Method for radioassay of migratory alpha-particle emitters

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Abstract

An electrostatic precipitation method is described for the individual alpha-particle activities associated with radionuclidic decays that trace their origin to sites in the surface layers of solid matter. The energy resolution is sufficient to resolve all of the detected, major alpha-particle groups of the identifying member(s) of the uranium, thorium, and actinium series. The 12% absolute efficiency associated with the device allows determination of individual migration rates from surface layers of solid materials of 10−4 atom/s, which corresponds to detection of one alpha-particle per day, to be made with negligible background contributions: This efficiency is independent of the material's surface area over a wide range. The background in the detector, presumably produced by cosmic rays, is not found to be measurably dependent upon the orientation of the detector with respect to the cosmic-ray flux. Ambiguities associated with the birthplaces of migratory radon atoms are discussed.

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