Radionuclides in the Environment | Zendy

E. C. Freiling | Zendy

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Radionuclides in the Environment

Author(s) -

E. C. Freiling

Publication year - 1970

Publication title -

advances in chemistry series

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Book series

ISSN - 0065-2393

DOI - 10.1021/ba-1970-0093

Subject(s) - radon , uranium , fission products , environmental science , deposition (geology) , radionuclide , nuclear engineering , nuclear fission , condensation , trace (psycholinguistics) , fission , materials science , nuclear physics , geology , neutron , thermodynamics , engineering , physics , metallurgy , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , sediment

Radioactivity is a natural phenomenon that occurs when unstable atoms (isotopes) seek stability by emitting energy in the form of radiation (radioactive decay). The amount of energy and the form of emitted radiation vary a lot among the radioactive elements. Highly radioactive substances such as cesium-137, are transformed very quickly, with a high number of disintegrations per second and a short half-live. Isotopes such as uranium-235 or uranium-238 only decay with a few disintegrations per second and their corresponding half-lives are in the range of several hundred million years. According to these different properties, radionuclides have many different applications. This stretches from their use as tracers of biological, physiological, and geological processes, in medicine, all the way to their use in weapons of mass destruction.

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