2.2.

RADIOACTIVITY
It has already been stated in 2.1.3.1. that some of the isotopes of an clement arc stable
while others may be unstable. The unstable atoms may become stable by emitting
radiation. The process which is followed by the emission of •adiation is commonly known
as disintegration and this phenomenon of disintegration of atoms of (naturally occurring
or artificially produced) elements ir. called radioactivity. Materials exhibiting this
phenomenon are termed radioactive materials, or radioisotopes. Curie (Ci) is the unit of
radioactivity and is equal to the disintegration rate of 3.7xl010d.p.s. Smaller units of
radioactivity arc millicuric and microcuric which are one thousandth and one millionth p-.ri
of a curie respectively. The internationally agreed system of coherent unit for radioactivity
that is now in use for all scientific and technological purposes in many countries is the
bacquerc! (Bq). The bacqucrcl is defined as one disintegration per second. The relationship
between curie and bacqucrcl is 1 curie = 3.7 x 1010 bacquerel.

2.2.1.Radioactive decay

The activity of any radioactive material depends on the concentration of radioactive atoms
in it. This process of radioactive decay is according to an exponential law, known as the
radioactive decay law. Mathematically it may be stated as N = No e " where No is the
number of radioactive atoms present at some reference time t = 0 ; N is the number of
radioactive atoms left after time t has passed and is called the disintegration constant. X
is a characteristic of the radioactive material. Materials with higher values of A decay or
disintegrate rapidly and vice versa. In actual practice, the decay of a radioactive isotope is
usually given in terms of its half life denoted by T,/2 . This is defined as the time required
for one-half of the atoms originally present to decay. It simply means that after a half life
the number of radioactive atoms or activity is reduced by a factor of 2 as compared with
its number or activity at any earlier reference time ta . The half life is a characteristic of
a particular radioisotope and is essentially different for different radioisolopes. It varies
from a fraction of a second to millions of years. In radiography we use isotopes with half
life varying from a couple of days to a few years. Sources with shorter half life die out
quickly. Substituting N = No/2 and t = T,/2 the decay equation may be modified as

N0/2 = No e iT1 ' 2 which gives T,/2 = 0.693/X

The decay equation shows that theoretically it requires an infinite time for the complete
decay of a radioactive sample. When plotted graphically the decay equation results in what
is known as a decay curve such as the one shown in Figure 2.6.

2.2.2. Radiation intensity and specific emission

The intensity may be defined as the number of rays per second falling perpendicularly over
a unit area. The radiation output of a given source is measured in terms of roenrgens per
hour at a distance of 1 meter from the source. This is known as the R H M value of the
source. The roentgen itself may be defined as that amount of X or gamma radiation which
when it passes through 1 cm of dry air at N.T.P. (weighing 0.00129 gm) produces ions
equivalent to one e.s.u. of charge of either sign. Roentgen is also equivalent to an energy
absorption of 87.7 ergs/gm of the exposed material. A particular radioactive source has
a specific RHM value per curie. The number of roentgens per hour at 1 cm from a 1 mC
source of a gamma-ray emitter is called the K-factor of the specific gamma ray emission.
The intensity of radiation obeys the inverse square law i.e. when the distance from the
source is doubled, the intensity is reduced four times.

The specific activity of a radioisotope source , usually measured in curies per gram, is of
importance in radiography. A higher specific activity means that a source of a given
strength can be produced in a smaller physical size, which is of great importance from the
point of view of radiographic definition. Also a small dimensioned source has less self
absorption of radiation and so a greater effective output. The specific activity depends on
the nuclear reactor and the time for which the material is irradiated, as well as on the

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