Applications of Nuclear and Radioisotope Technology: For Peace and Sustainable Development

By Khalid Alnabhani

Applications of Nuclear and Radioisotope Technology: For Peace and Sustainable Development presents the latest technology and research on nuclear energy with a practical focus on a variety of applications. Author Dr. Khalid Al-Nabhani provides a thorough and well-rounded view of the status of nuclear power generation in order to promote its benefits towards a sustainable, clean and secure future. This book offers innovative theoretical, analytical, methodological and technological approaches, encourages a positive societal and political uptake.

This book enhances awareness of peaceful nuclear applications across a broad spectrum of industries, including power generation, agriculture, and medicine. It presents successful examples and lessons learned across many countries that are working towards their sustainability goals in cooperation with the IAEA and AAEA, to benefit researchers, professionals and decision-makers implementing and developing their own nuclear strategies for the future.

• Presents theoretical and scientific knowledge which is supported with real examples and successful experiences
• Provides prevailing perceptions of nuclear safety and security concerns by presenting the most advanced safety and security systems
• Applies technologies to a variety of applications to guide the reader to make informed decisions to help meet sustainability goals

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Sep 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9780128232262

Khalid Alnabhani

Dr. Khalid Alnabhani is a visiting Professor at the Centre for Risk Integrity and Safety and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University, Canada. He holds a PhD in Engineering from Memorial University in ‘Safety engineering and risk management of radioactive materials.’ Alnabhani has rich and long experience in the field of Nuclear Industry and the Oil and Gas industry. Alnabhani has been recently listed as a scientist and expert in the scientists and experts' database of IAEA & AAEA. He is a member of the American Nuclear Society under the category of experts and professionals. He has a number of academic collaborations with prestigious Universities in the USA and the UK. His areas of research interest include safety engineering and risk management of technically enhanced nuclear radiological materials, the artificial intelligence role in promoting nuclear safety and security, and peaceful applications of atomic energy.

Book preview

Chapter 1

History of the atom and the emergence of nuclear energy

Abstract

A review of the literature reveals that Greek scholars are considered to be the first to establish atomic theory during the fifth century BC. Unfortunately, their theories were ignored at that time until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries because they were materialistic and not based on religious foundations. However, modern science in the early nineteenth century revived the atomic theory using quantitative and experimental data. Scientists such as Fermi, Bohr, and Szilard proved to the world that these small atoms can create huge energy through their breakthrough discovery of self-sustaining fission-reaction and the fusion reaction. This significant discovery has changed the world but unfortunately, it was misused by politicians during World War II. Scientists were not satisfied with the use of the power of atoms in the wars and destruction, and accordingly, nuclear scientists devoted their efforts, studies, and scientific research to harnessing atomic and nuclear technology for peaceful applications. The birth of peaceful nuclear applications was announced by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on December 8, 1953, through his speech in front of the United Nations council under the title of Atoms for Peace and the split of the atom may lead to the unifying of the entire divided world. According to this vision, in 1957, the United Nations established the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose main roles are to assist in the peaceful use of nuclear technology, and fostering nuclear safety. Since then, until the present day, studies and research have focused on developing nuclear and isotopes technology for peaceful applications, which has played a significant role in the emergence of contemporary theories. These theories have contributed to the harnessing of the atom in a wide range of peaceful applications. Many significant uses of isotopes today include power generation, nuclear medicine and radiation therapy, industrial applications, food and agriculture applications, archaeology applications, forensic evidence, aerospace applications, and many other applications. All of these applications will be highlighted in more detail in the coming chapters of this book while this chapter will give an overview of the history of the atom and the beginning of the peaceful nuclear age. Besides some important basics in the sciences of modern nuclear theories and radioactive materials that are the basis of peaceful nuclear and isotopic applications.

Keywords

Atoms; Enrichment; Fission; Fusion; Nuclear; Peaceful applications; Radiation; Radioactivity; Radioisotopes; Uranium

