can also be detected directly. These nondestructive detection methods allow subsequent micropreparative manipulation of the substances concerned. They can also be followed by microchemical and/or biological-physiological detection methods. 

The most serious accident tliat Ciui occur in a nuclear plant is a reactor core meltdown. In a core meltdown, the enclosed gases physically melt through tlie reactor vessel, and once contacting with cooler liquids or vapors either in a cooling jacket or in the outer enviromnent, cause a physical e. plosion to occur. However, tlie hazard caused by the e. plosion itself is minimal and more localized compared with the release of radioactive material that accompanies such an accident. 

The alkali metals form a homogeneous group of extremely reactive elements which illustrate well the similarities and trends to be expected from the periodic classification, as discussed in Chapter 2. Their physical and chemical properties are readily interpreted in terms of their simple electronic configuration, ns, and for this reason they have been extensively studied by the full range of experimental and theoretical techniques. Compounds of sodium and potassium have been known from ancient times and both elements are essential for animal life. They are also major items of trade, commerce and chemical industry. Lithium was first recognized as a separate element at the beginning of the nineteenth eentury but did not assume major industrial importance until about 40 y ago. Rubidium and caesium are of considerable academic interest but so far have few industrial applications. Francium, the elusive element 87, has only fleeting existence in nature due to its very short radioactive half-life, and this delayed its discovery until 1939. 

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