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Caesium-137 (137 55 Cs), cesium-137 (US), [7] or radiocaesium, is a radioactive isotope of caesium that is formed as one of the more common fission products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 and other fissionable isotopes in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Trace quantities also originate from spontaneous fission of uranium-238. It is ...
The shorter-lived 137m Ba (half-life 2.55 minutes) arises as the decay product of the common fission product caesium-137. Barium-114 is predicted to undergo cluster decay, emitting a nucleus of stable 12 C to produce 102 Sn. However this decay is not yet observed; the upper limit on the branching ratio of such decay is 0.0034%.
The accompanying decay scheme diagram shows the beta decay of caesium-137. 137 Cs is noted for a characteristic gamma peak at 661 keV, but this is actually emitted by the daughter radionuclide 137m Ba. The diagram shows the type and energy of the emitted radiation, its relative abundance, and the daughter nuclides after decay.
As caesium 133, 135, and 137 are formed by the beta particle decay of the corresponding xenon isotopes, this causes the caesium to become physically separated from the bulk of the uranium oxide fuel. Because 135 Xe is a potent nuclear poison with the largest cross section for thermal neutron absorption, the buildup of 135 Xe in the fuel inside ...
Caesium: 137 Cs: 30.17 y: Source of most of the decay heat from years to decades after irradiation, together with 90 Sr. 6.0507%: Technetium: 99 Tc: 211 ky: Candidate for disposal by nuclear transmutation. 5.7518%: Strontium: 90 Sr: 28.9 y: Source of much of the decay heat together with 137 Cs on the timespan of years to decades after irradiation.
In nuclear reactors both caesium-137 and strontium-90 are found in locations away from the fuel because they're formed by the beta decay of noble gases (xenon-137, with a 3.8-minute half-life, and krypton-90, with a 32-second half-life) which enable them to be deposited away from the fuel, e.g. on control rods.
The Kramatorsk radiological accident was a radiation accident that happened in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, in eastern Ukrainian SSR from 1980 to 1989. A small capsule containing highly radioactive caesium-137 was found inside the concrete wall of an apartment building, with a surface gamma radiation exposure dose rate of 1800 R/year. [1]
Figure 1: Sodium iodide gamma spectrum of caesium-137 (137 Cs) An example of a NaI spectrum is the gamma spectrum of the caesium isotope 137 Cs —see Figure 1. 137 Cs emits a single gamma line of 662 keV. The 662 keV line shown is actually produced by 137m Ba, the decay product of 137 Cs, which is in secular equilibrium with 137 Cs.