Naturally Occurring Radionuclides

Thorium is naturally a radioactive chemical element, which was discovered in 1828 from the Norwegian mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark, and named Thor from Jons Jakob Bezelius, which means the “Norse God of Thunder.” Thorium is the most abundant metal found in earth crust and had been scattered million years ago in the galaxy, with the explosion of meteors known as supernova. Thorium generates radioactive gas products, as radon-20 decay. Other decay by-products of thorium are radium and actinium. But, thorium is found in nature as thorium-232, which has a half-life and endures under alpha decay. Thorium decay produces a significant amount of internal heat energy. Thorium is found in the same amount as lead, and four

L. Vardiman, A.A. Snelling and E.F. Chaffin (Eds.), Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative, Institute for Creation Research, Santee, California, and Creation Research Society, St. Joseph, Missouri, 2000.

Some earth materials are radioactive. The earths that are rare are silvery white. Thirty rare earth elements are unmoved in the actinide and lanthanide series. In the lanthanide series the one element is the most of the elements in

In this report will be show my knowledge about radioactive. Radioactive elements have unstable nuclei. There unstable nuclei give off radiation when the nuclei start to break down(decay). The 3 types of radiation are Alpha, Beta and Gamma. An Alpha particle (α) is a helium nucleus that is a combination of two protons and two neutrons.

Many extraterrestrial objects present during the early years of our universe, including Earth, have been shown to share similar levels of Neodymium-142, an isotope of Neodymium. Neodymium-142, which is found throughout the Earth’s crust, was researched to be present alongside Samarium within the formation of our Solar System. Researchers were previously hinted to this discovery in 2005, when 142Nd was found in chondrites, which are meteorites considered to be the “building blocks of terrestrial rocks.” Data collected from this research was used to detect differences between the Earth’s interior layers and chondrites for its first 30 million years. The introduction of isotopes brought into this speculation provide many answers to the question

Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through some material or through space. Pierre and Marie Curie were partners that had both become interested in the discovery Henri Becquerel made which was the discovery of radioactivity. Marie and Pierre Curie came up with the term "radioactivity" to describe Becquerel's discovery. Marie and Pierre extracted uranium from ore and compared the pure uranium to the extracted uranium ore samples. They found that the uranium ore samples contained more radioactivity. Marie's research concluded that the two uranium ore samples, pitchblende and chalcocite, were more radioactive than the pure uranium and so because of the high radioactivity of both of the samples there had to be additional radioactive

In late December in 1938, a chemist going by the name of Otto Hahn discovered radioactive fission between the element Uranium. He had started off by causing impact between it and causing a Uranium atom to split into two. When that happened it was known as a process called fission, a topic known little about in 1930’s. When a radioactive element such as Uranium enters the process of fission it splits the atom causing a specified amount of energy to foil out. Just the split of one atom during their experiment caused an entire grain of sand to jump in the air. Imagine what 50 pounds of that could do, let alone 100! Well this is what they did with 500 pounds of it.

Nuclear weapon detonations during World War II and the Cold War released a whole bunch of radioactive material into the atmosphere, including a little something called Carbon-14.

Several radioisotopes were released during the nuclear reactor explosion and unfortunately; due to their long half-lives they are still present today and will be present for a long time to come. Due to these extremely long half-lives it means that these dangerous radioactive isotopes will remain present within Chernobyl for many, many years. This is evident as many people now can still detect this radiation within Chernobyl, with fairly significant readings and not only in Chernobyl but in other parts of Russia and the eastern parts of Europe. As a result Chernobyl it’s self is inhabitable for human life, as a matter of fact it is illegal if you try to access the area without permission from higher authorities. The accident has caused a very

Radioactivity was first discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel. He used fluorescent minerals to study the properties of x-rays. He had photographic plates, which had been wrapped around in black paper with potassium uranyl sulfate that had been exposed to sunlight on top. This had been believed that uranium had absorbed the sun’s energy, then released to create an x-ray. His first experiment had failed due to an overcast over in Paris, but this didn’t stop Becquerel from developing his photographic plates. Although Becquerel was the one to discover radiation, the term radioactivity was formed by Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre. This was a little after the phenomenon that had recently been discovered by Becquerel. Extracting uranium from

The main source of radiation exposure to human life is Radon( 222Rn ) and its progeny which represent nearly 50% of the total human exposure to radiation from natural sources.222Rn is a radioactive gas producing from decay of Radium( 226Ra ) which is found in a wide variety of rocks, soil, natural gas and ground water. Most water sources in the earth’s crust have different levels of Radon concentration depend on the local geological characteristic of the source. Radon gas enters into the human body by inhalation and ingestion of drinking water and eating food, subsequently cause damage to sensitive cells of organs in the body ,such as respiratory and digestion systems.

Astatine is a very rare radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol At and atomic number 85. It occurs on Earth as the decay product of various heavier elements. All its isotopes are short-lived, with half-lives of 8.1 hours or less. Elemental astatine has never been viewed because a mass large enough to be seen by the naked eye would be immediately vaporized by its radioactive heating. The bulk properties of astatine are not known with any certainty, but they have been predicted based on its similarity to the other halogens, the lighter elements directly above it in the periodic table: fluorine, chlorine, bromine and especially iodine. It is likely to have a dark or lustrous appearance and may be a semiconductor or possibly a metal;

Radioactivity is defined as “the spontaneous emission of particles”. (Nuclear Energy). Radioactivity is caused by an unbalanced nucleus in the cell. This happens because there is either an uneven number of protons and/or neutrons. When this happens, the element is considered to have multiple isotopes. An isotope is an atom with the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons. Thus, they have different atomic weights. This is important to know because there is a such thing as a radioactive isotope. These elements just have additional energy, and they release radiation in different forms. “There are over 800 radioactive isotopes, some of which are natural and some synthetic.” (Helmenstine). Radioactive elements can be both artificial and natural. However, in medicine, most of them are more than likely synthetic, since they are the most popular types.

Over exposure to radioactive material is known for causing slow and painful deaths. Many equate it with decaying life, however people still willingly subject them selves to its exposure. Since radon’s discovery, there have been many different viewpoints about its power and potency. Some proclaim its amazing power to heal, while others fear its strength and destructive nature. The paradox of these very differing views about what radon really is has caused controversy and many conflicts of opinions. Today, many people go and expose themselves to high levels of natural radon in caves. They claim it helps heal their pains and diseases that have mostly been untreatable by medicine. These caves have become greatly revered by their clients, but others see them as foolish for taking such risks when history shows the destruction it can cause.

One of the greatest events of twentieth century was the use of radioisotope as a source of energy and as medical and industrial tools. Using radioactivity has been a global issue owing to its very nature. When it is used for peaceful purposes, it is a triumph of science because it can solve energy problems in the form of nuclear energy but the side effects in the form of harmful radiation and harmful radioactive waste is the real limitations of science. This essay will attempt to analyze the application of science in the use of radioactivity and radioactive isotopes and how science is not so effective in dealing with the side effects.