Practical Applications of Radioactivity and Nuclear Radiations Book

	List of illustrations
	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
	Pulse 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