Activation product

Activation products are materials made radioactive by neutron activation.

Fission products and actinides produced by neutron absorption of nuclear fuel itself are normally referred to by those specific names, and activation product reserved for products of neutron capture by other materials, such as structural components of the nuclear reactor or nuclear bomb, the reactor coolant, control rods or other neutron poisons, or materials in the environment. All of these, however, need to be handled as radioactive waste. Some nuclides originate in more than one way, as activation products or fission products.

Activation products in a reactor's primary coolant loop are a main reason reactors use a chain of two or even three coolant loops linked by heat exchangers.

Fusion reactors will not produce radioactive waste from the fusion product nuclei themselves, which are normally just helium-4, but generate high neutron fluxes, so activation products are a particular concern.

Activation product radionuclides include:

Half-lives and decay branching fractions for activation products^[1]

Nuclide	Half-life	Decay mode	branching fraction	Source	Notes
^3 1H	12.312 ± 0.025 y	β^−	1.0	LNHB
^10 4Be	( 1.51 ± 0.06 ) x 10^6 y	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^14 6C	( 5.7 ± 0.03 ) x 10^3 y	β^−	1.0	LNHB
^15 6C	2.449 ± 0.005 s	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^16 7N	7.13 ± 0.02 s	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^19 8O	26.88 ± 0.05 s	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^22 11Na	950.57 ± 0.23 d	EC	0.1011 ± 0.0002a	IAEA-CRP-XG	[1]
		β^+	0.8989 ± 0.0002a
^24 11Na	0.62329 ± 0.00006 d	β^−	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^27 12Mg	9.458 ± 0.012 m	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^26 13Al	( 7.17 ± 0.24 ) x 10^5 y	EC	0.1825 ± 0.0023b	LNHB	[2]
		β^+	0.8175 ± 0.0023b
^35 16S	87.32 ± 0.16 d	β^−	1.0	LNHB
^36 17Cl	( 0.01 ± 0.03 ) x 10^5 y	EC	0.019 ± 0.001	LNHB
		β^−	0.981 ± 0.001
^39 18Ar	269 ± 3 y	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^41 18Ar	109.61 ± 0.04 m	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^40 19K	( 4.563 ± 0.013 ) x 10^11 d	EC	0.1086 ± 0.0013a	IAEA-CRP-XG	[1]
		β^−	0.8914 ± 0.0013a
^42 19K	12.36 ± 0.012 h	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^41 20Ca	( 1.02 ± 0.07 ) x 10^5 y	EC	1.0	ENSDF
^45 20Ca	162.61 ± 0.09 d	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^47 21Sc	3.3492 ± 0.0006 d	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^48 21Sc	43.67 ± 0.09 h	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^51 24Cr	27.7009 ± 0.002 d	EC	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^54 25Mn	312.29 ± 0.26 d	EC	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^56 25Mn	0.107449 ± 0.000019 d	β^−	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^55 26Fe	( 1.0027 ± 0.0023 ) x 10^3 d	EC	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^59 26Fe	44.494 ± 0.013 d	β^−	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^57 27Co	271.8 ± 0.05 d	EC	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^58 27Co	70.86 ± 0.06 d	β^+	0.15 ± 0.0020a	IAEA-CRP-XG	[1]
		EC	0.85 ± 0.0020a
^60 27Co	( 1.92523 ± 0.00027 ) x 10^3 d	β^−	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^59 28Ni	( 7.6 ± 0.5 ) x 10^4 y	EC	1.0	ENSDF
^63 28Ni	98.7 ± 2.4 y	β^−	1.0	LNHB
^65 28Ni	2.51719 ± 0.00026 h	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^64 29Cu	0.52929 ± 0.00018 d	β^+	0.179 ± 0.002a	IAEA-CRP-XG	[1]
		β^−	0.39 ± 0.003a
		EC	0.431 ± 0.005a
^66 29Cu	5.12 ± 0.014 m	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^65 30Zn	243.86 ± 0.2 d	β^+	0.0142 ± 0.0001a	IAEA-CRP-XG	[1]
		EC	0.9858 ± 0.0001a
^93m 41Nb	( 5.73 ± 0.22 ) x 10^3 d	IT	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^93 42Mo	( 4.0 ± 0.8 ) x 10^3 y	EC	1.0	ENSDF
^99m 43Tc	0.250281 ± 0.000022 d	β^−	0.000037 ± 0.000006a	IAEA-CRP-XG	[1]
		IT	0.999963 ± 0.000006a
^110m 47Ag	249.85 ± 0.1 d	IT	0.0136 ± 0.0008a	IAEA-CRP-XG	[1]
		β^−	0.9864 ± 0.0008a
^115m 49In	4.486 ± 0.004 h	β^−	0.05 ± 0.008	ENSDF
		IT	0.95 ± 0.008
^126 53I	12.93 ± 0.05 d	β^−	0.473 ± 0.006	ENSDF
		EC	0.527 ± 0.006
^175 72Hf	70 ± 2 d	EC	1.0	ENSDF
^181 72Hf	42.39 ± 0.06 d	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^182 73Ta	114.43 ± 0.04 d	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^181 74W	121.2 ± 0.2 d	EC	1.0	ENSDF
^185 74W	75.1 ± 0.3 d	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^187 74W	23.72 ± 0.06 h	β^−	1.0	ENSDF
^198 79Au	2.695 ± 0.0007 d	β^−	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG
^197 80Hg	64.14 ± 0.05 h	EC	1.0	ENSDF
^203 80Hg	46.594 ± 0.012 d	β^−	1.0	IAEA-CRP-XG

LNHB	Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel, Recommended Data, http://www.nucleide.org/DDEP_WG/DDEPdata.htm, 5 June 2008.
IAEA-CRP-XG	M.-M. Bé, V.P. Chechev, R. Dersch, O.A.M. Helene, R.G. Helmer, M. Herman, S. Hlav ác, A. Marcinkowski, G.L. Molnár, A.L. Nichols, E. Schönfeld, V.R. Vanin, M.J. Woods, IAEA CRP "Update of X Ray and Gamma Ray Decay Data Standards for Detector Calibration and Other Applications", IAEA Scientific and Technical Information report STI/PUB/1287, May 2007, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria, ISBN 92-0-113606-4.
ENSDF	Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File, http://www-nds.iaea.org/ensdf/, 5 June 2008.

[1] Branching fractions from LNHB database.

[2] Branching fractions renormalised to sum to 1.0..

References

1. "Half-lives and decay branching fractions for activation products". www-nds.iaea.org. IAEA. Retrieved 11 November 2016.

External links

• Handbook on Nuclear Activation Cross-Sections, IAEA, 1974
• Nuclear Structure and Decay Databases (nndc.bnl.gov)
• New and revised half-life measurements results made by the Radioactivity Group of NIST
• HANDBOOK OF NUCLEAR DATA FOR SAFEGUARDS: DATABASE EXTENSIONS, AUGUST 2008