Copyright: By Charles Hacker
Citation: Radiation Decay


Contents
RADIATION DECAY Version 3

CONTENTS

Introduction to Radiation Decay

Theory of Radiation

Background

Theory of the Atom

Nuclear Decay Processes

Chemical Symbols and Half-Life

Instructions for using Radiation Decay

Installation and Execution

Start-Up Screen

Decay Series Window

Emissions Products List

Periodic Table

Spectrum Searching

Changes in Version 3

Acknowledgements

Freeware Information

File Formats

Program designed by:

      Charles Hacker (MEng, BSc, Grad Dip in Medical Radiation Physics)

       Lecturer in Physics and Electronics,

       School of Engineering,

       Griffith University - Gold Coast Campus,

       Gold Coast, Australia.

       Email:  C.Hacker@griffith.edu.au

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Acknowledgment
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

WINDOWS RADIATION DECAY

This program was written using Borland Delphi (16Bit) (Win 3.1, Win95, Win98 compatible).

My thanks to them for providing an excellent Windows programming environment.

DOS RADIATION DECAY

This program is essentially a Windows duplicate of the shareware DOS program RADDECAY.EXE (Version 2.02).

The initial program was written by:

                     1987 Grove Engineering, Inc.

                     15215 Shady Grove Rd., Suite 202, Rockville, MD 20850!

                     (301) 258-2727

RADDECAY.EXE was written in TRUE BASIC.  Although NONE of the TRUE BASIC code was used in this windows version,  Grove Engineering Inc. does give permission for use of their code.

Their help information (in Version 2.02) states:

'Programmers may use the source code and record files to any extent they desire.  We heartily encourage microcomputers for engineering and analysis work.

When you create a program that uses any of the .REC files, you should acknowledge:

     a) RSIC  as the original source of the data, and

     b) Grove Engineering as the originators of the microcomputer formatted files.

This current windows program (version 3), was updated with data files supplied with the shareware DOS program DK.EXE (Version 3.05).  Grove Engineering Inc. also gave similar permissions for use of the data files.

DATA FILES (*.REC)

This Windows program uses the Radiation Decay Record files that were included in the DOS Radiation Decay Program.

The Windows Radiation Decay Program (Version 1 and 2), used the record files that were included in the DOS Radiation Decay Program, RADDECAY.EXE (Version 2.02).

The current Windows Radiation Decay Program (Version 3), uses the record files that were included in the DOS Radiation Decay Program, DK.EXE (Version 3.05).

(Goto 'Changes in Version 3' for information about data file updates).

Grove Engineering, and the author of this program, thanks the Radiation Shielding Information Center (RSIC) at OakRidge National Laboratories for providing the nuclides library information.

Grove Engineering state the data contained in the files from RSIC were received in mid-1986 and is presumed current to that time.  (Note: the Accuracy / Additions / Alterations below)

These data are the same as that in:

RADIOACTIVE DECAY DATA TABLES     by David C. Kocher

Report DOE/TIC-11026     Technical Information Center

U.S. Department of Energy,     Washington, D.C., 1981

Which is available through NTIS.  We are grateful to RSIC, a government sponsored organisation, for providing this public-domain information.

Grove Engineering state they have taken the 80 column card image files provided by RSIC in a sequential order corresponding to atomic weight and atomic number, established an alphabetic sequence, generated individual record (random access) files that can be readily accessed by an IBM-PC compatible microcomputer, and provided a (DOS TRUE BASIC) program to retrieve the information with user-oriented interaction.

These random access data files were directly transferred from the DOS TRUE BASIC record format, to Delphi data records for use in this windows program.

To achieve this, I wrote a conversion program that read in the (weird) NOT Standard IEEE format that TRUE BASIC uses, and stored these as a Delphi data record. (Which is also possible not in IEEE standard)

(So note; Grove Engineering's DOS data files (*.REC) will NOT work directly in this windows version).

ACCURACY OF THE DATA FILES

Grove Engineering state (in the information files) that:

Verification of (DOS) RadDecay has been performed as follows:

 a) Data library - by comparison with data in RADIOACTIVE DECAY DATA

    TABLES.

 b) Completeness and connection of multi-generation decay chains. - by

    comparison with the diagrams in the same reference.

 c) Decay Algorithm - Two ways:

    1) By manual calculation of Ir-190m2 for 60 minutes decay to the

       4th generation, yielding Ir-190m1, Ir-190, and Os-190m.

    2) By observing the daughter results of decaying Th-232 for one half life.

       Several levels of daughters will reach equilibrium with the Th-232

       because of its long half life. Try it for yourself.

ADDITIONS / ALTERATIONS TO THE DATA FILES

Grove Engineering added C-15 to this library for purposes of N-16 radiation shielding calculations.  Altogether, there are 497 nuclides.

The data for C-15 element is thus incomplete!

The previous versions of Windows Radiation Decay (Version 1 and 2), used the data files that were included with the DOS Radiation Decay program "RADDECAY.EXE" version 2.02.

