Radionuclides, ionization sources using

There are two common occasions when rapid measurement is preferable. The first is with ionization sources using laser desorption or radionuclides. A pulse of ions is produced in a very short interval of time, often of the order of a few nanoseconds. If the mass spectrometer takes 1 sec to attempt to scan the range of ions produced, then clearly there will be no ions left by the time the scan has completed more than a few nanoseconds (ion traps excluded). If a point ion detector were to be used for this type of pulsed ionization, then after the beginning of the scan no more ions would reach the collector because there would not be any left The array collector overcomes this difficulty by detecting the ions produced all at the same instant. 

The following is a brief description of the various ionization sources used in mass spectrometry. Those sources most commonly used in the analysis of radionuclides will be described in greater detail later in the chapter. 

The sources of ionizing radiation used for research or industrial irradiation purposes can be divided into two groups sources containing radionuclides, such as Co, Cs, or the Sr— pair, and machine sources of radiation, such as X-ray equipment or electron accelerators. Without going into details, this chapter will briefly mention those characteristics of some of the radioactive nuclides and accelerators, which are important from the point of view of using them for irradiation purposes. 

On the other hand, there are some ionization techniques that are very useful, particularly at very high mass, but produce ions only in pulses. For these sources, the ion extraction field can be left on continuously. Two prominent examples are Californium radionuclide and laser desorption ionization. In the former, nuclear disintegration occurs within a very short time frame to give a... 

The sources of ionizing radiation are nuclear power plant, nuclear material processing, and radionuclide generation for nondestructive purposes. Medical and chemical laboratories use these radionuclides—for example, iodine, thallium, and barium—as tracers. The danger of mishandling these materials could cause release of these materials into the environment. Other than medical diagnostic tests for fracture of bones and constriction of blood vessels, these are used for the treatment of cancers. 

Numerous sources of ionizing radiation can lead to human exposure natural sources, nuclear explosions, nuclear power generation, use of radiation in medical, industrial and research purposes and radiation-emitting consumer products. Before assessing the radiation dose to the population, one requires a precise knowledge of the activity of a number of radionuclides. The basis for the assessment of the dose to the population from a release of radioactivity to the environment, the estimation of the potential clinical health effects due to the dose received and, ultimately, the implementation of countermeasures to protect the population is the measurement of radioactive contamination in the environment after the release. The types of radiation one should consider include ... 

A resonance ionization mass spectrometer (RIMS) uses a tunable, narrow bandwidth laser to excite an atom or molecule to a selected energy level that is then analyzed by MS. The selective ionization often is accomplished by absorption of more photons from the exciting laser, but can also be effected by a second laser or a broadband photon source. Multiple photon absorption can result in direct ionization or in production of excited species that can then be ionized with a low-energy photon source (IR laser) or by a strong electric field. Resonance ionization methods have been applied to nearly all elements in the periodic table and to many radionuclides, including Cs (Pibida et al., 2001), Th (Fearey et al., 1992), U (Herrmann et al., 1991), Np (Riegel et al., 1993), Pu (Smith, 2000 Trautmann et al., 2004 Wendt et al., 2000), radioxenon and radiokrypton (Watanabe et al., 2001 Wendt et al., 2000), and 41Ca (Wendt et al., 1999). 

The first use of radioactivity in medicine was the use of radium in the treatment of cancers. Ionizing radiation from radium (or other radionuclide) is focused on the tumour (cancer), and the energy that the radiation carries is used to kill the cancer cells. Sources of fast neutrons have also been used to treat some cancers. Ionizing radiation also kills healthy tissue so it is important that narrow and controlled beams are used. Another technique is to directly inject a radionuclide into the body. This can be done to study the biochemical reactions in the body or for the radionuclide to be concentrated in a particular part of the body and irradiate cancerous tissue. 

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry is a very rapid technique for the determination of long-lived radionuclides. This technique is based on the ionization of elements in the plasma source. Typically, radiofrequency and argon are used to reach plasma excitation temperatures ranging from 4900 to 7000 K [18,19]. The ions produced are introduced through an interface into a vacuum chamber and are analyzed by a quadru-pole mass spectrometer. Other attempts are being made to use faster mass-spectrometer detectors, such as time-of-flight mass spectrometers, but methods are still not available. 

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