Radium-226, measurement determination

Then Harriet Brooks arrived on the scene. When she joined Rutherford s team, she was asked to measure the atomic mass of the isotopes that make up the mysterious vapour given off by radium. She determined that its atomic mass was between 40 and 100, whereas radium was known to have an atomic mass of over 140. Surely this was not just a gaseous form of radium. Somehow radium was turning into another element ... 

Kroll, V. 1954. On the age-determination in deep-sea sediments by radium measurements. Deep-Sea Res. 1(4) 211-215. 

Cochran JK, Masque P (2003) Short-lived U/Th-series radionuclides in the ocean tracers for scavenging rates, export fluxes and particle dynamics. Rev Mineral Geochem 52 461-492 Cohen AS, O Nions RK (1991) Precise determination of femtogram quantities of radium by thermal ionization mass spectrometry. Anal Chem 63 2705-2708 Cohen AS, Belshaw NS, O Nions RK (1992) High precision uranium, thorium, and radium isotope ratio measurements by high dynamic range thermal ionization mass spectrometry. Inti J Mass Spectrom Ion Processes 116 71-81... 

In the environment, thorium and its compounds do not degrade or mineralize like many organic compounds, but instead speciate into different chemical compounds and form radioactive decay products. Analytical methods for the quantification of radioactive decay products, such as radium, radon, polonium and lead are available. However, the decay products of thorium are rarely analyzed in environmental samples. Since radon-220 (thoron, a decay product of thorium-232) is a gas, determination of thoron decay products in some environmental samples may be simpler, and their concentrations may be used as an indirect measure of the parent compound in the environment if a secular equilibrium is reached between thorium-232 and all its decay products. There are few analytical methods that will allow quantification of the speciation products formed as a result of environmental interactions of thorium (e.g., formation of complex). A knowledge of the environmental transformation processes of thorium and the compounds formed as a result is important in the understanding of their transport in environmental media. For example, in aquatic media, formation of soluble complexes will increase thorium mobility, whereas formation of insoluble species will enhance its incorporation into the sediment and limit its mobility. 

Gross alpha and gross beta activity can be determined by various radioactive counters, such as internal proportional, alpha scintillation, and Geiger counters. Radium in water can be measured by co-precipitating with barium sulfate followed by counting alpha particles. Radium-226 can be measured from alpha counting of radon-222. Various methods are well documented (APHA, AWWA, and WEF 1998. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 20 ed. Washington DC American Public Health Association). 

The swirl number, a dimensionless ratio of the angular momentum to the product of the axial momentum and the radium of the burner, can be varied through separate control of the two secondary air streams in order to study various burner designs. The air flows were measured using sharp edged orifices. Control of the air flows and calibration of the coal feeder made it possible to duplicate combustion conditions as determined both by exhaust gas analysis (CO, CO2, O2, NO, NOx) and aerosol characteristics. 

Another procedure is based on the measurement of the radioactive isotope radon-222 (half-life 3.8 days), the decay product of natural radium-226. At the bottom of lakes and oceans, radon diffuses from the sediment to the overlying water where it is transported upward by turbulence. Broecker (1965) was among the first to use the vertical profile of 222Rn in the deep sea to determine vertical turbulent diffusivity in the ocean. 

There are few medical tests to determine if you have been exposed to radium. There is a urine test to determine if you have been exposed to a source of radioactivity such as radium. There is also a test to measure the amount of radon, a breakdown product of radium, when it is exhaled. These tests require special equipment and cannot be done in a doctor s office. Another test can measure the total amount of radioactivity in the body however, this test is not used except in special cases of high exposure. 

Exposure to radium can be determined by use of a whole body counter to measure the presence of gamma radiation emitted by radium (Toohey et al. 1983). Radium levels can also be measured in urine, feces, and other biological media by means of gamma-ray spectroscopy (Lloyd et al. 1983). 

This was the first occasion when so large a value was given, based too on evidence of a reliable character for Rutherford had determined the amount of uranium and radium in the rock, calulated the annual output of alpha particles, was confident that these were helium, measured the amount of helium in the rock and by simple division found the period during which the rock had existed in a compacted form. 

Another method for measuring Volta potentials is to ionize the air between the plates, and adjust the potential applied to them until no current passes across the air gap. This method appears to have been used first by Righi2 (with ultra-violet rays as a source of ionization), later by Perrin and many later workers, using radium salts 8 Greinachcr,4 and Anderson and Morrison,6 pointed out that errors frequently arose if sources capable of ionizing the air in other parts of the apparatus than directly between the plates and it is well to use either a carefully shielded source of j3 or y rays or a radioactive source such as polonium, which gives off only a rays which have a range of a few centimetres only. This method is that used for the determination of the surface potentials of insoluble films as described in Chapter II. 