Outline

1.1 History of the atom and the beginning of the peaceful nuclear age 2

1.2 The birth of peaceful nuclear applications 7

1.3 Basics in the sciences of nuclear radioactive materials 10

1.3.1 Radiation 10

1.3.2 Radioactivity 12

1.3.3 Modes of radioactive decay 14

1.3.4 Isotopes 17

1.4 Isotopes separation methodologies 18

1.4.1 Gaseous diffusion approach 20

1.4.2 Gas centrifugation 22

1.4.3 Laser isotope separation 23

1.4.4 In-situ Uranium-235 recovery based on prompt fission neutrons technology 26

1.5 Production of radionuclides 28

1.5.1 Induced fission 30

1.5.2 Fusion 35

1.5.3 Neutron activation 36

1.5.4 Cyclotrons and synchrotron 38

1.5.5 The radionuclide generator 43

1.5.6 The mass spectrometer 45

1.6 Conclusion 46

References 47

1.1 The history of the atom and the beginning of the peaceful nuclear age

Atoms were first revealed in a very precise scientific way more than 1400 years ago, as it has been mentioned in several verses in the Holy Quran and the Hadith. For instance, Allah May He be glorified and exalted revealed in the Nobel Quran in Surah Younus, verse 61: And not absent from your Lord is any [part] of an atom's weight within the earth or within the heaven or [anything] smaller than that or greater but that it is in a clear register.

Moreover, Al Nabhani and Khan (2019) argue that Allah May He be glorified and exalted has revealed prior 1400 years ago in the several verses in the Holy Quran and the Hadith that the atom has a weight, which has been confirmed recently by the modern science and said in the Nobel Quran in Surah Az-Zalzalah, verse 7:

So, whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it.

The atom is one of the miracles of Allah mentioned in his holy book for more than 1400 years ago. It exists in both the earth and other planets. The Quran not only stresses the importance of the atom but also revealed the fact of the presence of the subatomic particles where many nuclear elements have not yet been discovered by a human. Furthermore, the Quran draws attention to the existence of the atom, the subatomic particles, and other science-related facts that modern physics has recently discovered. Bearing in mind, that during the period when Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) received the revelation, there was nobody has any idea of the atom or its subatomic particles and their compounds. This confirms the scientific miracle of the Qur'an.

Since then, the first theory of the atom was dated back to the fifth century BCE when Greek scientists and philosophers built their theory of atoms upon the work of ancient philosophers. They proposed the principle of identity that states that matter was composed of atoms (Ray and Hiebert, 1970). They have reached this conclusion primarily through deductive reasoning, logic, and mathematics but without conducting any experiments or providing concrete scientific proof. Accordingly, the term atom comes from the Greek word for indivisible. These theories were disregarded until the 16th and 17th centuries because religious intellectuals considered the theory to be a materialistic view of the world that denied the existence of spiritual forces (Ray and Hiebert, 1970).

At the beginning of the 19th century, scientists, such as John Dalton and Jöns Jakob Berzelius, revived the atomic theory by using quantitative and experimental data (Ray and Hiebert, 1970). For instance, John Dalton is a British chemist and considered as a pioneer in establishing the science of modern and quantitative chemistry, who has based his atomic theory on Democritus' ideas and believed that atoms are indivisible and indestructible. Additionally, he held a belief that different atoms form together to create all matter. In the new atomic theory, Dalton added his ideas that all atoms of a certain element are identical and combining in simple whole numbers. However, the atoms of one element will have different weights and properties than atoms of another element. Moreover, atoms cannot be created or destroyed.

Modern science came and proved the fact mentioned by Allah 1400 years ago in the holy book The Quran, that atoms are not the smallest particles of matter and revealed that atoms are made from smaller subatomic particles such as the quark that has been scientifically discovered in 1939 by the German scientists Hahn and Strassmann (Al-Sheha, 2011). Modern science revealed that the center of an atom is the nucleus and contains protons and neutrons. Electrons are arranged around the nucleus in energy levels or orbits. Both protons and electrons have an electrical charge. The protons are positively charged while the electrons are negatively charged. The neutron is neutral, and the total number of electrons orbiting around an atom is always the same as the number of protons in that nucleus. The number of protons in an atom is used to refer to the atomic number. Atoms are arranged in the periodic table according to the increase in their atomic number.

Al Nabhani and Khan (2019) reveal that philosophers and scientists since then continued their studies to explore more about atoms until uranium was first discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist. It was not until a century later when Wilhelm Rontgen discovered ionizing radiation during his experimental research of passing electric currents through a vacuumed glass tube, thus generating continuous X-rays. A year later after this discovery, Henri Becquerel discovered that uraninite ore contained radium and uranium, consequently darkening the photographic plates due to the emission of beta radiation and alpha particles. Gamma rays were later found from the uraninite ore by another scientist known as Villard. Then later in 1896, Pierre and Marie Curie (Fig. 1.1) named the phenomena of radiation emission radioactivity. In 1898, they became pioneers in isolating polonium and radium from the uraninite.

Figure 1.1 Professor Marie Curie with her husband Pierre Curie in 1903 (From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie#/media/File:Pierre_Curie_(1859-1906)_and_Marie_Sklodowska_Curie_(1867-1934),_c._1903_(4405627519).jpg).

