Lecture 6 Radioactive Isotopes

Definitions and types of decay

Derivation of decay equations
Half lives and mean lives
Secular Equilibrium
Useful radiotracers in oceanography

E & H Chpt 5
The chart of the nuclides - decay

Q. 230Th90 How many protons / neutrons?

Full Chart of the Nuclides Valley of Stability

1:1 line

For 230Th N/P = 1.55

Radioisotopes and decay
Definitions and Units
Parent Original radioactive atom
Daughter The product of decay
Decay Chain A series of sequential decays
from one initial parent
Decay is independent of chemistry and T and P.
Decay is only a property of the nucleus (see Chart of Nuclides)
Types of Decay
P N Atomic Wt.
Alpha He2+ -2 -2 -4
Beta e- +1 -1 0
(n P+ + e-)
Gamma packets of excess energy
Measurements
The chart of the nuclides decay pathways

decay X

decay
Mathematical Formulation of Decay

Decay Activity (A) = decays per time

(e.g. minutes (dpm) or second (dps))
A= N = decay constant (t-1)
N = # of atoms or concentration (atoms l-1)
Remember 1 mol = 6.02 x 1023 atoms

Units:
Becquerel (Bq) = 1 dps (the official SI unit)
Curie (Ci) = 3.7 x 1010 Bq = Activity of 1 gram of 226Ra

Named after Pierre Curie

See this link for the history:
http://www.orau.org/ptp/articlesstories/thecurie.htm
 Decay Equations (essential math lessons)
Decay is proportional to the # of atoms present (first order)
dN/dt = - N = AN

where
N = the number of atoms of the radioactive substance present at time t
= the first order decay constant (time-1)

The number of parent atoms at any time t can be calculated as follows.

The decay equation can be rearranged and integrated over a time interval.
dN dN
No N
N t N N
No N 0 dt No
ln N ln N ln No

where No is the number of parent atoms present at time zero. Integration leads to
N
ln t
No
or
t t
N N oe or A Ae
 Decay Curve

Both N and A decrease exponentially

Half Life
The half life is defined as the time required for half of the
atoms initially present to decay.

After one half life: N A A 1

No Ao Ao 2

From the 1 Math note:

lndecay

equation
-ln(1/2) = - (ln 1 ln 2)
= 2 t1/2 = - ( 0 ln 2)
= + ln2 = 0.693
ln (2) = t1/2
0.693 = t1/2
0.693
so t1/ 2

 Mean Life = Average Life of an Atom
1

t
N t0
tdN = 1 / t1/2
o

= 1.44 t1/2

Q. Why is the mean life longer than the half life?

Isotopes used
in Oceanography

steady state transient

U-Th series are shown on the next

page. These tracers have a range
of chemistries and half lives.
Very useful for applications in
oceanography.
Two forms of Helium

3
He2 from beta decay of
3
H1 (called tritium) and
primordial from the mantle
3
H1 = 3He2 +

4
He2 the product of alpha
decay from
many elements (especially
in U-Th series)

How would you expect

their distributions to vary
in the ocean?
Example distributions of 3He
from mid-ocean ridge crest

John Lupton (NOAA) et al (various)

Q. Why is the inside of the earth hot?
Q. What is the age of the earth? 6000 years or 4.5 x 109 years
 238
U decay products in the ocean

109 y 105 y 104 y 1600 y 3d

24 d 22 y

U conservative
Q. What controls the concentration of 238U in SW? Th particle reactive
Ra intermediate (like Ca)
Rn = conservative
Pb particle reactive
 Parent-Daughter Relationships
Radioactive Parent (A)
Stable Daughter (B)

A B e.g. 14C 15N (stable)

Production of Daughter = Decay of Parent
dN B At
A N A A N A ,o e
dt
2-box model

A A B
Example: C N (stable)
14 15

t1/2 = 5730 years

= 0.693 / t1/2
 Radioactive Parent (A)
Radioactive Daughter (B)
2-box model
A B
A B A A B B
source sink
dN B
A N A B N B mass balance for B
dt
solution:

B ( N A,0 ) At Bt
NB
B A
e e

B ( AA,0 ) At
AB
B A
e e B t
solution after assuming NB = 0 at t = 0
 Three Limiting Cases
1) 1/2(A) > 1/2(B) or A < B one important example:
2) 1/2(A) = 1/2(B) or A = B e.g. 226Ra 222Rn
3) 1/2(A) < 1/2(B) or A > B 1600yrs 3.8 days
Case #1: long half life of parent = small decay constant o
B ( AA,0 ) At B
AB
B A
e
B A
AA

AB
B /(B A )
AA
SECULAR EQUILIBRIUM
AA Activity of daughter
1 equals activity of
AB parent!