Windows Radiation Decay Version 3 now uses the data files that are included with DOS Radiation Decay program "DK.EXE" version 3.05.

Grove Engineering provide some information on what changes were made to the data in the DOS Version 3.05.

(See the 'Changes to the Windows Version 3' section for more information').

Various publications have reported experimentally received variations in Nuclide data, to that contained in the RADIOACTIVE DECAY DATA TABLES, by David C. Kocher.

The data (*.REC) files were NOT updated with this new information.  Instead a note button was included, to list the variations to current published data.

(See the Variations to RADIOACTIVE DECAY DATA TABLES)

'm' NOMENCLATURE

The "m" on a radionuclide generally (to my understanding) refers to the element being an unstable higher energy form of the nuclide, that will decay to the same element with a lower energy.

Grove Engineering state that the DOS RadDecay attached a suffix of "m" where a nuclide decays in two modes.  In general, the shorter half life was assigned the "m" suffix.  In one case (Iridium 190) there were three decay modes and therefore they used suffixes of "m1" and "m2."

The DOS RadDecay nomenclature, was used in the Windows version.  Although this nomenclature (to my understanding) is not strictly correct.

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Background to Radiation
BACKGROUND TO RADIATION DECAY

NOTE:  COMMENTS ABOUT THIS THEORY

Chemical elements, (such as Uranium, Plutonium, & Radium) have a possibility of undergoing radioactive decay.  This refers to the element altering its atomic structure (when converting to a different element) and in the process giving off radiation particles.

For example; Uranium-235 decays to Thorium-231.  This occurs in seven thousand years, (on average).  In the process the decay releases a number of radioactive particles.  Specifically the particles emitted include; alpha particles, electron particles, neutron particles, and photon particles.

The above example demonstrates the type of information desired from a radioactive sample.  This information being; firstly, what chemical element a radioactive sample decays too.  Secondly, how long (on average) does it take for the sample to decay to the new element.  Thirdly, the type and number of particles emitted during this decay.  Finally, the energy (or radioactivity) that these emitted particles have.

There are 497 radionuclide's included in the data-base, and radioactive decay data is provided for all 497 radionuclide's.

The data provided include the half life, radioactive daughter nuclides, decay chain series, probabilities per decay, and Decay product energies for alpha's, beta's, positrons, electrons, X-rays, and photons.

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Changes
Changes in Windows Radiation Decay (Version 3)

1.  UPDATED DATA FILES

The previous versions of Windows Radiation Decay (Version 1 and 2), used the data files that were included with the DOS Radiation Decay program "RADDECAY.EXE" version 2.02.

Windows Radiation Decay Version 3 now uses the data files that are included with DOS Radiation Decay program "DK.EXE" version 3.05.

The information included in the DOS program "DK.EXE" states:

__________________________________________________________________

This constitutes the history of (DOS) RadDecay Version 3 as of this release.

 3.00: Initial release - 4/5/90.

 3.04: New NUCLIDES.REC file with corrected Cu-67 half-life units of hours.

       Prior values were days.  This correction was pointed out by a user

       and verified with D. Kocher.  The reference above is incorrect.

       Old NUCLIDES.REC was dated 1/25/88.  New one is 12/19/90.

3.05:  New NUCLIDES.REC and PHOTONS.REC

         Corrected half-lives of:

           Po - 214 from 6.37e-5 sec.    to 1.637e-4 sec.

           Po - 215 from 0.000778 sec.   to 0.001778 sec.

           Pu - 240 from 6537 yrs.       to 6569 yrs.

           Sm - 147 from 6900000000 yrs. to 1.06e11 yrs.

           U  - 236 from 3415000 yrs.    to 2.3415e7 yrs.

         Added Photons to:

           Ag - 110m   Energy: 0.7345    Probability: 0.0091

           In - 114    Energy: 0.5671    Probability: 0.0001

           Nb - 90     Energy: 1.7164    Probability: 0.0052

           Te - 134    Energy: 0.0439    Probability: 0.0013

      Old NUCLIDES.REC was dated 12/19/90.  New one is 5/3/91.

      Old PHOTONS.REC  was dated 4/13/87.   New one is 5/3/91.

These (updates) resulted from a 100% comparison of the RadDecay displayed data and the reference document.  The errors and omissions were due either to electronic translation or incorrect files as received (circa 1986).

We (Grove Engineering) have not tried to trace the specific reasons.

__________________________________________________________________

(The file dates above have no meaning in Windows version)

These above changes have been checked against ICRP-38, "Radionuclide Transformations" and have been found to be correct.

(The updated data files, and checking, is thanks to Ken Sejkora)

What changes (if any) were made to the data files between the DOS Version 2.02 and DOS Version 3.0 is unknown.

NOTE:

A newer DOS version exists, called RADDECAY 4.02, "DK4.EXE".

I have received a copy of this program, which is free for educational institutions.