In the same year, 1898, Samuel Prescott discovered that radiation could destroy bacteria contained in food and he was credited for the evolvement of food radiation technology. Almost a century later, in 1902, Ernest Rutherford (Fig. 1.2) discovered that the radioactivity process occurs spontaneously by emitting either gamma rays or alpha or beta particles from the unstable nucleus, which ultimately transforms into a different element. Rutherford, through his research in 1919, was able to progress a broader consideration of the atoms when he fired alpha elements from a radium source into nitrogen, thus realizing the occurrence of new nuclear rearrangement with oxygen and proton formation.

Figure 1.2 Ernest Rutherford at McGill University in 1905 while conducting his research and experiments to identify the thorium emanations. (From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford#/media/File:Ernest_Rutherford_1905.jpg).

In the 1940s, another scientist called Niels Bohr (Fig. 1.3) contributed to advancing our comprehension of atoms, including the organization of electrons around the nucleus.

Figure 1.3 The Danish physicist Niels Bohr who reveal the atomic structure and quantum theory (From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr).

However, earlier in 1911, Frederick Soddy had already learned that naturally radioactive elements had numerous various isotopes with the same chemical properties. During the same year, George de Hevesy indicated that radionuclides were instrumental as tracers, as minute amounts were readily detectable with simple instruments. These findings are the secret behind the emergence of contemporary radiotracer technologies.

Ernest Rutherford continued his nuclear discoveries and in 1911 discovered the atomic nucleus. Between the years 1911 and 1920, he concluded that the protons and neutrons had almost similar mass while conducting his famous experiment with cathode-ray tubes (Charlie Ma and Lomax, 2012). Rutherford further theorized that there was a neutral particle in the nucleus. The nucleus is joined together by a strong force that aims to overcome the repulsing electrical energies between protons. Based on the mass of the nucleus, some atomic nuclei are unstable because the binding force contrasts in different atoms. These unstable atoms then decay into other elements to get rid of the excess energy in the form of particle emission or energy emission, thus becoming more stable.

A sizeable amount of energy is contained in an atom, which is scientifically considered the smallest particle of an element. Most of this energy is found inside different isotopes of individual elements. Variants of the same element existing in the same physical state but exhibiting different chemical properties and with the equivalent number of protons and a diverse number of neutrons are regarded as isotopes. Emission of energy occurs during nuclear fission, which takes place when neutrons split or during nuclear decay. In this context, and specifically in 1932, the neutron was discovered by James Chadwick. In the same year, Cockcroft and Walton produced nuclear transformations through the bombardment of atoms with accelerated protons. In 1934, Irene Curie and Frederic Joliot concluded that some bombarded reactions may result in the forming of new, artificial radionuclides.

Sime (2014) argues that according to the historical context, the process of nuclear fission was first discovered and launched by Enrico Fermi in 1934 (Fig. 1.4), a physicist from the University of Chicago, who found that neutrons could split an atom into numerous other small atoms. After a year, Fermi further found that a more considerable variety of new artificial radionuclides could be created when neutrons were used in bombardment as an alternative for protons. Fermi is therefore considered as the first scientist to succeed in creating a fissionable nuclear reactor and developing the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

Figure 1.4 Enrico Fermi, the first founder of the process of nuclear fission reaction and won Nobel Prize in 1938 for his scientific contributions. (From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi#/media/File:Enrico_Fermi_1943-49.jpg).

Based on the results obtained from Fermi's experiments, Otto Hana and Fritz Strassman who were both German scientists concluded from their experiment in which they fired at a neutron with uranium from beryllium and radium source, that the resulting materials were half lighter in atomic mass compared to reactant uranium (Kirklan, 2010). The difference in the atomic mass between the product materials and reactant material was in the form of heat that resulted from the vigorous splitting of the atom, which is called fission (Kirklan, 2010). The resulting heat could be massive and therefore be used in the generation of nuclear power.

Consequently, Lanouette (1992) argues that when Bohr arrived in New York, he announced the news of his success in performing a self-sustaining chain fission reaction at the Kiser Wilhelm Institute. Two years later, Leo Szilard and Fermi made a breakthrough through the development of real-time self-sustaining self-reaction through a uranium chain reactor (Lanouette, 1992). Bohr went on to share these findings with Einstein, which led to an important discovery of critical mass that brought a noteworthy change in the scientific world. A team of scientists that included Fermi, Bohr, and Szilard wrote a letter signed by Einstein to President Roosevelt (Fig. 1.5) illustrating the dangers of nuclear weaponry (Alan, 2015). The aim of this letter was only to intimidate and prevent the Germans from constructing the nuclear bomb.

