Half-life of /sup 241/Pu

Journal Article · Thu May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1980 · Phys. Rev., C; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.21.2033· OSTI ID:5387121

Aggarwal, S K; Jain, H C

The half-life of /sup 241/Pu was determined by studying the ingrowth of /sup 241/Am by ..cap alpha.. spectrometry. A synthetic mixture was prepared by mixing different isotopes of plutonium so as to obtain a /sup 238/Pu/(/sup 239/Pu+/sup 240/Pu) ..cap alpha.. activity ratio of nearly 0.1 and an increase in the ..cap alpha.. activity ratio due to the ingrowth of /sup 241/Am of about 0.1 after a period of 30 days. This was done to get a desired change periodically in the ..cap alpha.. activity ratio and to measure this change with high precision and accuracy. The initial values of /sup 239/Pu//sup 241/Pu and /sup 240/Pu//sup 241/Pu atom ratios in the mixture were obtained by mass spectrometry. The ingrowth of /sup 241/Am was measured periodically by ..cap alpha.. spectrometry on electrodeposited sources using a silicon surface barrier detector. From the 80 ..cap alpha.. spectrometric measurements carried out on five electrodeposited sources over a period of 457 days, a value of 14.42 +- 0.09 yr is obtained for the half-life of /sup 241/Pu using a value of 432.6 yr for the half-life of /sup 241/Am. The uncertainty quoted on the value is a combination of one standard deviation on the average value and the error evaluated from the estimate on various error components. The half-life obtained in this work is in good agreement with the preliminary results reported recently by CBNM (Geel), NBS (Washington), and AERE (Harwell) using different methods.

• Research Organization: Radiochemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Bombay 400085, India
• OSTI ID: 5387121
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev., C; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev., C; (United States) Vol. 21:5; ISSN PRVCA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

652022* -- Nuclear Properties & Reactions
A=220 & above
Experimental-- Radioactive Decay-- (-1987)
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ALPHA DECAY
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ALPHA SPECTROMETERS
AMERICIUM 241
AMERICIUM ISOTOPES
BETA DECAY
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DECAY
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
HALF-LIFE
HEAVY NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
MASS SPECTRA
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
PLUTONIUM 238
PLUTONIUM 239
PLUTONIUM 240
PLUTONIUM 241
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
RADIOISOTOPES
SPECTRA
SPECTROMETERS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES