23 Radioactivity

28-08-2022
23. RADIOACTIVITY
Syllabus points :
 Radioactivity all around us
 Radioactive decay
 Activity and half life
 Using radioisotopes
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Ms. Sapna [Fravshi International Academy ]
 Nuclear Physics is defined as the branch of physics deals with the

structure of the atomic nucleus and its interactions.
 The nuclear force acts between the charges and functions as the
gravitational force between masses.
 Nuclear force acts between the protons and neutrons of atoms.
 Nuclear force is much stronger than the Coulomb force.
 The nuclear physics is based on the forces known as nuclear force.
 The nuclear forces are attractive in nature.
 The range of nuclear forces is short.

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Radioactivity :
Radioactivity is a nuclear process that occurs due to the decay of the nucleus.
Radioactivity is based on the law of conservation of charge.
External parameters such as temperature and pressure do not affect the rate of decay.
The daughter nuclei will have unique physical and chemical properties (that is different from parent
nuclei).
The decay rate of any radioactive material is directly proportional to the number of atoms present at
that instant. α, β, and γ rays are followed during the radioactivity.
Units of radioactivity:
There are two units of radioactivity and they are:

•Curie (Ci): If the radioactive substance decay at the rate of 3.7×1010 decays per second, then the
unit used is Curie.
•Rutherford (rd): If the radioactive substance decay at the rate of 106 decays per second, then the 7
unit is Rutherford.
Radioactivity all around us:

In fact, we are exposed to low levels of radiation all the time – this is known as
background radiation. In addition, we may be exposed to radiation from artificial
sources, such as the radiation we receive if we have a medical X-ray.
The figure shows the different sources that contribute to the average dose of
radiation received by people in the UK.
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Sources of background radiation

The air is radioactive.
It contains a radioactive gas called radon, which seeps up to the Earth’s surface from radioactive
uranium rocks underground.
Radon gas is inert, colorless and odorless.
Because we breathe in air all the time, we are exposed to radiation from this substance.
When someone breathes in radon gas, it goes into their lungs, exposing them to small amounts of
radiation.
This may damage the cells in the lining of the lungs and increase a person's risk of lung cancer.
The risk is higher in those who have lived for many years in a radon-contaminated house.
This varies widely from country to country, and from one part of a country to another, depending
on how much uranium there is in the underlying rocks.
The ground contains radioactive substances. We use materials from the ground to build our
houses, so we are exposed to radiation from these.
Our food and drink is also slightly radioactive. Living things grow by taking in materials from the
air and the ground, so they are bound to be radioactive. Inside our bodies, our food then exposes
us to radiation.
Finally, radiation reaches us from space in the form of cosmic rays. Some of this radiation comes
from the Sun, some from further out in space. Most cosmic rays are stopped by the Earth’s
atmosphere. 9
Sources of artificial radiation:

Nuclear explosion
Most radiation from artificial sources comes from medical sources. This includes the
use of X-rays and gamma rays for seeing inside the body, and the use of radiation for
destroying cancer cells. There is always a danger that exposure to such radiation
may trigger cancer.
Today, most nuclear weapons testing is done underground. In the past, bombs were
detonated on land or in the air, and this contributed much more to the radiation dose
received by people around the world.
If you fly in an aircraft , you are high in the atmosphere. You are exposed to more
cosmic rays. This is not a serious problem for the occasional flier, but airline crews
have to keep a check on their exposure.
Many people, such as medical radiographers and staff in a nuclear power station,
work with radiation.
Finally, small amounts of radioactive substances escape from the nuclear industry,
which processes uranium for use as the fuel in nuclear power stations, and handles
the highly radioactive spent fuel aft er it has been used.
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Detecting radiation :
Radioactivity was discovered by a French physicist, Henri Becquerel, in 1896.
He had been investigating some phosphorescent rocks – rocks that glow for a while after they
have been left under a bright light.
His method was to leave a rock on his window sill in the light.
Then he put it in a dark drawer on a piece of photographic film to record the light it gave out.
He suspected that rocks containing uranium might be good for this.
But he discovered something even more dramatic: the photographic film was blackened even
when the rock had not been exposed to light. He realized that some kind of invisible radiation
was coming from the uranium.
What was more, the longer he left it, the darker the photographic film became.
Uranium gives out radiation all the time, without any obvious supply of energy. Becquerel had
discovered a way of revealing the presence of invisible radiation, using photographic film.
VISUAL
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For a quicker measurement of radiation, Geiger counter is used.

The detector is a Geiger–Muller tube, which is held close to a
suspected source of radiation.
The radiation enters the tube, which produces an electrical pulse

every time it detects any radiation.
The electronic counter adds up these pulses. It can give a click or

beep for each pulse.
Regular checks are made on samples of air, soil, vegetation and water
for 20 km around nuclear power stations.
The randomness of radioactive decay If you listen to the clicks or

beeps of a Geiger counter, you may notice that it is impossible to
predict when the next sound will come.
This is because radioactive decay is a random process.

If you study a sample of a radioactive material, you cannot predict
when the next atom will decay. Atoms decay randomly over time.
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Alpha , beta and gamma radiations from radioactive substance :
VISUAL
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TYPES OF RADIATIONS ……
VISUAL
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There are three major types of radiation:

alpha, beta and electromagnetic waves such as gamma rays.
They differ in mass, energy and how deeply they penetrate people and objects.
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Penetrating power :
Different types of radiation can penetrate different thicknesses of materials.
◆ Alpha particles are the most easily absorbed. They can travel about 5 cm in
air before they are absorbed. They are absorbed by a thin sheet of paper.
◆ Beta particles can travel fairly easily through air or paper. But they are
absorbed by a few millimetres of metal.
◆ Gamma radiation is the most penetrating. It takes several centimetres of a

dense metal like lead, or several metres of concrete, to absorb most of the
gamma radiation.
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Ionisation :
When radiation passes through air, it may interact with air

molecules, knocking electrons from them, so that the air
molecules become charged.
The air molecules becomes ionised.
The relative ionising effects are as follows:
◆ alpha particles are the most ionising
◆ gamma radiation is the least ionising.
Because the radiation from radioactive substances causes

ionisation of the materials that absorb it, it is often known
as ionizing radiation.
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The first is an alpha particle.

These particles consist of two protons and two neutrons and are the heaviest
type of radiation particle.
Many of the naturally occurring radioactive materials in the earth, like uranium
and thorium, emit alpha particles.
Alpha decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits
an alpha particle (helium nucleus) and thereby transforms or 'decays' into a
different atomic nucleus, with a mass number that is reduced by four and
an atomic number that is reduced by two.
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The second kind of radiation is a beta particle.

It's an electron that is not attached to an atom.
It has a small mass and a negative charge.
Tritium, which is produced by cosmic radiation in the atmosphere and
exists all around us, emits beta radiation.
Carbon-14, used in carbon-dating of fossils and other artifacts, also emits
beta particles.
Carbon-dating simply makes use of the fact that carbon-14 is radioactive.
If you measure the beta particles, it tells you how much carbon-14 is left in
the fossil, which allows you to calculate how long ago the organism was
alive.
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The third is a neutron.

This is a particle that doesn't have any charge and is present in the nucleus of
an atom.
Neutrons are commonly seen when uranium atoms split, or fission, in a nuclear
reactor.
If it wasn't for the neutrons, you wouldn't be able to sustain the nuclear reaction
used to generate power.
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The fourth kind of radiation is electromagnetic radiation, like X-rays and gamma
rays.
They are probably the most familiar type of radiation because they are used
widely in medical treatments.
These rays are like sunlight, except they have more energy. Unlike the other
kinds of radiation, there is no mass or charge.
The amount of energy can range from very low, like in dental x-rays, to the very
high levels seen in irradiators used to sterilize medical equipment.
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As mentioned, these different kinds of radiation travel different distances and have different
abilities to penetrate, depending on their mass and their energy.
The figure (right) shows the differences.

Neutrons, because they don't have any charge, don't interact
with materials very well and will go a very long way. The only
way to stop them is with large quantities of water or other
materials made of very light atoms.
On the other hand, an alpha particle, because it's very heavy

and has a very large charge, doesn't go very far at all.
This means an alpha particle can't even get through a sheet of
paper.
An alpha particle outside your body won't even penetrate the
surface of your skin.
But, if you inhale or ingest material that emits alpha particles,
sensitive tissue like the lungs can be exposed. This is why
high levels of radon are considered a problem in your home.
The ability to stop alpha particles so easily is useful in smoke
detectors, because a little smoke in the chamber is enough to
stop the alpha particle and trigger the alarm. 22
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Beta particles go a little farther than alpha particles. You could use a relatively
small amount of shielding to stop them. They can get into your body but can't
go all the way through. To be useful in medical imaging, beta particles must be
released by a material that is injected into the body. They can also be very
useful in cancer therapy if you can put the radioactive material in a tumor.
Gamma rays and x-rays can penetrate through the body. This is
why they are useful in medicine—to show whether bones are
broken or where there is tooth decay, or to locate a tumor.
Shielding with dense materials like concrete and lead is used
to avoid exposing sensitive internal organs or the people who
may be working with this type of radiation. For example, the
technician who does my dental x-rays puts a lead apron over
me before taking the picture. That apron stops the x-rays from
getting to the rest of my body. The technician stands behind
the wall, which usually has some lead in it, to protect him or
herself.
Radiation is all around us (called background radiation), but that is not a reason
to be afraid. Different types of radiation behave differently, and some forms can
be very useful.
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NUCLEAR DECAY EQUATION :

VISUAL
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Radioactive decay and half life
The half-life of a radioactive substance is the average time VISUAL

taken for half of the atoms in a sample to decay.
a. A decay graph for a radioactive substance. A curve of this

shape is known as an exponential decay graph.
b. A steep graph shows that a substance has a short half-life.
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Q: A sample of radioactive element X has an activity of 240 Bq.

