Nuclear Physics

NUCLEAR
PHYSICS
BY: RONALD EMMANUEL SAFI,NOMA,THOBO
AND KEO
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1)Half life (Calculation and Definition)
2)Radioactivity applications, which are:
 Smoke Detectors
 Sterilisation
 Thickness gauge
 Diagnosis and treatment of cancer
 Tracers
 Archaeology
3)Safety Precautions
HALF LIFE
• Definition:
• It is the amount of time needed for half the
number the nuclei in a sample of a
radioisotope to decay.
• It is the amount of time needed for the
activity(rate of nuclear decay) of a certain
radioactive sample to drop by half.
 Calculations:
 When asked to calculate using half life, you
will never be asked to calculate the half life
but rather asked to find the mass of
undecayed material or the percentage of
undecayed material.
WORKED
EXAMPLES
• What is the half-life of the iodine?
• The count-rate drops by half every 25 minutes. Time/minutes 0 25 50 75
• The half-life of iodine is 25 minutes.
• ii What fraction of the original material is left after 75 minutes?
Counts/s 200 100 50 25
• 75 minutes corresponds to 3 half-lives.
• After 25minutes, fraction left = 1/2
• After 50minutes, fraction left = 1/2 × 1/2 = 1/4
• After 75minutes, fraction left = 1/2 × 1/4 = 1/8
• b Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5700years. A 10g sample of wood cut recently
from a living tree has an activity of 160 counts/minute. A piece of charcoal
taken from a prehistoric campsite also weighs 10g but has an activity of 40
counts/minute. Estimate the age of the charcoal.
• After 1 × 5700 years the activity will be 160/2 = 80 counts per minute.
• After 2 × 5700 years the activity will be 80/2 = 40 counts per minute.
• The age of the charcoal is 2 × 5700 = 11400 years.
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD TO FIND
HALF LIFE
• The half-life of the a-emitting gas thoron can be found as shown in Figure 5.2.12.
The thoron bottle is squeezed three or four times to transfer some thoron to the
flask (Figure 5.2.12a). The clips are then closed, the bottle removed and the stopper
replaced by a GM tube so that it seals the top (Figure 5.2.12b).
• When the ratemeter reading has reached its maximum and started to fall, the
count-rate is noted every 15 s for 2 minutes and then every 60s for the next few
minutes. (The GM tube is left in the flask for at least 1 hour until the radioactivity
has decayed.)
• A measure of the background radiation is obtained by recording the counts for a
period (say 10 minutes) at a position well away from the thoron equipment. The
count-rates in the thoron decay experiment are then corrected by subtracting the
average background count-rate from each reading. A graph of the corrected count
rate against time is plotted and the half-life (52s) estimated from it.
RADIOACTIVITY APPLICATIONS: SMOKE
ALARM
• A smoke alarm consists of a battery, an alarm device and two
ionisation chambers which are identical, except for one
being open to the air and the other closed. Each chamber
contains two electrodes with a p.d. applied across them
from the battery. A small radioactive source (usually
americium-241) in each chamber emits a-particles, which
produce ionisation of the air molecules; ions move towards
the electrodes and a current flows. Since conditions are the
same in each chamber, the small current produced in each is
the same.
• When smoke enters the chamber open to the air, the
motion of ions is impeded when they adhere to smoke
particles. The current falls and the difference from the
unchanged current in the closed chamber is detected
electronically and the alarm is activated. A-particles are
chosen because they do not travel far in air so do not pose a
health risk; a long half-life source is preferred so that a
constant activity is maintained.
STERILISATION AND THICKNESS GAUGE
 Sterilisation
• g-radiation is used to sterilise medical instruments by killing bacteria. It is also used to
irradiate certain foods, again killing bacteria to preserve the food for longer. The radiation is
safe to use as no radioactive material goes into the food. g-radiation is chosen for its high
penetrating power (it can pass through packaging) and a long half-life source is preferred so
that a constant activity is maintained.
 Thickness Gauge
• If a radioisotope is placed on one side of a moving sheet of material and a GM tube on the
other, the count-rate decreases if the thickness increases. This technique is used to control
automatically the thickness of paper, plastic and metal sheets during manufacture (Figure
5.2.13). Because of their range, b emitters are suitable sources for monitoring the thickness
of thin sheets but γ emitters would be needed for thicker materials as they are more
penetrating and are absorbed less. The half-life of the source should be long so that its
activity remains constant over time.
CANCER DIAGNOSIS AND
TREATMENT AND TRACERS
 Cancer treatment and Diagnosis
• g-radiation emitted by radioactive chemicals that are preferentially taken
up by cancer cells are used to image and diagnose cancer. g-radiation is
chosen because of its high penetrating power. For use of a radioisotope
inside the body, short half-life sources are preferred so that exposure
time is limited. In the treatment of cancer by radiotherapy, high energy
beams of g-radiation are focused directly onto a tumour in order to kill
the cancerous cells. The beams are rotated round the body to minimise
damage to surrounding tissue. For external use, where a constant dose is
required, a long half-life radioisotope will be used.
 Tracers
• The progress of a small amount of a weak radioisotope injected into a
system can be traced by a GM tube or other detector. The method is
used in medicine to detect brain tumours and internal bleeding, in
agriculture to study the uptake of fertilisers by plants, and in industry to
measure fluid flow in pipes. A tracer should be chosen whose half-life
matches the time needed for the experiment; the activity of the source is
then low after it has been used and so will not pose an ongoing radiation
threat. For medical purposes, where short exposures are preferable, the
time needed to transfer the source from the production site to the
patient also needs to be considered.
ARCHAEOLOGY
• A radioisotope of carbon present in the air, carbon-14, is taken in by living

plants and trees along with non-radioactive carbon-12. When a tree dies no
fresh carbon is taken in. So as the carbon-14 continues to decay, with a half-
life of 5700 years, the amount of carbon-14 compared with the amount of
carbon-12 becomes smaller.
• By measuring the residual radioactivity of carbon containing material such as
wood, linen or charcoal, the age of archaeological remains can be estimated
within the range 1000 to 50000 years (Figure 5.2.14).The ages of rocks have
been estimated in a similar way by measuring the ratio of the number of
atoms of a radioactive element to those of its decay product in a sample.
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS AND RADIOACTIVE STORAGE
• A variety of methods are used for radioactive storage. Waste with very low levels of radioactivity is often enclosed in steel
containers which are then buried in concrete bunkers; possible leakage is a cause of public concern, as water supplies could be
contaminated allowing radioactive material to enter the food chain. Waste with high levels of radioactivity is immobilised in glass
or synthetic rock and stored deep underground. The weak sources used at school should always be:
• (I) lifted with forceps
• (ii) held away from the eyes and
• (iii) kept in their boxes when not in use.
• To reduce exposure to ionising radiations:
• (I) exposure time to the radiation should be minimised
• (ii) the distance between a source and a person should be kept as large as possible
• (iii) people should be protected by the use of shielding which absorbs the radiation.
• In industry, sources are handled by long tongs and transported in thick lead containers. Workers are protected by lead and
concrete walls, and wear radiation dose badges that keep a check on the amount of radiation they have been exposed to over a
period (usually one month). The badge contains several windows which allow different types of radiation to fall onto a
photographic film; when the film is developed it is darkest where the exposure to radiation was greatest.
THE END

Nuclear Physics

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NUCLEAR

• A radioisotope of carbon present in the air, carbon-14, is taken in by living

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