# Activation product
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{{Short description|Materials made radioactive by neutron activation}}
An '''activation product''' is a material that has been made radioactive by the process of [neutron activation](/source/neutron_activation).
==Process==
[Fission products](/source/Fission_products) and [actinide](/source/actinide)s produced by [neutron absorption](/source/neutron_absorption) of [nuclear fuel](/source/nuclear_fuel) itself are normally referred to by those specific names, and ''activation product'' reserved for products of [neutron capture](/source/neutron_capture) by other materials, such as structural components of the [nuclear reactor](/source/nuclear_reactor) or [nuclear bomb](/source/nuclear_bomb), the reactor coolant, [control rods](/source/control_rods) or other [neutron poison](/source/neutron_poison)s, or materials in the environment. In these cases their production is undesired and they need to be handled as [radioactive waste](/source/radioactive_waste). Some nuclides can be produced both as activation products or as fission products. For example [molybdenum-99](/source/molybdenum-99) which is an important nuclide in "[molybdenum cow](/source/molybdenum_cow)s" used in medical diagnostics can be produced either by fissioning 235U or by neutron irradiation of 98Mo.[{{cite journal | last1=Hasan | first1=Shameem | last2=Prelas | first2=Mark A. | title=Molybdenum-99 production pathways and the sorbents for 99Mo/99mTc generator systems using (N, γ) 99Mo: A review | journal=SN Applied Sciences | date=2020 | volume=2 | issue=11 | article-number=1782 | doi=10.1007/s42452-020-03524-1 | url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42452-020-03524-1 }}]
==Practical uses==
However, neutron activation (usually in a dedicated [research reactor](/source/research_reactor), but sometimes also in power reactors like the [CANDU](/source/CANDU)s at [Bruce nuclear generating station](/source/Bruce_nuclear_generating_station)[{{cite web | title=Isotopes and Medical Innovation | url=https://www.brucepower.com/isotopes-and-medical-innovation/ }}][{{cite web | title=Ottawa, Bruce Power detail plans to expand medical isotope production | work=The Globe and Mail | date=19 August 2025 | url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-ottawa-bruce-power-expand-medical-isotope-production/ }}][{{cite web | title=Bruce completes largest-to-date radioisotope delivery | date=24 November 2023 | url=https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Bruce-completes-largest-to-date-radioisotope-deliv }}]) is also used deliberately to produce desired radioisotopes for uses in [food irradiation](/source/food_irradiation), [nuclear medicine](/source/nuclear_medicine) and to sterilize equipment via [gamma radiation](/source/gamma_radiation) emitted from isotopes such as [Cobalt-60](/source/Cobalt-60).[{{cite web | title=Cobalt-60: A Sustainable Sterilization Method | url=https://www.nordion.com/cobalt-60/a-sustainable-sterilization-method/ }}]
Activation products in a reactor's primary coolant loop are a main reason reactors use a chain of two or even three coolant loops linked by [heat exchanger](/source/heat_exchanger)s.
[Fusion reactor](/source/Fusion_reactor)s will not produce radioactive waste from the fusion product nuclei themselves, which are normally just [helium-4](/source/helium-4), but generate high [neutron flux](/source/neutron_flux)es, so activation products are a particular concern.