Figure 1.5 A copy of the letter signed by Einstein and sent to President Roosevelt to the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1939. (From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%E2%80%93Szil%C3%A1rd_letter).

However, this never stopped the great Manhattan project from commencing at a full pace, which resulted in the construction of two atomic bombs. According to Hassan and Chaplin (2010), unfortunately, the first bombs were made based on the principle discovered by Bohr, Leo Szilard, and Fermi of a self-sustaining fission chain reaction with enriched Uranium-235 through neutron bombardment as per Eq. 1.1:

(1.1)

The continued studies and research on nuclear reactions resulted in the production of numerous forms of energies- approximately 8.3 × 10⁷ KJ, which became the working principle of the atomic bomb that was later dropped in Hiroshima in Japan on August 6, 1945, at 8:16 local time. This bomb was referred to as the Little Boy (Hassan and Chaplin, 2010). While the second atomic bomb made from the fusion of plutonium was known as the Fat Man and was dropped in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, at 11:02 local time (Hassan and Chaplin, 2010). These two attacks caused the deaths of more than 250,000 people.

After these tragedies, nuclear scientists devoted their efforts, scientific studies, and research to harness atomic and nuclear technology for peaceful applications. Since then, the first application that has been focused on was the generation of electricity through the exploitation of the huge amounts of heat produced from the fission reaction.

1.2 The birth of peaceful nuclear applications

The birth of peaceful nuclear applications was announced by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on December 8, 1953, through his speech in front of the United Nations council (Fig. 1.6) under the title of Atoms for Peace (Kupp, 2005). He stated in fact, we did no more than crystallizing a hope that was emerging in many minds in many places… the split of the atom may lead to the unifying of the entire divided world (IAEA, 2020a). Through this speech, the President was attempting to diminish the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Eisenhower believed that all nations in the world should have access to nuclear technology for peaceful usage through the right to obtain information in relation to advances in nuclear medicine, nuclear reactors to produce energy, and many other peaceful applications.

Figure 1.6 President Eisenhower announcing in front of the United Nations council on December 8, 1953 Atoms for Peace (From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nrcgov/15856679667/in/photostream/).

President Eisenhower aimed to create a central agency called the uranium bank that would collect, store, and distribute radioactive materials to all nations, so the United States and Soviet Union would no longer have a monopoly on nuclear applications (Lavoy, 2003). This uranium bank would allow nonnuclear countries to obtain fissionable content for medicine, energy, and other peaceful applications. According to this vision, in 1957, the United Nations established the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which functions as the world's nuclear regulator (Fischer, 1997). In this regard, IAEA Director-General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei stated on March 5, 1999, that IAEA has three main objectives, which are: to assist Member States, particularly developing countries, in the use of nuclear technology; to promote radiation and nuclear safety; and to ensure to the extent possible that pledges related to the exclusively peaceful use of nuclear energy are kept ( IAEA, 2020b).

In March 1970, the IAEA was put in charge of enforcing and monitoring the adherence to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT) (Sharp, 1996). NPT includes both nuclear and nonnuclear states. Nuclear states or nuclear club states or P-5 comprise of the five main states, which are the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China (Rajagopalan and Mishra, 2015). All other states besides these are non-nuclear states. The nuclear club states that are permanent members of the Security Council and the IAEA are mainly responsible for enforcing the NPT. Scholars such as Müller (2016) agree that this treaty ensures three main areas which are: (1) all non-nuclear states shall not build, develop or buy nuclear weapons; (2) all nuclear states that own nuclear weapons shall work toward disarmament; (3) all countries will be supported with the information required for peaceful applications of nuclear technology. Almost half a century after the NPT entered into force, about 190 countries from all over the world had signed the NPT (Müller, 2016). Chapter 2 will shed light in more detail about the NPT and will discuss systematically how effective it is in promoting nuclear peaceful applications and minimizing nuclear proliferation.

About more than half a century ago, the scientific research of isotopic and nuclear science technology has continued to contribute to the advancement of nuclear technology through the revolution in the ionizing capabilities of isotopic radiations and their interactions with materials. This advancement has contributed to the emergence of a wider range of nuclear peaceful applications.

