478 IConceptsof Modern Physics

An appropriate balance between risk and

benefit is not always
casy to find where radiation is
This seems particularly true for medical
x-ray cxposures, many of which are made for no concerned
and do more harm than good. The once
"routine" x-raying of strong reason
breast cancer is now generally believed to have symptom-less young women to scarch for
increased, not decreased, the overall death rate duc to
Particularly dangerous is the x-raying of pregnant women, until not long ago another "routine"
cancer
which dramatically increases the chance of cancer in
their children. Of course, x-rays have procedure
applications in medicine. The point is that every exposure should have a definite many valuable
the risk involved. An ordinary chest justihcation that outweights
x-ray using modern equipment involves a radiation dose
of
0.017 mSv, much less than in the
past. However, a CT chest scan (Sec. 2.5) involves the considerable about
8 mSv. CT scans of children dose of
pose especially serious risks and need equally serious
justification.
12.2 HALF-LIFE

Less and less, but always some left

Measurements of the activities of radioactive
samples show that, in every case, they fall off exponentially
with time. Figure 12.5 is a graph of R versus r for a typical radionuclide. We note that in every 5.00 h
period, regardless of when the period starts, the activity drops to half of what it was at the start of the period.
Accordingly the half-life 7 of the nuclide is 5.00 h.
Every radionuclide has a characteristic half-life. Some half-lives are only a millionth ofa second, others are
billions of years. One of the major problems faced
by nuclear power plants is the safe disposal of radioactive
wastes since some of the nuclides
present have long half-lives.
The behavior illustrated in Fig. 12.5 means that the time variation of activity follows the formula

Activity law R R.e (12.2)

where A, called the deeay constant, has a differ

ent value for each radionuclide. The connection
between decay constant A and half-life is easy 7,
to tind. After a half-life has elapsed, that is, when
Half lifeT2 5.00h
Moan ifeT=t201
T , the
Hence
activity R drops to R, by definition.

R R e Mi,

10 15 20
Taking natural logarithms of both sides of this
Time t, h cquation,

Fig. 12.5 I The activity of a radionuclide degreases

exponentially with time. The half-life is the time needed AT In 2
foran initial activity to drop by half The mean life ofa
radionuclide is 1.44 times its half-life (Eq.(12.7)]. 0.693
Half-life (12.3)
 Chapter 12 Nuclear Transformations 479

decay constantt of the

radionuclide whose half-life is
5.00 h is
h e

therefore
A0.693
0.693
Ti/2 .00 h)(3600 s/A 3.85x10$s-
)
cay constant, the
1heactivity law of Eq. greater the chance a given nucleus will decay time.
(12.2) follows if we assume decay in a certain period
cleus of a given nuclide. With A as the
a
constant
probability per unit
A nit time for the decay of
ndergo decay
will unders
in a time interval di. probability per unit time, A dt is the
probability that
ne dt is the product of the number ofIf a sample contains N undecaycd nuclei, the number dN that decay
nuclei N and the probability A dt that each will decay Is,
dt *
dN=-NAdt (12.4)
. t h e minus sign is needed because
wher
Equation (12.4) can be rewritten
N decreases with increasing .

dN
=-A dt
N

and each side can now be integrated:

N dN

In N- In No =-M
Radioactive decay NN =Noe (12.5)
This formula gives the number N of undecayed nuclei at the time t in terms of the decay probability per unit
time Aof the nuclide involved and the number N, of undecayed nuclei at t= 0.
Figure 12.6 illustrates the alpha decay of the gas radon, 2Rn, whose half-life is 3.82 days, to the polo-
nium isotope 34Po. If we start with 1.00 mg of radon in a closed container, 0.50 mg will remain after 3.82
days, 0.25 mg will remain after 7.64 days, and so on.

Rn) Po Rn Po Rn po Rn po Rn

I.0

218Po

05
222Rn

10 15
Time, days
F
12.6 The alpha decay of 222Rn to 21Po has a half-Iife of 3.8 d. The sample of radon whose decay is
gaphed here had an initial mass of 1.0 mg
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