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Reimagining nuclear materials for the future of medicine
Nuclear medicine has come a long way since Henri Becquerel first observed the penetrating energy of radioactive materials in 1896. Today, technetium-99m alone is used in more than 40 million diagnostic procedures every year—from cardiovascular imaging and bone scans to cancer detection—making it the undisputed workhorse of nuclear medicine. That single statistic tells you something important: An enormous portion of modern diagnostic medicine rests on a surprisingly narrow foundation, one built around a small number of aging research reactors that were never originally designed for continuous isotope production.
Robert E. Heft, William Phillips, William Steele
Nuclear Technology | Volume 11 | Number 3 | July 1971 | Pages 413-443
Technical Paper | Nuclear Explosion Engineering / Nuclear Explosive | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A30876
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The radionuclide distribution in the Schooner event can be understood in terms of a three-stage condensation process which produces two distinct particle classes, each having a uniform isotopic composition. One class of particles results from the breakup of the molten cavity liner and carries that fraction of each radionuclide that was condensed in the molten liner at vent time. The other class of particles is produced by the crushing action of the shock wave on the overburden material. This class of particles carries as a surface deposit that fraction of each radionuclide that was in the vapor state at vent time. The vapor/condensed state partitioning may be interpreted as a two-phase equilibrium in which the equilibrium constant is given by Henry’s Law. The distributions with particle size of the individual radionuclides in the whole particle population are expressed as linear combinations of two log-normal distribution functions which correspond to the two particle classes. For a given radionuclide and a particular particle size, the fraction that appears in the main cloud (and base surge) decreases exponentially as the square of particle diameter increases. Transport and deposition of airborne radioactive particulates for many hours after detonation is described in terms of Stokesian fall rates and horizontal diffusion.