Practical Applications of Radioactivity and Nuclear Radiations

This book shows how to use radioisotopes and the emitted ionizing radiations effectively and safely. It describes decay and stability criteria, necessary precautions to ensure radiation protection and the detection of alpha, beta and gamma rays including spectrometry. Chapters cover calorimetry, liquid scintillation counting, how to use secondary standard instruments, high resolution detectors and how to calculate counting results estimating uncertainties and allowing for the statistics of radionuclide decays. Other subjects examined include industrial and scientific applications of alpha, beta, and gamma rays, neutrons and high energy radiations.

• List of tables
  Foreword
  Preface
• Ch. 1
  Atoms, nuclides and radionuclides 1
  An historic interlude: from atoms to nuclei 5
  Nuclei, nuclear stability and nuclear radiations 8
  Activation processes 19
  Short and long half lives and their uses 24
  Parent half lives and daughter half lives 29
• Ch. 2
  Units and standards for radioactivity and radiation dosimetry and rules for radiation protection 32
  Units and standards of radioactivity 32
  Radioactivity standards 37
  Radiation dosimetry for radiation protection 38
  Dose limits 43
  Radiation protection in the laboratory 49
  Dose rates from alpha, beta and gamma ray emitting radionuclides 54
• Ch. 3
  Properties of radiations emitted from radionuclides 59
  Tools for applications 59
  Properties of alpha particles 59
  Properties of beta particles 63
  Properties of gamma rays and X rays 68
  height spectra due to alpha particles and gamma rays 75
  Electron capture (EC), gamma rays and conversion electrons 79
  The role of mass energy in determining nuclear decays 82
  Bremsstrahlung 88
  Fluorescent radiations 89
• Ch. 4
  Nuclear radiations from a user's perspective 95
  The penetrating power of nuclear radiations 95
  Radioactive sources 96
  Gamma ray applications 101
  Gamma ray counting with NaI(Tl) detectors 106
  Corrections and precautions, part 1 113
  Corrections and precautions, part 2 117
• Ch. 5
  Ionising radiation detectors 123
  Radiation detectors, a summary 123
  Characteristics of ionisation detectors 123
  Proportional and Geiger-Muller counters 126
  Other detectors and detection methods 132
  An introduction to semiconductor detectors 139
• Ch. 6
  Radioactivity and countrate measurements and the presentation of results 147
  An introduction to radioactivity measurements 147
  Comments on the preparation of radioactivity standards 149
  4[pi][gamma] pressurised ionisation chambers 151
  Gamma ray spectrometers and gamma ray spectrometry 159
  Results, part 1: collecting the data 166
  Results, part 2: Poisson and Gaussian statistics 168
  Other characteristics of results and statistical tests 175
  Moving on to applications 179
• Ch. 7
  Industrial applications of radioisotopes and radiation 181
  Scientific and industrial applications of gamma rays 186
  Scientific and industrial applications of beta particles and electrons 207
  Scientific and industrial applications of neutrons 211
  Scientific and industrial applications of protons and alpha particles 222
  Scientific and industrial applications of the absorption of radiation 224
• Ch. 8
  Application of tracer technology to industry and the environment 232
  Tracer applications in the field 238
  Applications of tracer technology to flow studies 246
  Industrial applications of tracers: case studies 260
• Ch. 9
  Radionuclides to protect the environment 267
  The investigation of environmental systems 272
  Environmental applications of radioisotopes 279
  Applications of naturally occurring radioisotopes 294
  Nuclear waste disposal 302
• App. 1: Glossary of technical terms 306
• App. 2 A selection of references to texts on health physics and radiation protection 311
• App. 3 Comments on the availability of nuclear data on the Internet 312
• App. 4 Application of tracer techniques to fluid dynamics 315
• App. 5 Dispersion processes 320
• References 323
  Index 331