5.2.

4 Half-life (Ana)

• 1 Define the half-life of a particular isotope as the time taken for half the
nuclei of that isotope in any sample to decay; recall and use this definition in simple
calculations, which might involve information in tables or decay curves (calculations
will not include background radiation)
• 2 Calculate half-life from data or decay curves from which background
radiation has not been subtracted

• 3 Explain how the type of radiation emitted and the half-life of an isotope
determine which isotope is used for applications including:
• (a) household fire (smoke) alarms
• (b) irradiating food to kill bacteria
• (c) sterilisation 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

Answers:

1.
Uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Since the earth is about
4.6 billion years old, the amount of Uranium – 238 that had existed at the
time of the earth’s birth has now reduced to half.

1.1 “Recall and use this definition in simple calculations”.

Uranium 238 has a halflife of 4.468×109 years (4,468,000,000years). ( (Environment,

2019)
1.2
Example of a exercise of half-life :

The answer is B.
Because, if we want to know the half-life of the isotope we must calculate the
initial count/s obtained which is 38 000 counts/s and divide by two 3 times
which is the isotope count rate from the isotope over a three- year period

This would be a tri-diagram

38 000

19 000 ( if you see this value means that half life of the sotope is less than a
years because this result is less than the first period which is 26 000)

9500 ( this value is also less than a year)

4750
1.3

Half-Life Graphs

 To calculate the half-life of a sample from a graph:

o Check the original activity (where the line crosses the y-axies), A0.
o Halve this value and look for this activity.
o Go across from the halved value (on the y-axis) to the best fit curve,
and then straight down to the x-axis .
o The point where you reach the x-axis should be the half-life.
  The time taken for the activity to decrease to half its original value is the half-
life.

Background Radiation

 Background radiation is radiation that is always present in the environment

around us.
 As a consequence, whenever an experiment involving radiation is carried out,
some of the radiation that is detected will be background radiation.
 When carrying out experiments to measure half-life, the presence of
background radiation must be taken into account.

2.

Example

The radioisotope technetium is used extensively in medicine. The graph below

shows how the activity of a sample varies with time.
Determine the half-life of this material.

When measuring radioactive emissions, some of the detected radiation will

be background

Step 1: Draw lines on the graph to determine the time it takes for technetium to
drop to half of its original activity

Step 2: Read the half-life from the graph


 o In the diagram above the initial activity, A0, is 8 × 107 Bq
o The time taken to decrease to 4 × 107 Bq, or ½ A0, is 6 hours
o The time taken to decrease to 2 × 107 Bq is 6 more hours
o The time taken to decrease to 1 × 107 Bq is 6 more hours
o Therefore, the half-life of this isotope is 6 hours

3. Explain how the type of radiation emitted and the half-life of an isotope
determine which isotope is used for applications including:
• (a) household fire (smoke) alarms

Answer:
The isotope of americium used in smoke detectors is americium-241, which decays
by α emission to neptunium-237 with a half-life of 432.2 years. (University, 2011)

(b) irradiating food to kill bacteria

Answer:
Currently, food irradiators use one of three kinds of radiation: gamma rays (from
cobalt-60 sources), electron beams, or x-rays. All three methods work the same way.
Bulk or packaged food passes through a radiation chamber on a conveyor belt.
(Agency, 2023)

(c) sterilisation of equipment using gamma rays

Answer: Cold Process SterilizationCurrently, all industrial radiation processing

facilities employ Cobalt-60as the gamma radiation source. The reason why Cobalt-
60 is the most suitable for radiation processing is because of the relatively high
energy of their gamma rays and fairly long half-life which is 5.27 years. (Tuttnauer,
2016)

(d) measuring and controlling thicknesses of materials with the choice of radiations
used linked to penetration and absorption

Answer: Beta radiation is the most commonly used type of radiation for thickness
monitoring applications. This is because it has the most suitable penetration power -
alpha radiation would be blocked by even a thin sheet of paper, while gamma
radiation is typically used for thicker sheet metal materials. (hiken, 2023)

• (e) diagnosis and treatment of cancer using gamma rays

Answer:

Iridium-192 (Ir-192) is a radioactive isotope. It is a gamma emitter and has a half-life

of 74 days. In the medical world, iridium-192 is most commonly used to fight cancer
cells. The irradiation source is placed inside the body, this is called brachytherapy.
(Medicine, 2023)

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