Understanding Radioactivity:

Concepts, Applications, and

Hazards

NAME: ARANYA MANDAL

CLASS:12
SECTION: SCIENCE J
SUBJECT:PHYSICS
PROJECT FILE 2024-25
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to those who have provided me with
invaluable guidance and support throughout the development of this physics
project . First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to our
esteemed Principal, Anisha Sharma, for providing us with the necessary
resources and a conducive environment for learning and exploration. Their
unwavering support and encouragement have been instrumental in the
successful completion of this project.I am profoundly grateful to my Physics
teacher, Rajib Ghosh Roy , for their expert guidance, patience, and constant
encouragement. Their deep understanding of the subject and innovative teaching
methods have greatly enriched my knowledge and understanding of physics.
Without their insightful feedback and dedicated support, this project would not
have been possible.I would also like to thank my parents and friends for their
constant support and encouragement throughout this journey. Their belief in my
abilities has been a source of motivation for me. Finally, I would like to thank
everyone who has directly or indirectly contributed to the successful completion
of this project. Your support and encouragement have been greatly appreciated.
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Aranya Mandal of Class 12 SCI J has successfully

completed the physics project on Magnet and Magnetism under the guidance
of Rajib Ghosh Roy for the academic year 2024-2025. This project has been
evaluated and accepted by the Physics Department in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the Physics course. We commend Aranya Mandal for
their hard work and dedication in the completion of this project.

Physics Teacher
Rajib Ghosh Roy

Signature :

Date:
INDEX
INTRODUCTION:
What is Radioactivity?

Radioactivity was discovered in 1896 by scientists Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie,
while working with phosphorescent materials. These materials glow in the dark after
exposure to light, and Becquerel suspected that the glow produced in cathode ray
tubes by X-rays might be associated with phosphorescence. He wrapped a
photographic plate in black paper and placed various phosphorescent salts on it. All
results were negative until he used uranium salts. The uranium salts caused a
blackening of the plate in spite of the plate being wrapped in black paper. These
radiations were given the name "Becquerel Rays".

Marie and Pierre Curie's study of radioactivity is an important factor in science and
medicine. After their research on Becquerel's rays led them to the discovery of both
radium and polonium, they coined the term "radioactivity" to define the emission of
ionizing radiation by some heavy elements. (Later the term was generalized to all
elements.) Their research on the penetrating rays in uranium and the discovery of
radium launched an era of using radium for the treatment of cancer. Their
exploration of radium could be seen as the first peaceful use of nuclear energy and
the start of modern nuclear medicine.

Types of Radioactive Decay:

Radioactive decay results in a reduction of summed rest mass, once the released
energy (the disintegration energy) has escaped in some way. Although decay energy
is sometimes defined as associated with the difference between the mass of the
parent nuclide products and the mass of the decay products, this is true only of rest
mass measurements, where some energy has been removed from the product
system. This is true because the decay energy must always carry mass with it,
wherever it appears (see mass in special relativity) according to the formula E = mc2.
The decay energy is initially released as the energy of emitted photons plus the
kinetic energy of massive emitted particles (that is, particles that have rest mass). If
these particles come to thermal equilibrium with their surroundings and photons are
absorbed, then the decay energy is transformed to thermal energy, which retains its
mass.
Decay energy, therefore, remains associated with a certain measure of the mass of
the decay system, called invariant mass, which does not change during the decay,
even though the energy of decay is distributed among decay particles. The energy
of photons, the kinetic energy of emitted particles, and, later, the thermal energy of
the surrounding matter, all contribute to the invariant mass of the system. Thus,
while the sum of the rest masses of the particles is not conserved in radioactive
decay, the system mass and system invariant mass (and also the system total
energy) is conserved throughout any decay process. This is a restatement of the
equivalent laws of conservation of energy and conservation of mass.

- **Alpha Decay**: Emission of alpha particles (2 protons and 2 neutrons).

- **Beta Decay**: Conversion of a neutron into a proton with the emission of an
electron (beta-minus) or positron (beta-plus).
- **Gamma Decay**: Emission of high-energy electromagnetic radiation.