(Thanks again to Ken Sejkora)

The data files of Version 4.02 were checked, and are the same as Version 3.05

2.  HELP INFORMATION ON DATA UPDATES

Particular literature publications have experimentally determined variations to currently published Radionuclide data. The data (*.REC) files were NOT updated with this new information. Instead a note button was included, to list the variations to current published data.

(Try the Nuclide Si-32 for an example).

3.  PARENT NUCLIDE

On the main display, possible parents of the current nuclide are displayed.  The percentage that the parent decays to the current nuclide is also displayed.

(Mouse clicking on the parent nuclide, will display that nuclides data.  Also, mouse clicking on a daughter nuclide, will display that nuclides data).

4.  SORT ON PROBABILITIES OR ENERGY

When the display of the Probabilities and Energy of emission products are opened, it is sorted on Probabilities or Energy, depending on the menu option settings on the start-up window.

This option can be modified in the display listing, by right clicking the mouse on the list.

(Sorting is still only from minimum to maximum, {the Delphi(TM) listbox sort only allowed ascending sort order} )

5.  SPECTRUM SEARCHING

It is now possible to search for Alpha, Electron, Beta and Positrons emissions, for specific energy emissions.

Previously only Photon Emission search was possible.

(Since Beta and Positrons have a range of energies, [Average and Maximum], the searching of these emissions requires the energy type to be specified).

A probability limit is now included in the spectrum search. This probability limit allows the spectrum yield to discriminate out low probability energy lines.

6.  SAVING THE RECORD FILES AS TEXT

A menu selection is provided to save the data files (*.rec) to text files (*.txt).

(Under File - Create Text Data Base Files).

The record files are written to disk files.  The resulting files can be imported into spreadsheets, data base, or word processors.

This function was provided by the DOS Raddecay program Version 3.05 (DK.exe), and was thus incorporated in this windows version.

7.  BUG FIXES

Some minor bug fixes made.  No recordings were made of what they were.

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Chemical Symbol and Half Life
CHEMICAL SYMBOLS AND HALF LIFE

The Theory of Radiation stated in this Help file is provided for reference only, and is NOT intended to be a complete or accurate account of nuclear decay processes.

CHEMICAL SYMBOL

Chemical elements, (which include radionuclide's) are denoted by a specific notation.  The notation provides information about the type of atom, the mass, and the nucleus structure.

The chemical symbol has the following from:  	 (For example; [image] )

Where:	X - is the chemical symbol, which depends on the number of protons.

Z - is the Atomic Number (the number of protons)

A - Atomic Mass Number (the number protons plus the number neutrons)

The chemical symbol could also be written as X-A, (For example N-15).  In this case the Atomic Mass Number (A) follows the Chemical Symbol (X).  This format is useful, especially when superscript and subscript lettering is not possible.

The Atomic number (Z) is not included in this format.  Yet, the atomic number is not strictly necessary.  This is due to the Chemical Symbol (X) being directly related to the Atomic number, (For example N-15, must have seven protons for nitrogen is the element with seven protons).

ISOTOPES

Isotopes are atoms of the same type, yet the central nucleus has different amounts of neutrons.  (Since the atoms are of the same type, then the central nucleus must have the same number of protons, [due to the number of protons specifying the atom]).

For example; [image] are isotopes of the chemical that has six protons, (ie carbon).

HALF LIFE

When a radionuclide decays, it converts into an atom of a different type (and also emits a number of radioactive particles).  The amount of radiation decay is dependant (proportional) to the original number of radioactive atoms in the sample.

With each decay there is less radioactive atoms.  Hence the radioactivity decreases with time.  This decrease is exponential, and thus never reaches zero.

The above diagram demonstrates Sample 1 and Sample 2 having a decrease in the number of radioactive atoms (N).  The decrease approaches zero, but does not reach zero. Hence the total life of any radionuclide would effectively be infinite,

(ie; last forever).

Yet, different radionuclide's decay at a different rates.  Hence a measure of this varying decay is required.  For this the Half Life is used.

The Half Life is defined as the time taken for half the original amount of the radionuclide to decay to its new element, (the daughter product).  For example; half the original number of Plutonium - 236, will decay to the daughter product

Uranium - 232 within 2.85 Years.

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Decay Window
DECAY SERIES WINDOW

The Series button on the Daughter Products List, opens the Decay Chain Series window for the element.

The Decay Series can be viewed as a Tri-Linear Decay Chart, or as a Decay Chain.  This is selectable from the Type Menu Option.

An example Tri-Linear Decay Chart is shown below:    This lists the elements the Radionuclide decays to, along with a list of the elements that the proceeding elements decay to, and so on.  The list is placed in a chart, of Atomic Mass against Atomic Number.

An example Decay Chain is shown below.  This lists the elements the Radionuclide decays to, along with a list of the elements that the proceeding elements decay to, and so on.

In this case, a complete chain is developed, indicating the decay history of the element.

