Production of Radionuclides

Abstract

Chapter 12 consists of 26 problems distributed over 10 sections devoted to practical and theoretical aspects of production of radionuclides that originated with the discovery of artificial radioactivity in 1934 credited to Frédéric Joliot and Irène Joliot-Curie. The vast majority of currently known radionuclides are man-made and artificially produced through a process of nuclear activation that uses bombardment of a stable nuclide with a suitable particle to induce a nuclear transformation of a stable parent into a radioactive daughter. Various particles or electromagnetic radiation generated by a variety of machines are used for the purpose of nuclear activation, most notably neutrons from nuclear fission reactors for neutron activation, protons from cyclotrons for proton activation, and high energy x-rays from high energy linear accelerators for photoactivation.

Section 12.1 addresses the origin of radioactive nuclides and touches upon the historical background on the discovery of natural and artificial radioactivity. Origin of radionuclides is covered by next two sections; naturally occurring in Sect. 12.2 and artificially produced in Sect. 12.3. The problem of radionuclides present in the environment is covered in Sect. 12.4.

The second part of this chapter deals with production of radionuclides, i.e., nuclear activation. Section 12.5 addresses general aspects of various types of nuclear activation and Sect. 12.6 addresses in detail the activation with thermal neutrons that is the most common type of nuclear activation. Three neutron activation models are studied: (1) Saturation model, (2) Depletion model, and (3) Parent depletion–daughter activation model.

Also addressed are problems dealing with nuclear fission induced by thermal neutrons. General aspects of neutron-induced fission are covered in Sect. 12.7 and Sect. 12.8 addresses the nuclear chain reaction covering the nuclear reactor and nuclear power generation. Problems in Sects. 12.9 and 12.10 concentrate on radionuclide generators and nuclear activation with heavy charged particle beams, respectively.