Electron capture:
In electron capture, some proton-rich nuclides were found to capture their own
atomic electrons instead of emitting positrons, and subsequently, these nuclides emit
only a neutrino and a gamma ray from the excited nucleus (and often also Auger
electrons and characteristic X-rays, as a result of the re-ordering of electrons to fill
the place of the missing captured electron). These types of decay involve the
nuclear capture of electrons or emission of electrons or positrons, and thus acts to
move a nucleus toward the ratio of neutrons to protons that has the least energy for
a given total number of nucleons. This consequently produces a more stable (lower
energy) nucleus.

A hypothetical process of positron capture, analogous to electron capture, is

theoretically possible in antimatter atoms, but has not been observed, as complex
antimatter atoms beyond antihelium are not experimentally available. Such a decay
would require antimatter atoms at least as complex as beryllium-7, which is the
lightest known isotope of normal matter to undergo decay by electron capture.
Nucleon emission:
Shortly after the discovery of the neutron in 1932, Enrico Fermi realized that certain
rare beta-decay reactions immediately yield neutrons as an additional decay
particle, so called beta-delayed neutron emission. Neutron emission usually
happens from nuclei that are in an excited state, such as the excited 17O* produced
from the beta decay of 17N. The neutron emission process itself is controlled by the
nuclear force and therefore is extremely fast, sometimes referred to as "nearly
instantaneous". Isolated proton emission was eventually observed in some
elements. It was also found that some heavy elements may undergo spontaneous
fission into products that vary in composition. In a phenomenon called cluster decay,
specific combinations of neutrons and protons other than alpha particles (helium
nuclei) were found to be spontaneously emitted from atoms.

More exotic types of decay:

Other types of radioactive decay were found to emit previously seen particles but via
different mechanisms. An example is internal conversion, which results in an initial
electron emission, and then often further characteristic X-rays and Auger electrons
emissions, although the internal conversion process involves neither beta nor
gamma decay. A neutrino is not emitted, and none of the electron(s) and photon(s)
emitted originate in the nucleus, even though the energy to emit all of them does
originate there. Internal conversion decay, like isomeric transition gamma decay and
neutron emission, involves the release of energy by an excited nuclide, without the
transmutation of one element into another.

Rare events that involve a combination of two beta-decay-type events happening

simultaneously are known (see below). Any decay process that does not violate the
conservation of energy or momentum laws (and perhaps other particle conservation
laws) is permitted to happen, although not all have been detected. An interesting
example discussed in a final section, is bound state beta decay of rhenium-187. In
this process, the beta electron-decay of the parent nuclide is not accompanied by
beta electron emission, because the beta particle has been captured into the K-shell
of the emitting atom. An antineutrino is emitted, as in all negative beta decays.
If energy circumstances are favorable, a given radionuclide may undergo many
competing types of decay, with some atoms decaying by one route, and others
decaying by another. An example is copper-64, which has 29 protons, and 35
neutrons, which decays with a half-life of 12.7004(13) hours. This isotope has one
unpaired proton and one unpaired neutron, so either the proton or the neutron can
decay to the other particle, which has opposite isospin. This particular nuclide
(though not all nuclides in this situation) is more likely to decay through beta plus
decay (61.52(26)%]) than through electron capture (38.48(26)%]). The excited
energy states resulting from these decays which fail to end in a ground energy state,
also produce later internal conversion and gamma decay in almost 0.5% of the time.

Decay chains and multiple modes:

The daughter nuclide of a decay event may also be unstable (radioactive). In this
case, it too will decay, producing radiation. The resulting second daughter nuclide
may also be radioactive. This can lead to a sequence of several decay events called
a decay chain (see this article for specific details of important natural decay chains).
Eventually, a stable nuclide is produced. Any decay daughters that are the result of
an alpha decay will also result in helium atoms being created.