Data Displayed in Decay Chain Series

The data shown include the Daughter products, the percentage chance that the element will decay to the particular daughter element, and finally the half life of each of the elements.

Menu Items

The File menu item contains the menu sub-items of: Print Setup, Print, and Close Window.

The Print Setup item, allows the user to select the desired printer, and to change various printing options.  (Such as page size and number of copies).

The Print item, prints the decay chain to the currently active printer, with the current printing options.

The Close item, closes this Decay Chain window, and returns the user to the Main Window.

The Edit menu item contains the menu sub-items of: Copy as Text, Copy as Picture.

The Copy as Text item, prints the decay series to the clipboard, but only as text information.  That is; only the daughter products are stored, the Half Life and percentages are not included in the clipboard text data.

The Copy as Picture item, prints the current window bitmap of the complete Decay Chain to the clipboard, (with all data remaining).  This bitmap is a standard windows bitmap (BMP), and not a Device Independent Bitmap (DIB).

The data copied to the clipboard can be pasted into another program, by that programs Edit - Paste command,  (assuming that program can interpret the clipboard data).

The Type menu item contains the menu sub-items of: Show Decay Chain and Show Tri-Linear Chart.

These menu items select the different display of the Decay Series.

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Emission List
EMISSION PRODUCTS LIST

The show list buttons in the Emission Products list of the main window, provides a list of those particular emission products.  This list provides the energies of those particular particles emitted, and the probability that energy product will be emitted.

Which data (Energy or Probability) that is displayed first (and is thus sorted by), is specified by the Menu - Options command.

Right clicking the mouse on the Emissions product list, will change this sort criteria.

For example, if the show list of the Alpha particles is selected, the energies of the two Alpha particles are listed, along with the probability that each will occur.

The Close button on the from, closes the Emission Products window and returns the user  to the main window.

The Copy button, copies the Energies and Probability information to the clipboard. The data is stored as text, and hence can be pasted into any program that accepts text data.

The Print button, prints the Energies and Probability information to the currently selected printer, with the current set options.  The selected printer, and printer options, can be initially set from the File, Printer Setup menu item in the main window.

The Beta and Positron Emission Products list have a slightly different appearance to the window shown above.  With this list, there are two energies (a Maximum and Average energy) as well as the probability of occurrence.

An example of the Beta Emission Products for Bi-213 is shown below.

Beta and Positrons are stated with two energies, due to the fact that these emitted particles have a range of energy values.

This is demonstrated in the graph below:

Graph of the energy range from a particular

Beta and Positron particle

This is unlike the Photon Emission Products that have specific (or narrow bands) of energy emissions.  They are represented by only one energy, the peak energy.

This is demonstrated in the graph below:

Graph of the energy range from a particular

Gamma Ray  particle

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File Formats
FORMAT OF RECORD FILES

Eight data files are used by this program.  These being:

ALPHA.REC

BETAS.REC

ELECTRON. REC

NUCLIDES REC

PHOTONS. REC

POSITRON.REC

PROGENY. REC

RADDAT. REC

_______________________________________________________

The data files are DelphiV1 Typed files.  The Type headers for these files are:

TYPE

  AtomRec = RECORD                            { For Nuclides.Rec }

     AtSymbol : STRING[8];

     AtMass,AtNo : INTEGER;

     AtHalf : REAL;

     AtUnits : CHAR;

     Atpos : ARRAY [1..12] of WORD;

  END;

  Atomic=ARRAY [0..497] OF AtomRec;

  PeriodRec = RECORD                          { For Raddat.Rec  }

     AtSym : STRING[3];                        The Atomic Symbol:  ie  He = Helium

     AtElem : STRING[14];                      The Atomic name: ie   Helium

     AtWght : REAL;                            The Atomic weight

     Atx : BYTE;                               The periodic table x-position

     Aty : BYTE;                                                  y-position

     AtType : CHAR;                            The Element State: S-Solid, L-Liquid,

  END;                                                             G-Gas, C-Chemically Produced

  Period= ARRAY [0..106] OF PeriodRec;

  ProgRec = RECORD                           { For Progeny.Rec }

     Plocat : INTEGER;                        The Daughter element location in the Atomic Array

     Pfrac : REAL;                            The fraction that the element decays to this product

  END;

  Progeny = ARRAY [0..291] OF ProgRec;

  PhoAlpEleRec = RECORD                      { For Photons.Rec and Alpha.Rec and Electron.Rec }

     Energy : REAL;                           The Energy of the Emission

     Prob : REAL;                             The Probability the Emission will take this Energy

  END;

  BetaPosiRec = RECORD                       { For Beta.Rec and Positron.Rec }

     MaxE : REAL;

     AvgE : REAL;

     Prob : REAL;

  END;

_______________________________________________________

The Atomic Rec structure Contains the following information:

     AtSymbol : STRING[8];                                         nuclide name (ASCII)

     AtMass,AtNo : INTEGER;                                    atomic weigh, atomic number

     AtHalf : REAL;                                                       half life (IEEE)

