Nuclear tracks today: Strengths, weaknesses, challenges

Abstract

The paper takes stock of the main successes and failures notched up by the SSNTD discipline over the past half-century or so since its inception. Its strengths stem chiefly from factors such as its simplicity, the small geometry of its detectors, the fact that many natural crystals have kept a record of the spontaneous fission of uranium and trans-uranic elements, as well as heavy cosmic rays, over some billions of years. The fact, additionally, that high temperatures can diminish the lengths of latent tracks in a systematic way leads to useful information that can be gleaned regarding the thermal history of rocks, etc. The weaknesses of SSNTD techniques, on the other hand, arise mainly from drawbacks such as a lack of capability for real-time data assessment, poor charge and energy spectrometry of incident particles, and lack of any penetrating understanding of the underlying mechanisms—which results in a lot of data being collected for its own sake, furnishing little insight to the research workers. The paper ends by examining areas where as-yet unexploited potential exists, in the reviewer's opinion, for further discoveries, continuing developments, and challenging opportunities for successful new or improved applications and breakthroughs. These include geological and environmental fields, earthquake prediction, medical and life-science studies, automation, and exotic phenomena, amongst others.