1.3 Basics in the sciences of nuclear radioactive materials

1.3.1 Radiation

Radiation simply refers to the emitted energy that comes in different forms as a result of the kinetic energy of mass in motion. Radiation may comprise atomic or subatomic particles (electrons, protons, and neutrons). The other type of radiation may comprise electromagnetic radiation including radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, visible light, X- and gamma-rays, where the energy is transported through space by oscillating electrical and magnetic fields at different wavelengths and frequency (Cherry et al., 2012). When electromagnetic radiation, such as visible light and radio waves, interact with matter, they behave in the form of wave-like phenomena. However, when electromagnetic radiation interacts with individual atoms, it can also take the form of discrete packets that are scientifically called photons (quanta). Photons have no mass or electrical charge but move at the speed of light. Such physiognomies differentiate them from other forms of particulate radiation. Fig. 1.7 illustrates diverse photon energies of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Figure 1.7 Different types of electromagnetic spectrum. (From: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2020/1/23/nasa-says-goodbye-to-space-telescope-mission-that-revealed-a-hidden-universe/ - Image policy for public https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/imagepolicy/).

It's worth mentioning that X-rays and γ-rays tend to have the highest energy but with the shortest wavelength and the highest frequency at the end of the spectrum. Thus the energy of X-ray and γ-ray photons may range from few Kiloelectronvolts (KeV) up to Megaelectronvolts (MeV), or Teraelectronvolts (TeV), respectively. According, to their high energies and short wavelengths, X-rays and γ-rays often interact with matter quite inversely from other, more acquainted types of electromagnetic radiation (Cherry et al., 2012). On the other hand, visible light photons have low energy that ranges to only a few electron volts.

1.3.2 Radioactivity

Radioactivity was discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel while studying whether natural phosphorescent materials emit similar rays or not. He found that the uranium salts emitted rays that could penetrate through a metal sheet or thin glass (L'Annunziata, 2016). Further, Becquerel proved scientifically that uranium salts gave off less intense radiation than uranium metals. This radiation causes ionization, which is used to measure the intensity of radioactivity. Accordingly, Becquerel is considered to be the first who provided evidence that some of the radiation emitted by uranium and its salts were similar in properties to electrons (L'Annunziata, 2012).

In 1898, Marie Curie discovered that it was not only uranium that gave off the mysterious rays discovered by Becquerel, but thorium did as well. Pierre and Marie Curie observed that the intensity of the spontaneous rays emitted by uranium or thorium increased as the amount of uranium or thorium increased. They concluded that these rays were a property of the atoms of uranium and thorium; they decided to consider these substances as radioactive materials. The emanation of the spontaneous rays from atoms would now be referred to as radioactivity (Al Nabhani and Khan, 2019).

Additionally, they found that another radioactive element with chemical properties like bismuth was present in pitchblende. She named this new element, polonium. They found a second new radioactive element in the pitchblende ore with chemical properties close to that of barium, and they named that new element radium, from the Latin word radius meaning ray. It is worth mentioning that Underhill (1996) stated, Radium is of primary concern not only because it is radioactive, but also because it is chemically toxic (Al Nabhani and Khan, 2019).

Radium may be almost as toxic as polonium and plutonium, the most toxic elements known to man. (It is estimated that one teaspoon of plutonium could kill 100,000 people through its chemical toxicity alone.) Due to its chemical properties, radium is termed a bone seeker. Kumar and Dangi (2016) stated that in 1900 the French chemist and physicist Paul Villard discovered while studying the radiation emitted by radium, highly penetrating radiation in the form of electromagnetic waves that is consisting of photons.

In 1903 Ernest Rutherford was the first to name that highly penetrating radiation discovered by Villard as gamma rays (Al Nabhani and Khan, 2019). A few years prior to Villard's discovery, Rutherford in 1899 had already named two types of nuclear radiation as alpha and beta, which he characterized based on their relative penetrative power in that the alpha radiation would be more easily absorbed by the matter than beta radiation. In harmony with this nomenclature, Rutherford assigned the term gamma rays to the more penetrating radiation (L'Annunziata, 2012). Therefore, radioactivity is the emission of radiation originating from a nuclear reaction or because of the spontaneous decay of unstable atomic nuclei.

Al Nabhani and Khan (2019) defined radioactive decay as the process that occurs when an unstable atomic nucleus has excess energy and therefore decays to lose the excess energy by the emission of elementary particles (such as alpha particles, beta particles, neutrons) or as gamma-rays in the form of photons or electromagnetic waves to reach stability. These types of radioactive decays are categorized under the ionized radiation category. The energy emitted by these radiations is often enough to ionize biological cells and cause damage to it, and therefore it is a serious health risk. Accordingly, radiation is a serious safety issue (Kumar and Dangi,