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Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the environment, such as uranium, thorium and potassium and any of their decay products, such as radium and radon. [1]
The following are among the principal radioactive materials known to emit alpha particles.. 209 Bi, 211 Bi, 212 Bi, 213 Bi; 210 Po, 211 Po, 212 Po, 214 Po, 215 Po, 216 Po, 218 Po; 215 At, 217 At, 218 At
bismuth (the radioactive isotope, 210 Bi, is found as a daughter product of Pb210 from Th in thorium minerals). These minerals emit alpha, beta and gamma ionising radiations, as well as radioactive gases such as radon and thoron. Appropriate precautions should be taken by collectors to store their specimens, especially to avoid inhaling radon gas..
A material containing unstable nuclei is considered radioactive. Three of the most common types of decay are alpha, beta, and gamma decay. The weak force is the mechanism that is responsible for beta decay, while the other two are governed by the electromagnetic and nuclear forces. [1] Radioactive decay is a random process at the level of ...
Radiation and radioactive substances are used for diagnosis, treatment, and research. X-rays, for example, pass through muscles and other soft tissue but are stopped by dense materials. This property of X-rays enables doctors to find broken bones and to locate cancers that might be growing in the body. [7]
This is a list of radioactive nuclides (sometimes also called isotopes), ordered by half-life from shortest to longest, in seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. Current methods make it difficult to measure half-lives between approximately 10 −19 and 10 −10 seconds.
Some building materials, for example lightweight concrete with alum shale, phosphogypsum and Italian tuff, may emanate radon if they contain radium and are porous to gas. [8] Radiation exposure from radon is indirect. Radon has a short half-life (4 days) and decays into other solid particulate radium-series radioactive nuclides. These ...
Releases of man-made radioactive materials which occur during an industrial or research accident. For instance the Chernobyl accident. Releases which occur as a result of military activity. For example, a nuclear weapons test, which have caused a global fallout, peaking in 1963 (the Bomb pulse), and up to 2.4 million deaths by 2020. [5]