Calorimetric Determination of the Half-Life of Polonium-210

THE PREPARATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF SOME INTERMETALLIC COMPOUNDS OF POLONIUM1

“…The intermetallic compounds of polonium were prepared by two separate techniques: (1) a differential furnace technique for compounds of relatively low vapor pressure, and (2) a selective distillation technique for compounds of higher vapor pressure. In both techniques, the reaction chamber consisted of an evacuated and sealed quartz capillary of sufficient length to allow the section of the capillary containing the product to be flame-sealed and separated for subsequent X-ray diffraction analysis and calorimetric assay.9 [10][11] In the first method, the metal to be investigated was placed in one end of the capillary, and a relatively large excess of freshly purified polonium metal was distilled into the other. The distillation technique is illustrated in Fig.…”

Classical radionuclidic calorimetry

“…In addition to the determination of the activity of radionuclides, calorimetry has had many other uses within the discipline of radioactivity. Only a few examples will be cited, but these applications include calorimetry's use for the determination of: half-lives, such as that for 3 H [29], 14 C [30], 210 Po [31], 147 Pm [32] and 226 Ra on many occasions [33]; average beta decay energies, such as for 3 H [29, 34], 14 C [30] or 147 Pm [32]; alpha emission energies, such as for 239 Pu [35]; and burn-up of nuclear fuels [36,37]. For the past few decades, calorimetry has been mainly used for the assay of tritium and special nuclear materials in the nuclear-power and -weapons industries and for fusion technology [38][39][40][41].…”