All articles tagged with #radioactivity
Mihai Cuciuc created a unique clock that ticks at one becquerel, using a clever setup with an Am-241 source and coincidence detection to produce a stable one-hertz signal based on radioactive decay, despite the inherent randomness of such decay processes.
Scientists have produced Uranium-241 for the first time, filling a gap in the long list of the heavy metal’s isotopes. The new isotope has a half-life of around 40 minutes, making it long enough to study its properties. Uranium-241's discovery is the first for an isotope at the heavier end of the scale since 1979. When U-241 decays it releases beta rays, converting one of its abundant supply of neutrons to a proton and forming neptunium-241, which in turn lasts for about 14 minutes before becoming plutonium-241 through the same decay process.
Scientists have discovered and synthesized a new isotope of uranium, uranium-241, which has 92 protons and 149 neutrons, making it the first new neutron-rich isotope of uranium discovered since 1979. The half-life of uranium-241 is estimated to be around 40 minutes. The isotope was created by firing a sample of uranium-238 at platinum-198 nuclei at Japan's RIKEN accelerator. The discovery is unlikely to have any practical or scientific applications due to the small numbers in which it is created.
Objects and people exposed to dangerous levels of radiation can be decontaminated by wiping down the contaminated object or washing it with soap and water. Heavily contaminated objects are decontaminated using strong chemicals such as nitric acid and permanganate. If an object can't be decontaminated with water or chemical treatments, it's probably best to put it in the storage silo. Many hazardous radioactive materials take an extremely long time to peter out on their own.