Radiation and materials

Abstract

This chapter discusses radiation and materials. When radiation and materials are put together, a great variety of possible situations must be considered. Bombarding particles may have low or high energy; they may be charged, uncharged, or photons, they may be heavy or light in the scale of masses. Materials affected may be in or around a nuclear reactor, as part of its construction or inserted to be irradiated. Materials may be of biological form, including the human body, or they may be inert substances used for protective shielding against radiation. When a particle radiates, it tends to lose energy by interaction with the electrons and nuclei of matter, and this creates ionization in different degrees. The ranges of beta particles and alpha particles are short, but gamma rays penetrate in accord with an exponential law. Gamma rays can also produce electron–positron pairs. Neutrons of both high and low energy can create radiation damage in molecular materials.