     AtUnits : CHAR;                                                     half life unit (ASCII)

                                                                                   (S = seconds,  M = minutes, H = hours, D = days, Y = years)

     Atpos : ARRAY [1..12] of WORD;

The format for all the remaining numbers in the record are:

    1         number of daughters in the file PROGENY.REC

    2         first daughter record number in PROGENY.REC

    3         number of alphas in the file ALPHA.REC

    4         first alpha record number in ALPHA.REC

    5         number of betas in the file BETA.REC

    6         first beta record number in BETA.REC

    7         number of positrons in the file POSITRON.REC

    8         first positron record number in POSITRON.REC

    9         number of electrons in the file ELECTRON.REC

  10         first electron record number in ELECTRON.REC

  11         number of photons in the file PHOTON.REC

  12         first photon record number in PHOTON.REC

For the data files, each file has the following number of records.

NUCLIDES.REC       497 records.

PROGENY.REC        296 records.

ALPHA.REC          360 records.

BETA.REC          1702 records.

ELECTRON.REC      3882 records.

PHOTON.REC        7489 records.

POSITRON.REC       138 records.

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FREEWARE INFORMATION

NO LABILITY ACCEPTED!

No lability whatsoever for the program operation, use of the data, accuracy of the data, loss of information, or anything else is accepted by the author of this program.

Also, neither the author of the original program or author of the radiation data tables offer any lability for their program or data.  The authors being:

     a) Grove Engineering as the originators of the microcomputer formatted files, and

     b) RSIC as the original source of the data,

The Theory of Radiation stated in this Help file is provided for reference only, and is NOT intended to be a complete or accurate account of nuclear decay processes.

(The Theory of Radiation section is adapted from my Introduction to Nuclear Physics lectures I give to first year engineers, undertaking their first semester Physics class.  So yes I know that some of the information is therefore oversimplified, to the point of being inaccurate!).

NOTE:  I have NOT had ANY contact with either; the author/s of the DOS Radiation Decay Program, the author/s of the Radiation Tables, or Grove Engineering in general.

Thus I DO NOT know how to contact either of the above, nor can offer any comment about the above.

(Getting Emails from uses of the program is great.  But certain Emails have prompted me to stress the above statements).

DISTRIBUTION INFORMATION

Grove Engineering gives permission for making copies of their (DOS) program, and to use the data *.rec files of their program.  As they state (in Version 2.02), 'Permission is granted for making copies of RADDECAY without any restrictions.  Also when you create a program that uses any of the .REC files, you should acknowledge the Authoring'.

Go to Acknowledgement Section

The Author of this program also gives permission for making copies of this program, and using the data files contained within, 'Without Restriction'.  (This is subject to the No Lability clause).

The rights to the executable portion of the program (DECAY.EXE) remains mine, yet you can freely copy and distribute unmodified versions of this windows code.

This program should not be sold, or offered as part of a commercial program.

(Without express permission from the author).

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you use the program, it would be nice to get an Email from you.

Similarly; I would also like to know your comments, and any additions that would benefit the program.

My Email address is:  C.Hacker@mailbox.gu.edu.au

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Instructions
INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE

The Radiation Decay Program is named DECAY.EXE.  This program file fully describes the executable portion of the program.  That is; no DLL (Dynamic Link Library) or other external libraries are required for execution by the program.

However; during program operation, the program obtains the necessary radiation data by loading from data files.  These data files have the DOS extension of REC, which refers to Records.

There are eight data files required by this program.  These being; Alpha.Rec,  Betas.Rec, Electron.Rec, Nuclides.Rec, Photons.Rec, Positron.Rec, Progeny.Rec, and Raddat.Rec.  This files contain data on the Alpha emissions, the Electron emissions, the list of Radionuclide's, the Photon emissions, the Positron emissions, the Progeny (or Daughter products), and the Radioactive Decay information, (respectfully).

The Installation Disk/Program should contain the program (DECAY.EXE), the help file (DECAY.HLP), and eight data files (*.REC).

To install the program, the program and associated files should be copied to a directory on the hard drive.  All auxiliary files (such as the data files) are required to be in the same directory as the executable program (DECAY.EXE).  Use Microsoft Windows Filemanager (for Win3.1) or Explorer (for Win95/98) to copy the program files to the desired directory.

To Install the programs ICON for Microsoft Windows 3.1, select the menu items File, New, Program from the program manager.  Select the program (from its directory), and the ICON will be inserted into program manager.

For Microsoft Windows 95/98, the programs ICON will be seen when the directory containing the program is opened.  The directory can be selected Via the Hard Drive ICON (which is normally called My Computer).

To run the program (execute the program), double click the programs ICON via the mouse.

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INTRODUCTION

RADIATION DECAY provides radioactive decay information for 497 radionuclide's.

Data provided include the half life, radioactive daughter nuclides, decay chain series, probabilities per decay, and Decay product energies for alphas, betas, positrons, electrons, X-rays, and photons.