Taking into consideration the method of °Sr analysis, the activity equilibrium state between °Sr and its decay product °Y is very important. This state is attained 12 days after the separation of radiostrontium [62]. The reliability of the received results of °Sr determination depends on the minimum detectable activity (MDA) [5]. The MDA should be calculated for each analysis sample. Generally, the separation of °Sr with the use of fuming HNO3, and subsequent co-precipitation of radium, lead, and barium as chromates, is used for the analysis of flora, soil, ash filters, and water samples. The fusion products (e.g., Cs) are removed by co-precipitation of the hydroxides, then transformed into yttrium oxalate, and the activity of °Y measured in a low-level proportional counter. The yield is controlled by measuring the activity of Sr (gamma emitter) added to each sample before analysis as an internal tracer [1, 46]. The accuracy of the analytical results obtained should be verified in a validation process with the use of certified reference materials (CRMs). 

The ground level air concentrations of lead-210 have been measured at numerous locations all over the world (Rangarajan et al., 1976). The vertical distribution of this nuclide in the atmosphere was determined by Burton and Steward (1960), Rama and Honda (1961), Feely et al. (1965) and Peirson et al. (1966). The results of these measurements were used for the study of the air mass transport and the residence time of aerosols in the atmosphere (Machta, 1965 Karol, 1970 Moore et al., 1973, 1980 Martell and Moore, 1974 Rangarajan et al., 1975). Air concentrations of radium-226, lead-210 and uranium near ground level at different locations are shown in Table 9.9. 

A radioactive method has also been developed for determination of catalyst levels in reactors, hoppers, and catalyst-feed lines of moving-bed units (331). The equipment consists of one or more radiation sources (radium chloride), a Geiger tube, and associated electronic instruments. The radium sources are mounted within the vessel at intervals over the range of levels to be measured, with the Geiger tube at the top. The exact amounts and locations of the radium sources are so proportioned that radiation from each source is no longer detected when covered by a 2-ft. layer of catalyst. Thus the counter receives maximum radiation when the vessel is empty and decreasing intensities as catalyst level rises. 

Lord Rutherford [24] determined the age of a sample of pitchblende, to be 700 million years, by measuring the amount of uranium and radium and helium retained in the rock and by calculating the annual output of alpha particles. The oldest rock found is from Southwest Greenland 3.8 Gyr old [15]. Radioactive dating of meteorites point to their formation and the solidification of the earth about 4.55 0.07 years ago [25]. Since the sun and the solar system formed only slightly before, their age at isolation and condensation from the interstellar medium is taken to be 4.6 Gyr [26]. 

The half-life of radium 226 makes its abundance in the upper layers of ocean sediments, which settled within the past 10,000 years (Holocene epoch), convenient to measure. A comparison of 226Ra abundance to 228Ra in various ocean locations allows for determination of ocean current directional flow Because 228Ra is produced more strongly in shallow areas, and its lifetime is so much shorter, observation of radium 228 far from shore can indicate offshore currents that are otherwise difficult to measure. 

In the same year the Curies, together with G. Bemont, isolated another radioactive substance for which they suggested the name radium. In order to prove that polonium and radium were in fact two new elements, large amounts of pitchblende were processed, and in 1902 M. Curie announced that she had been able to isolate about 0.1 g of pure radium chloride from more than one ton of pitchblende waste. The determination of the atomic weight of radium and the measurement of its emission spectrum provided the final proof that a new element had been isolated. 

Boltwood and Rutherford (PhiL Mag. 1911, 22, 686) sq>arated some radium salt from its decomposition products and measured the vtdume of hdium produced after known times. The quantity of radium in the samjJe was determined by measuring the y-iay activity due to radium C after radioactive equili um had been establidied. 

The accuracy of any measurement will depend upon the calibration of the instrument used. The calibration of an instrument determines its response to a known amount or concentration of radioactivity. This allows a correlation to be made between the instrument reading and the actual amount or concentration present. A range of activities of radium-226 standard reference materials (SRM) is available from the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards (NBS) as solutions for calibrating detection systems. Also, an elevated radon atmosphere may be produced in a chamber, and samples drawn and measured in systems previously calibrated by radon emanation from an NBS radium-226 SRM. Other radon detectors may then be filled from or exposed in the chamber and standardized based on this "secondary" standard (NCRP 1988). Analytical methods for measuring radon in environmental samples are given in Table 6-2. These methods provide indirect measurements of radon i.e., the activity emitted from radon and radon progeny is detected and quantitied. 

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