Some radionuclides may have several different paths of decay. For example,
35.94(6)% of bismuth-212 decays, through alpha-emission, to thallium-208 while
64.06(6)% of bismuth-212 decays, through beta-emission, to polonium-212. Both
thallium-208 and polonium-212 are radioactive daughter products of bismuth-212,
and both decay directly to stable lead-208.
Occurrence:
According to the Big Bang theory, stable isotopes of the lightest three elements
(H, He, and traces of Li) were produced very shortly after the emergence of the
universe, in a process called Big Bang nucleosynthesis. These lightest stable
nuclides (including deuterium) survive to today, but any radioactive isotopes of
the light elements produced in the Big Bang (such as tritium) have long since
decayed. Isotopes of elements heavier than boron were not produced at all in the
Big Bang, and these first five elements do not have any long-lived radioisotopes.
Thus, all radioactive nuclei are, therefore, relatively young with respect to the
birth of the universe, having formed later in various other types of
nucleosynthesis in stars (in particular, supernovae), and also during ongoing
interactions between stable isotopes and energetic particles. For example,
carbon-14, a radioactive nuclide with a half-life of only 5700(30) years, is
constantly produced in Earth's upper atmosphere due to interactions between
cosmic rays and nitrogen.

Nuclides that are produced by radioactive decay are called radiogenic nuclides,
whether they themselves are stable or not. There exist stable radiogenic nuclides
that were formed from short-lived extinct radionuclides in the early Solar System.
The extra presence of these stable radiogenic nuclides (such as xenon-129 from
extinct iodine-129) against the background of primordial stable nuclides can be
inferred by various means.

Radioactive decay has been put to use in the technique of radioisotopic labeling,
which is used to track the passage of a chemical substance through a complex
system (such as a living organism). A sample of the substance is synthesized
with a high concentration of unstable atoms. The presence of the substance in
one or another part of the system is determined by detecting the locations of
decay events.
On the premise that radioactive decay is truly random (rather than merely
chaotic), it has been used in hardware random-number generators. Because the
process is not thought to vary significantly in mechanism over time, it is also a
valuable tool in estimating the absolute ages of certain materials. For geological
materials, the radioisotopes and some of their decay products become trapped
when a rock solidifies, and can then later be used (subject to many well-known
qualifications) to estimate the date of the solidification. These include checking
the results of several simultaneous processes and their products against each
other, within the same sample. In a similar fashion, and also subject to
qualification, the rate of formation of carbon-14 in various eras, the date of
formation of organic matter within a certain period related to the isotope's half-life
may be estimated, because the carbon-14 becomes trapped when the organic
matter grows and incorporates the new carbon-14 from the air. Thereafter, the
amount of carbon-14 in organic matter decreases according to decay processes
that may also be independently cross-checked by other means (such as
checking the carbon-14 in individual tree rings, for example).
Units:
The International System of Units (SI) unit of radioactive activity is the becquerel
(Bq), named in honor of the scientist Henri Becquerel. One Bq is defined as one
transformation (or decay or disintegration) per second.

An older unit of radioactivity is the curie, Ci, which was originally defined as "the
quantity or mass of radium emanation in equilibrium with one gram of radium
(element)". Today, the curie is defined as 3.7×1010 disintegrations per second, so
that 1 curie (Ci) = 3.7×1010 Bq. For radiological protection purposes, although the
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission permits the use of the unit curie
alongside SI units, the European Union European units of measurement
directives required that its use for "public health ... purposes" be phased out by
31 December 1985.

The effects of ionizing radiation are often measured in units of gray for
mechanical or sievert for damage to tissue.
X-rays:
The discovery of X‑rays by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895 led to widespread
experimentation by scientists, physicians, and inventors. Many people began
recounting stories of burns, hair loss and worse in technical journals as early as
1896. In February of that year, Professor Daniel and Dr. Dudley of Vanderbilt
University performed an experiment involving X-raying Dudley's head that
resulted in his hair loss. A report by Dr. H.D. Hawks, of his suffering severe hand
and chest burns in an X-ray demonstration, was the first of many other reports in
Electrical Review.

Other experimenters, including Elihu Thomson and Nikola Tesla, also reported
burns. Thomson deliberately exposed a finger to an X-ray tube over a period of
time and suffered pain, swelling, and blistering. Other effects, including ultraviolet
rays and ozone, were sometimes blamed for the damage, and many physicians
still claimed that there were no effects from X-ray exposure at all.

