Vincent Maloba

 RADIOACTIVITY Name Course Professor Institution City and State Date Radioactivity, discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel, is the emission of radiation originating from a nuclear reaction or due to the spontaneous decay of unstable atomic nuclei (Allisy, 1996, p.6). Radioactive decay, also known as nuclear disintegration refers to the process by which an unstable nucleus loses energy as a result of radiation. Many nuclei are radioactive, which means that they decompose and thereby become another nucleus by producing particles. Three typical emissions occur in natural radioactive decay and they include alpha decay, beta decay, and gamma decay in which they all emit one or more photons or particles. We should reasonably be concerned about how all the radiation will affect our wellbeing with all of the radiation from natural and manmade sources. Radioactive pollutants cause injury to body tissues as the particles or radiation affect and modify tissues, cells, or compounds. These associations will change the molecular structure and function; cells no longer perform proper functioning, and the relevant information is no longer provided by molecules such as DNA. The potential of radiation to destroy molecules is studied in terms of what is known as ionizing power. A great deal of radiation, also fatal, is very hazardous. In certain cases, a certain (or relatively small number) of cells are impaired by radiation besides breaking down the cell wall or otherwise stopping the production of a cell (Mitchel, 1976, p.158). Some of the risks posed by radiation are determined by how easy or impossible it is to shield oneself from the particles. The penetrating power of each kind of radiation is a measure of its ability to move through matter. The higher the radiation's penetrating power and the more toxic it is, the more substance it can pass through. The higher the mass present, the stronger the ionizing power and the weaker the penetration power. The alpha particles have the largest mass. Alpha particles are nearly four times the mass of the proton or neutron and approximately 8,000 times the mass of the beta particle. It has the highest ionizing power and the greatest ability to damage tissue given the huge mass of the alpha particle. However, the same large size of alpha particles makes them less capable of penetrating. They collide very quickly with molecules when the matter strikes, adding two electrons, and become an unthreatening helium atom. Alpha particles have the least penetration power and can be stopped by a thick sheet of paper or even a layer of clothing. Beta particles are significantly smaller than alpha particles, and therefore have far less ionizing power, but much greater penetration power is provided by their small size (Bentzon, 1988, p.431). Current research shows that a one-quarter-inch thick sheet of aluminum can stop beta particles. Gamma rays are remarkably high electromagnetic radiation, like x-rays, but even more powerful. Gamma rays are energy without a charge or mass. The rays have enormous penetration and require several centimeters of dense materials such as lead acting as a shield. Without striking anything, gamma rays can go through a human body. They are regarded as having the least ionizing power and the highest power of penetration. Thorium-234 is a nucleus that undergoes beta decay. Computing is assessed by the use of mass spectrometry. Consequently, the mass of a radionuclide from its rate of disintegration can be assessed. Analysis of radioactivity is a very challenging study because the genesis of radioactivity and the radionuclides media within tends to present itself in a wide range of intricacy, also nuclear radiation as a result of radionuclides decay may take place in numerous types, intensities, energies, and percent abundances. Furthermore, a particular radionuclide may inhibit more than a single manner of decay (Eyring, 1930, p.531). Contamination can be very useful even though it proves potentially harmful. As tracers, radioactive sources such as technetium-99 can be injected. This makes the soft tissues, such as kidneys or blood vessels show up in procedures such as medical imaging. Efforts are made to ensure that there are no long-term effects due to contamination. This is designed to select non-toxic isotopes with very short half-lives. Tracers can be used to detect leaks in water pipes. In the pipe, a gamma-emitting radioactive isotope is added to the water. When there is a leak, contaminated water flows into the ground, causing an increase in gamma emissions in the area. The emergence of gamma emissions is then identified by a Geiger-Muller tube (Tuve, 1930, p.651). This makes it easier to determine where to excavate in an attempt to discover the leak. The isotope used for this purpose must have a long half-life to allow the emissions to accumulate in the soil, be a gamma emitter to be easily detected, and non-poisonous to humans because it will be consumed during the supply of water. Bibliography Allisy, A., 1996. Henri Becquerel: The Discovery of Radioactivity. Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 68(1), pp.3-10. Bentzon, M., 1988. Pt-oxides and small metallic Pt particles with grain size smaller than 10 nm. Ultramicroscopy, 26(4), p.413. Eyring, C., 1930. Conditions under Which Residual Sound in Reverberant Rooms May have More than one Rate of Decay. Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 15(4), pp.528-549. Mitchel, R., 1976. Ionizing Radiation Damage in Micrococcus radiodurans Cell Wall: Release of Polysaccharide. Radiation Research, 66(1), p.158. Tuve, M., 1930. Multiple Coincidences of Geiger-Müller Tube-Counters. Physical Review, 35(6), pp.651-652.