The radionuclide can be selected from an Alphabetical list, or selected from a Periodic Table.

The radioactive elements can be searched, to find an element that emits a particular Alpha, Electron, or Photon emission.

For example, say a photon spectrum gives two photon peaks at 150 keV and 420 keV. The radioactive elements can be searched for photons that give a 150 keV, then the previously found elements can be searched for the 420 keV photon.

Hence Photon spectrum's can be matched to photon emitters.

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NUCLEAR DECAY

The Theory of Radiation stated in this Help file is provided for reference only, and is NOT intended to be a complete or accurate account of nuclear decay processes.

Nuclear decay occurs within unstable atoms.  An atom is usually unstable, due to the nucleus mass (the number of protons and neutrons) being to numerous for the atom.

The unstable atom then attempts to become more stable, by emitting some of the excess mass as a radiation particle.  This is known as nuclear decay.

The emitted radiation particle can take many forms.  However, the most common types are; alpha, beta, positron, neutron, gamma, and electron particle radiation.

ALPHA RADIATION

Occurs when an unstable atom has a nucleus with to many neutrons and protons.  The atom is able to eject a bundle of two protons and two neutrons from the nucleus, in order to reduce the size of the nucleus.

Helium is an element that has a nucleus of two protons and two neutrons.  Hence, the ejected mass is effectively a fast moving helium atom.

BETA RADIATION

Occurs when an atom has to many neutrons.  In this case, the neutron converts to a proton.

Since the neutron has slightly more mass than proton, a small amount of surplus mass needs to be ejected.  Also; since then neutron converts from having no charge, to having a positive (proton) charge.  A negative charge, small mass particle requires ejecting.  This particle is the beta particle.

The beta particle has the same size, mass, and charge quantity of an electron..  Hence, it is effectively a fast moving electron.  However, the beta particle is produced IN the nucleus, and is NOT an ionised electron.

POSITRON RADIATION

Positron radiation is similar to Beta Radiation.  However, in this case, the atom has too many protons.  To reduce the number of protons, a proton converts to a neutron.

Extra mass (negative mass) is required by the proton to achieve this.  Thus an

anti-matter positron particle is generated to achieve this.   Since the proton losses it's charge (converting to a neutral neutron), the positron particle has positive charge.

The positron particle has an anti-matter size, mass, and charge quantity of a positive electron.  Hence, it is effectively a positive charged beta particle.

ELECTRON RADIATION

Occurs when an atom decays, due to another form of nuclear radiation decay (ie. alpha, beta, positron, or gamma radiation).  In this case, some of the electrons in the orbital shells are energised into exiting the atom.  Hence, electron radiation is due to electrons being ionised from the orbital shells, via a decay in the nucleus.

GAMMA and X-RAY RADIATION

Occurs when an unstable atom has too much energy in the nucleus.  The atom attempts to become more stable by emitting this additional energy via a photon.  This photon particle is similar to photons generated by electrons changing energy orbits.  However, this photon is produced from within the nucleus and not from the outer electron shells.

This high energy nuclear photon is referred to as a Gamma ray particle.  Gamma rays are the same as X-rays, however X-rays have lower energies than Gamma rays.

The Photon Energy Spectrum (the high energy portion) is shown Below:

Frequency (Hz)

GAMMA RAY SPECTROSCOPY

Gamma ray particles are emitted with a large range of energies.  These emitted energy ranges are known as a Spectrum.

The emitted gamma rays are not usually emitted with a balanced energy range.  Instead the gamma rays have peaks at different places along the spectrum.

An example spectrum is shown below.

Differing radioactive elements (for example uranium, plutonium, & radium), have differing positions of these peaks.  Hence, the positions of the peaks on the spectrum of an unknown radioactive sample can be used to identify the sample.

For example; the above graph has the first five spectrum peaks at 23, 28, 33, 35.5, 42.5 MeV.   The radioactive sample (radionuclide) that produces such a spectrum can be found by matching these peaks with the know emission peaks of radionuclide's.

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PERIODIC TABLE

A periodic table of the elements lists all the known atomic elements (radioactive or not) in a table.  This table is ordered on the atomic number of the elements, hence ordered on the number of protons in the atom.

A periodic table is included in the program, and displays when the user selects the Sub-Menu item, Table, or when the user Selects the Periodic Table button.

A copy of this table is shown below:

The table shows the division between those atoms that are Metal and those that are Non-Metal.

When the mouse is moved over the table, the information box on the bottom on the screen updates to the element the mouse is currently over.

The information provided from the information box include; the Chemical Symbol

(ie H), the Chemical Name (ie Hydrogen), and the chemicals natural State (ie Solid, Liquid, Gas, or Synthetically Produced).

The user can select a particular element, by positioning the mouse pointer over the desired element and pressing the mouse button.   The Period Table screen then closes, and the user is taken to the main screen.  The main screen will then show atomic information for that element selected from the periodic table.

