Page 10 - Radiochemistry and nuclear chemistry

Foreword

The discovery of radioactivity a century ago opened up a new field in science, that of the
atomic nucleus, which culminated 40 years later in the discovery of fission, and its practical
consequences in the form of nuclear weapons and nuclear power reactors. That remains still
the focus of news media as it influences international politics and national energy policies.
However, nuclear science has contributed much more to our daily life as it has penetrated
into practically every important area, sometimes in a pioneering way sometimes by
providing completely new solutions to old problems: from the history of the universe and
our civilisation to methods of food production and to our health from youth to old age. It
is a fascinating field continuously developing. Nuclear chemistry is an important part of
this.
The subject of this book has it roots in chemistry and in nuclear science. Since every
chemical dement can be made radioactive and followed through chemical reactions by
means of this property, radiochemistry has contributed to most areas of chemistry. Nuclear
chemistry - according to a definition by Ernst Rutherford - includes all changes in elemental
composition by nuclear reactions.
We simply define radiochemistry and nuclear chemistry by the content of this book, which
is primarily written for chemists. The content contains fundamental chapters followed by
those devoted to applications. Each chapter ends with a section of exercises (with answers)
and literature references. An historic introduction (Ch. 1) leads to chapters on stable isotopes
and isotope separation, on unstable isotopes and radioactivity, and on radionuclides in
nature (Ch. 2-5). Nuclear radiation - emission, absorbance, chemical effects (radiation
chemistry), detection and uses - is covered in four chapters (Ch. 6-9). This is followed by
several chapters on elementary particles, nuclear structure, nuclear reactions and the
production of new atoms (radio-nuclides of known elements as well as the transuranium
ones) in the laboratory and in cosmos (Ch. 10-17). Before the four final chapters on nuclear
energy and its environmental effects (Ch. 19-22), we have inserted a chapter on radiation
biology and radiation protection (Ch. 18). Chapter 18 thus ends the fundamental part of
radiochemistry; it is essential to all students who want to use radionuclides in scientific
research. By this arrangement, the book is subdivided into 3 parts: fundamental
radiochemistry, nuclear reactions, and applied nuclear energy. We hope that this shall
satisfy teachers with different educational goals.
The first edition of this book appeared in 1980, and the second edition in 1995. In this
third edition we have followed the outline of the second edition. All chapters have been
revised, some fundamental ones rather little, but some applied ones more extensively. As
the second edition has been scrutinized in years of student courses, we hope that the figures
and examples in the text are now as free of errors as it is possible to achieve in a book with
extensive numerical information.
During the years we have received input to our book from researchers, students and
teachers from all over the world, both orally and in writing. We have added, corrected or
subtracted according to their advice. To make a list of all these contributors would
inevitably lead to regrettable omission of some names. To avoid such unfortunate mistakes,
we thank everyone who has helped in this way but name none.