Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Atoms, nuclides and radionuclides
- Chapter 2 Units and standards for radioactivity and radiation dosimetry and rules for radiation protection
- Chapter 3 Properties of radiations emitted from radionuclides
- Chapter 4 Nuclear radiations from a user's perspective
- Chapter 5 Ionising radiation detectors
- Chapter 6 Radioactivity and countrate measurements and the presentation of results
- Chapter 7 Industrial applications of radioisotopes and radiation
- Chapter 8 Application of tracer technology to industry and the environment
- Chapter 9 Radionuclides to protect the environment
- Appendices
- References
- Index
Chapter 8 - Application of tracer technology to industry and the environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Atoms, nuclides and radionuclides
- Chapter 2 Units and standards for radioactivity and radiation dosimetry and rules for radiation protection
- Chapter 3 Properties of radiations emitted from radionuclides
- Chapter 4 Nuclear radiations from a user's perspective
- Chapter 5 Ionising radiation detectors
- Chapter 6 Radioactivity and countrate measurements and the presentation of results
- Chapter 7 Industrial applications of radioisotopes and radiation
- Chapter 8 Application of tracer technology to industry and the environment
- Chapter 9 Radionuclides to protect the environment
- Appendices
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Radiotracers come on the scene
The first use of radiotracers happened almost by accident. In 1912, two Austrian-Hungarian chemists G. de Hevesey and F.A. Paneth, research students at Professor Rutherford's Manchester laboratory, were challenged by Rutherford to demonstrate their chemical skills by separating minute traces of radium-D, as it was then known, from the lead with which it was associated and which had been derived from uranium deposits. They worked hard for two years but had to conclude that radium-D and lead must belong to a group of ‘practically inseparable substances’ later known as isotopes.
De Hevesey, a future Nobel Laureate, then conceived the idea of adding radium-D (subsequently identified as 210Pb, a β particle emitting isotope of lead), to bulk lead and use the emitted β particles to trace sparingly soluble lead salts. It worked ‘like a charm’ and was the first example of radio-tracing. Applications to many aspects of chemistry, biology and agriculture soon followed. Through the 1920s, progress was limited by the fact that the only radiotracers available were those separated from naturally radio- active materials. This was to change dramatically in the following years with:
the discovery of artificial radioactivity by Frederick Joliot and Irene Joliot-Curie (early in1933);
the construction in 1932 of the first cyclotron designed to produce radionuclides by M. S. Livingston and E. O. Lawrence;
the discovery of neutron activation by Enrico Fermi in the mid-1930s (Section 1.3.3); and
the construction in 1942 of the Chicago pile (nuclear fission reactor), by a team also led by Enrico Fermi, which opened the doors for the large scale production of radiotracers (Section 1.3.3).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Practical Applications of Radioactivity and Nuclear Radiations , pp. 232 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001