If the user does not want to select an element.  Then the Close button will close the window without selection.

ALPHABETICAL LIST SUB-MENU ITEM

When this sub-menu item is selected, an alphabetical list of all the elements in the periodic table are shown.

The list gives the Element Name, the Atomic number (the position in the periodic table), and the chemical symbol.  The user is able to highlight a particular element, by using the mouse.

Once an element has been highlighted, then the Select Element button can be “pressed”.  This will return the user to the main window, which will display atomic information on the element selected.

The Cancel button will return the user to the main window, without selection.

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Spectroscopy
GAMMA and X-RAY RADIATION

Occurs when an unstable atom has too much energy in the nucleus.  The atom attempts to become more stable by emitting this additional energy via a photon.  This photon particle is similar to photons generated by electrons changing energy orbits.  However, this photon is produced from within the nucleus and not from the outer electron shells.

This high energy nuclear photon is referred to as a Gamma ray particle.  Gamma rays are the same as X-rays, however X-rays have lower energies than Gamma rays.

The Photon Energy Spectrum (the high energy portion) is shown Below:

Frequency (Hz)

GAMMA RAY SPECTROSCOPY

Gamma ray particles are emitted with a large range of energies.  These emitted energy ranges are known as a Spectrum.

The emitted gamma rays are not usually emitted with a balanced energy range.  Instead the gamma rays have peaks at different places along the spectrum.

An example spectrum is shown below.

Differing radioactive elements (for example uranium, plutonium, & radium), have differing positions of these peaks.  Hence, the positions of the peaks on the spectrum of an unknown radioactive sample can be used to identify the sample.

For example; the above graph has the first five spectrum peaks at 23, 28, 33, 35.5, 42.5 MeV.   The radioactive sample (radionuclide) that produces such a spectrum can be found by matching these peaks with the know emission peaks of radionuclide's.

Return to Spectrum Searching.

This help file was created with the free trial version of HelpScribble.


Spectrum Search
ALPHA, ELECTRONS, & PHOTON SPECTRUM SEARCH

Selecting this menu item allows either an Alpha, Electron or  Photon spectrum to be matched to a particular element.

For example; a radiation sample can be identified by matching the photon peaks, to the known photon peaks from radionuclide's.

This Alpha, Electron, or Photon Search menu item allows for this searching.

Note:  Since the Beta and Positron data have a range of energy emissions (See Emissions Information), there was little point in including these spectrum search.

When the Search window is opened it has the following form:

The Alpha, Electron, or Photon Energy and Energy range items on the top of the screen, allow for the entry of an energy and the range around this energy,  (ie 120  +/-5 keV).

A probability limit is included in the spectrum search. This probability limit allows the spectrum yield to discriminate out low probability energy lines.

The list on the left hand side initially contains all of the Radionuclide's on file.

Once the energy (and range) has been entered, the Start Search button can be selected.  When this is selected, the program then searches all the Radionuclide's within the left hand list.  The program searches the Alpha, Electron, or Photon emissions of the current radionuclide, to see if any of the Alpha, Electron, or Photon match the specified energy and range.

If the radionuclide does have a Alpha, Electron, or Photon that matches, then the radionuclide is added to the list on the right.

When the search has completed, the list on the right has all elements that have at least one Alpha, Electron, or Photon emitted with the specified energy and range.  The Transfer List button will transfer this found list to search list, (that is; replace the list on the right hand side).  This enables only these elements to be searched for the next photon entry.

For example; assume a sample Photon spectrum has peaks at 23, 28, 32, 36, and 40 keV.  Then; firstly all radionuclide's can be searched, to find the radionuclide's that have a 23 keV emission peak.  When the found radionuclide's list is complete, the list can be transferred to the search list.  Consequently, only these radionuclide's will be searched to obtain those that also give a 28 keV emission peak.  This can be continued, using all the emission peaks, to result in a final small list of radionuclide's.  This small list of radionuclide's are thus most likely to be the elements within the original sample.

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Startup Screen
START-UP SCREEN

Upon starting the program, the user is presented with the main program window.  An example of which is shown below:

The top of the window contains the program name, Radiation Decay.  Below this, the menu bar is seen.  The menu bar contains the items; File, Edit, Select, Search, Options, and Help.  The menu items are discussed in a later section.

On the left of the main menu, an alphabetical list is presented.  This list contains all the Radionuclide's within the data files.  This list can be scrolled up and down (by the arrows or the slider bar), to locate the desired radionuclide.

Once a desired radionuclide has been selected, the main window provides data on the chosen radionuclide.  The data shown include; the Element Name, the Atomic Number, the Mass Number, the Atomic Mass (in AMU, Atomic mass units) , and the Half Life (the average time for half the sample to decay to the daughter products).

PERIODIC TABLE

This button will allows the user to select the radioactive element from the Periodic Table.

POSSIBLE PARENTS

Lists the elements that decay into the currently selected element, along with the percentage chance that the element will decay to this current element.