Despite this, there were some early systematic hazard investigations, and as
early as 1902 William Herbert Rollins wrote almost despairingly that his warnings
about the dangers involved in the careless use of X-rays were not being heeded,
either by industry or by his colleagues. By this time, Rollins had proved that
X-rays could kill experimental animals, could cause a pregnant guinea pig to
abort, and that they could kill a foetus. He also stressed that "animals vary in
susceptibility to the external action of X-light" and warned that these differences
be considered when patients were treated by means of X-rays.

Radioactive substances:
However, the biological effects of radiation due to radioactive substances were
less easy to gauge. This gave the opportunity for many physicians and
corporations to market radioactive substances as patent medicines. Examples
were radium enema treatments, and radium-containing waters to be drunk as
tonics. Marie Curie protested against this sort of treatment, warning that "radium
is dangerous in untrained hands". Curie later died from aplastic anaemia, likely
caused by exposure to ionizing radiation. By the 1930s, after a number of cases
of bone necrosis and death of radium treatment enthusiasts, radium-containing
medicinal products had been largely removed from the market (radioactive
quackery).

Radiation protection:
Only a year after Röntgen's discovery of X-rays, the American engineer Wolfram
Fuchs (1896) gave what is probably the first protection advice, but it was not until
1925 that the first International Congress of Radiology (ICR) was held and
considered establishing international protection standards. The effects of
radiation on genes, including the effect of cancer risk, were recognized much
later. In 1927, Hermann Joseph Muller published research showing genetic
effects and, in 1946, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for
his findings.

The second ICR was held in Stockholm in 1928 and proposed the adoption of the
röntgen unit, and the International X-ray and Radium Protection Committee
(IXRPC) was formed. Rolf Sievert was named chairman, but a driving force was
George Kaye of the British National Physical Laboratory. The committee met in
1931, 1934, and 1937.

After World War II, the increased range and quantity of radioactive substances
being handled as a result of military and civil nuclear programs led to large
groups of occupational workers and the public being potentially exposed to
harmful levels of ionising radiation. This was considered at the first post-war ICR
convened in London in 1950, when the present International Commission on
Radiological Protection (ICRP) was born. Since then the ICRP has developed the
present international system of radiation protection, covering all aspects of
radiation hazards.

In 2020, Hauptmann and another 15 international researchers from eight nations,

among them: Institutes of Biostatistics, Registry Research, Centers of Cancer
Epidemiology, Radiation Epidemiology, and also the U.S. National Cancer
Institute (NCI), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the
Radiation Effects Research Foundation of Hiroshima studied definitively through
meta-analysis the damage resulting from the "low doses" that have afflicted
survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and also in
numerous accidents at nuclear plants that have occurred. These scientists
reported, in JNCI Monographs: Epidemiological Studies of Low Dose Ionizing
Radiation and Cancer Risk, that the new epidemiological studies directly support
excess cancer risks from low-dose ionizing radiation. In 2021, Italian researcher
Sebastiano Venturi reported the first correlations between radio-caesium and
pancreatic cancer with the role of caesium in biology, in pancreatitis and in
diabetes of pancreatic origin.
CONCLUSION:
Radioactivity, a fascinating yet powerful natural phenomenon, has profoundly
impacted various fields, including medicine, energy, and industry. From its
discovery by Henri Becquerel to the pioneering research of Marie and Pierre
Curie, our understanding of radioactive decay and its applications has grown
significantly. While radioactivity has led to breakthroughs in cancer treatment,
medical imaging, and energy production, it also poses substantial risks, such as
radiation exposure and environmental contamination.

The dual nature of radioactivity—its potential to both benefit and

harm—highlights the importance of responsible management and safety
precautions. Stringent regulations, advancements in technology, and continued
research are essential to ensuring that the advantages of radioactivity can be
harnessed without compromising health and environmental safety.

Looking ahead, the future of radioactivity offers exciting possibilities, such as the
development of safer nuclear energy sources and innovative medical treatments.
However, the ethical and environmental challenges associated with radioactive
materials will require ongoing attention and global collaboration. By balancing the
benefits and risks, society can continue to explore the potential of radioactivity
while minimizing its dangers.