If the half-life of X is 3 years, what will its activity be aft er 12 years?
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Radioisotopes at work :
We will look at these uses in four separate groups:
 uses related to their different penetrating powers
 uses related to the damage their radiation causes to living cells
 uses related to the fact that we can detect tiny quantities of radioactive
substances
 uses related to radioactive decay and half-life.
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Effects of radioisotopes on cells :
 There are three ways in which radiation can damage living cells. An intense
dose of radiation causes a lot of ionisation in a cell, which can kill the cell.
This is what happens when someone suffers radiation burns. The cells
affected simply die, as if they had been burned. If the sufferer is lucky and
receives suitable treatment, the tissue may regrow.
 If the DNA in the cell nucleus is damaged, the mechanisms that control the
cell may break down. The cell may divide uncontrollably and a tumour
forms. This is how radiation can cause cancer.
 If the affected cell is a gamete (a sperm or egg cell),the damaged DNA of its
genes may be passed on to future generations. This is how radiation can
produce genetic mutations.
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Effects of Radiation & Safety Precautions :
VISUAL
VISUAL

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Applications :
(a) household fire (smoke) alarms
(b) irradiating food to kill bacteria
(c) sterilization of equipment using gamma rays
(d) measuring and controlling thicknesses of materials with the choice of radiations
used linked to penetration and absorption
(e) diagnosis and treatment of cancer using gamma rays
VISUAL
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Radiation used in medicine:
VISUAL
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1.
When measuring the emissions from a radioactive rock brought into the laboratory,
a teacher mentions that background radiation must be taken into account. What is
this background radiation?
A infra-red radiation from warm objects in the laboratory
B infra-red radiation from the Sun
C ionising radiation from the radioactive rock brought into the laboratory
D ionising radiation in the laboratory when the radioactive rock is not present
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2.
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3.
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4.
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ANSWER :
1-D
2-B
3-C
4-A
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Ms.Sapna Pandey
M.Sc physics,B.Ed
Fravashi International Academy
Looking Beyond………….
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Ms. Sapna [Fravshi International Academy ]
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28-08-2022

 Radioactivity all around us

 Activity and half life

 Nuclear Physics is defined as the branch of physics deals with the

 Nuclear force acts between the protons and neutrons of atoms.

 Nuclear force is much stronger than the Coulomb force.

 The nuclear physics is based on the forces known as nuclear force.

 The nuclear forces are attractive in nature.

 The range of nuclear forces is short.

Radioactivity is based on the law of conservation of charge.

There are two units of radioactivity and they are:

Radioactivity all around us:

Sources of background radiation

Sources of artificial radiation:

For a quicker measurement of radiation, Geiger counter is used.

The radiation enters the tube, which produces an electrical pulse

The electronic counter adds up these pulses. It can give a click or

The randomness of radioactive decay If you listen to the clicks or

This is because radioactive decay is a random process.

Alpha , beta and gamma radiations from radioactive substance :

There are three major types of radiation:

◆ Gamma radiation is the most penetrating. It takes several centimetres of a

When radiation passes through air, it may interact with air

◆ alpha particles are the most ionising

◆ gamma radiation is the least ionising.

Because the radiation from radioactive substances causes

The first is an alpha particle.

The second kind of radiation is a beta particle.

The third is a neutron.

The figure (right) shows the differences.

On the other hand, an alpha particle, because it's very heavy

NUCLEAR DECAY EQUATION :

Radioactive decay and half life

The half-life of a radioactive substance is the average time VISUAL

a. A decay graph for a radioactive substance. A curve of this

b. A steep graph shows that a substance has a short half-life.

Q: A sample of radioactive element X has an activity of 240 Bq.

 uses related to their different penetrating powers

 uses related to the damage their radiation causes to living cells

 uses related to radioactive decay and half-life.

Effects of radioisotopes on cells :

Effects of Radiation & Safety Precautions :

Ms.Sapna [Fravashi International Academy]

(b) irradiating food to kill bacteria

(c) sterilization of equipment using gamma rays

(e) diagnosis and treatment of cancer using gamma rays

Radiation used in medicine:

Ms.Sapna [Fravashi International Academy]

A infra-red radiation from warm objects in the laboratory

B infra-red radiation from the Sun

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