Are concentrations also equal???

Q. Are concentrations also equal???

AA A NA
1
AB B NB

A N A B NB

NA B

NB A

Example: 226Ra and 222Rn

 Secular equilibrium (hypothetical)
1/2 daughter = 0.8 hr
1/2 parent =
Total Activity
Parent (parent+daughter)
doesnt change
Activity of parent
and daughter equal at
secular equilibrium
daughter

Activity
(log scale)

! Daughter grows
in with half life of
the daughter!

1/2
time (hr)
 Example:
Grow in of 222Rn
from 226Ra

Another way to plot

After 5 half lives

activity of daughter =
95% of activity of parent
Example: Rate of grow in

Assume we have a really big wind storm over the ocean so that all the inert gas
222
Rn is stripped out of the surface ocean by gas exchange. The activity of the parent
of 222Rn, 226Ra, is not affected by the wind.

Then the wind stops and 222Rn starts to increase (grows in) due to decay.

Q. How many half lives will it take for the activity of 222Rn to equal 50% (and then 95
of the 226Ra present?

Answer: Use the following equation to calculate the activity A at time t

AA,t AA,0 1 e
0.693t/t1/2

Radon is a health hazzard!
Radon source strength from rocks
Why are some zones high (red)?
There is considerable exposure due to artificially produced sources!

Possibly largest contributor is tobacco which contains

radioactive 210Po which emits 5.3 MeV particles with an
half life of T1/2=138.4days.
Was Litvinenko (a former Russian spy) killed by 210Po?? A case study of 210Po

Toxicity of Polonium 210

Weight-for-weight, polonium's toxicity is around 106 times greater than

hydrogen cyanide (50 ng for Po-210 vs 50 mg for hydrogen cyanide).
The main hazard is its intense radioactivity (as an alpha emitter), which makes it very
difficult to handle safely - one gram of Po will self-heat to a temperature of around 500C.
It is also chemically toxic (with poisoning effects analogous with tellurium).
Even in microgram amounts, handling 210Po is extremely dangerous, requiring
specialized equipment and strict handling procedures. Alpha particles emitted by
polonium will damage organic tissue easily if polonium is ingested, inhaled, or absorbed
(though they do not penetrate the epidermis and hence are not hazardous if the polonium
is outside the body).

Acute effects

The lethal dose (LD50) for acute radiation exposure is generally about 4.5 Sv. (Sv = Sievert
which is a unit of dose equivalent). The committed effective dose equivalent 210Po
is 0.51 Sv/Bq if ingested, and 2.5 Sv/Bq if inhaled. Since 210Po has an activity of
166 TBq per gram (1 gram produces 1661012 decays per second),
a fatal 4-Sv dose can be caused by ingesting 8.8 MBq (238 microcurie),
about 50 nanograms (ng), or inhaling 1.8 MBq (48 microcurie), about 10 ng.
One gram of 210Po could thus in theory poison 100 million people of which 50 million
would die (LD50).
Body burden limit

The maximum allowable body burden for ingested polonium is only 1,100 Bq
(0.03 microcurie), which is equivalent to a particle weighing only 6.8 picograms.
The maximum permissible concentration for airborne soluble polonium compounds is
about 10 Bq/m3 (2.7 10-10 Ci/cm3). The biological half-life of polonium in
humans is 30 to 50 days. The target organs for polonium in humans are the spleen
and liver. As the spleen (150 g) and the liver (1.3 to 3 kg) are much smaller than the
rest of the body, if the polonium is concentrated in these vital organs, it is a greater
threat to life than the dose which would be suffered (on average) by the whole body
if it were spread evenly throughout the body, in the same way as cesium or tritium.

Notably, the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 was announced as due to

210
Po poisoning. Generally, 210Po is most lethal when it is ingested. Litvinenko was
probably the first person ever to die of the acute -radiation effects of 210Po , although
Irene Joliot-Curie was actually the first person ever to die from the radiation effects of
polonium (due to a single intake) in the late 1950s. It is reasonable to assume that
many people have died as a result of lung cancer caused by the alpha emission of
polonium present in their lungs, either as a radon daughter or from tobacco smoke.