Thus the display lists possible parents that the current element may have decayed form.

In the above example; Ac-255 results from a decay of Ra-255.

DAUGHTER PRODUCTS

The Daughter Products lists the elements that the selected radionuclide decays to, along with the percentage chance that the element will decay to this daughter.

In the above example; Ac-255 decays to Fr-221 in all cases (100%).

The Radionuclide could decay to two daughter products, one daughter product, or no daughter products.  In the case of no daughter products, then the decay does not result in a change of the element.  That is, the decay results in the emission of particles, but not a change to the proton number of the nucleus.

The Series button opens the Decay Chain Series window for the element.

EMISSION PRODUCTS

The Emission Products lists the number and type of particles emitted during the decay.

The programs data base has information stored on the following particles; Alpha, Beta, Positrons, Electrons, and Photons (which include X-Rays and Gamma Rays).  Other types of emission products (such as neutrons) are not recorded.

The show list provides a list of the particular emission products.  This is described in the Emission Products section.

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Theroy of the Atom
THEORY OF THE ATOM

The Theory of Radiation stated in this Help file is provided for reference only, and is NOT intended to be a complete or accurate account of nuclear decay processes.

THE ATOM

All matter (elements) are composed of atoms.  The atom is the smallest component of the element that still exhibits the same properties as the element.  The atom consist of a central nucleus that is surrounded by a cloud of orbiting electrons.

THE NUCLEUS

The nucleus is located at the center of the atom.  It is small (compared to the atom), yet contains most of the mass of the atom.  For example; the nucleus usually occupies less than 1/20 of the total size of the atom, yet usually contains over 95% of the atoms mass.

The nucleus is composed of tightly packed protons and neutrons.  The proton and neutron have approximately equal size and mass.  However, the neutron is known to have slightly greater mass (approximately 1% more than the proton).

There are usually equal numbers of protons and neutrons in the nucleus. Yet for larger atoms, to maintain atomic stability, the number of neutrons are generally slightly more than the number of protons.

The protons have a charge, which is defined as being positive.  The charge indicates that the proton will interact electrostatically with other charged particles.  The neutron does not intact electrostatically, hence has no charge (is Neutral charged).

THE ELECTRON

Electrons are small, high energy particles, that orbit the atom.

The electron has very low mass, compared with the proton or neutron.  The electron mass is approximately 1/1800 of the mass of the proton.

The electron interacts electrostatically.  Hence it contains a charge, and this charge is equal to that of a proton.  However, the charge is opposite that of the proton, and hence defined as being a negative charge.

The number of electrons in the outer orbits, generally equal the number of protons within the nucleus.  However, slight differences can occur due to Ionisation, (resulting in differences of the order of 1 to approximately 4).

The orbital paths of the electrons could be very erratic, however specific orbits have definite energies per orbit.  The definite energy orbits are modelled as concentric circular orbits, with each increasing orbital radius representing higher orbital energies.

IONISATION

Electrons can change orbits, but only by gaining or loosing energy via a photon.  The photons may have sufficient energy to cause an electron to be totally ejected (ionised) from the atom.  When this occurs, the atom is said to be an ‘ion’ of that element.

Free roaming ionised electrons may also be attracted to another atom, resulting in more electrons in the outer shell of that new atom.

Molecules, which are groups of atoms held together by the interaction of electrons in the outer orbits, could be split apart by ionisation.  Hence, ionisation is a destructive force, and dangerous to molecules of living organisms.

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Variations
Variations to RADIOACTIVE DECAY DATA TABLES

Various publications have reported experimentally received variations in Nuclide data, to that contained in the RADIOACTIVE DECAY DATA TABLES, by David C. Kocher.

The data (*.REC) files were NOT updated with this new information.  Instead a note button was included, to list the variations to current published data.

The note button displays the following updates:

Nuclide:  Si-32	Half Life:  140 +/- 20 Years

Source:  'Hofmann H.J.(et al), - Nucl. Instrum. Meth. 52, 544(1990)',

Nuclide:  Sr-90	Half Life:  28.79 +/- 0.06 Years

Source:  'Woods and Lucas - Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A369, 534-538(1996)',

                Half life is given as 10516 +/- 21 Days.

Nuclide:  Y-91m	(Photon energy discrepancy)

The 'Kocher' table (thus Radiation Decay), lists a Photon at 557.57 keV with 0.9508 probability.

The ICRP-38 Tables lists the Photon at 557.6 keV with 0.950 probability.Yet the Decay scheme of the same source refers to a 555.6 keV Photon.

Erdtmann, G., and Soyka, W.,  'The Gamma-Rays of the Radionuclide's,Verlag Chemie, ISBN 3-527-25816-7, Weinheim, Germany,ISBN 0-89573-022-7, New York, 1979.

List a photon at 557.57 keV with a 0.951 probability. Yet the same source states the Y-91m Daughter to Sr-91, has a photon at 555.57 keV.

(It is not known which is the correct value)

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HelpScribble
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