==List of activation products==
Activation product [radionuclides](/source/radionuclides) include:
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Half-lives and decay branching fractions for activation products[{{cite web|title=Half-lives and decay branching fractions for activation products|url=https://www-nds.iaea.org/sgnucdat/d1.htm|website=www-nds.iaea.org|publisher=IAEA|access-date=11 November 2016}}]
|-
!Nuclide!!Half-life!!Decay mode!!branching fraction!!Source!!Notes
|-
|{{nuclide|H|3}}||12.312 ± 0.025 y||β−||1.0||LNHB
|-
|{{nuclide|Be|10}}||( 1.51 ± 0.06 ) × 106 y||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|C|14}}||( 5.7 ± 0.03 ) × 103 y||β−||1.0||LNHB
|-
|{{nuclide|C|15}}||2.449 ± 0.005 s||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|N|16}}||7.13 ± 0.02 s||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|O|19}}||26.88 ± 0.05 s||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|Na|22}}||rowspan="2"|950.57 ± 0.23 d||EC||0.1011 ± 0.0002a||rowspan="2"|IAEA-CRP-XG||rowspan="2"|[1]
|-
||β+||0.8989 ± 0.0002a
|-
|{{nuclide|Na|24}}||0.62329 ± 0.00006 d||β−||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Mg|27}}||9.458 ± 0.012 m||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|Al|26}}||rowspan="2"|( 7.17 ± 0.24 ) × 105 y||EC||0.1825 ± 0.0023b||rowspan="2"|LNHB||rowspan="2"|[2]
|-
||β+||0.8175 ± 0.0023b
|-
|{{nuclide|S|35}}||87.32 ± 0.16 d||β−||1.0||LNHB
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|Cl|36}}||rowspan="2"|( 0.01 ± 0.03 ) × 105 y||EC||0.019 ± 0.001||rowspan="2"|LNHB
|-
||β−||0.981 ± 0.001
|-
|{{nuclide|Ar|39}}||269 ± 3 y||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Ar|41}}||109.61 ± 0.04 m||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|K|40}}||rowspan="2"|( 4.563 ± 0.013 ) × 1011 d||EC||0.1086 ± 0.0013a||rowspan="2"|IAEA-CRP-XG||rowspan="2"|[1]
|-
||β−||0.8914 ± 0.0013a
|-
|{{nuclide|K|42}}||12.36 ± 0.012 h||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Ca|41}}||( 1.02 ± 0.07 ) × 105 y||EC||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Ca|45}}||162.61 ± 0.09 d||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Sc|47}}||3.3492 ± 0.0006 d||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Sc|48}}||43.67 ± 0.09 h||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Cr|51}}||27.7009 ± 0.002 d||EC||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Mn|54}}||312.29 ± 0.26 d||EC||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Mn|56}}||0.107449 ± 0.000019 d||β−||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Fe|55}}||( 1.0027 ± 0.0023 ) × 103 d||EC||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Fe|59}}||44.494 ± 0.013 d||β−||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Co|57}}||271.8 ± 0.05 d||EC||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|Co|58}}||rowspan="2"|70.86 ± 0.06 d||β+||0.15 ± 0.0020a||rowspan="2"|IAEA-CRP-XG||rowspan="2"|[1]
|-
||EC||0.85 ± 0.0020a
|-
|{{nuclide|Co|60}}||( 1.92523 ± 0.00027 ) × 103 d||β−||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Ni|59}}||( 7.6 ± 0.5 ) × 104 y||EC||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Ni|63}}||98.7 ± 2.4 y||β−||1.0||LNHB
|-
|{{nuclide|Ni|65}}||2.51719 ± 0.00026 h||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|rowspan="3"|{{nuclide|Cu|64}}||rowspan="3"|0.52929 ± 0.00018 d||β+||0.179 ± 0.002a||rowspan="3"|IAEA-CRP-XG||rowspan="3"|[1]
|-
||β−||0.39 ± 0.003a
|-
||EC||0.431 ± 0.005a
|-
|{{nuclide|Cu|66}}||5.12 ± 0.014 m||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|Zn|65}}||rowspan="2"|243.86 ± 0.2 d||β+||0.0142 ± 0.0001a||rowspan="2"|IAEA-CRP-XG||rowspan="2"|[1]
|-
||EC||0.9858 ± 0.0001a
|-
|{{nuclide|Nb|93m}}||( 5.73 ± 0.22 ) × 103 d||IT||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Mo|93}}||( 4.0 ± 0.8 ) × 103 y||EC||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|Tc|99m}}||rowspan="2"|0.250281 ± 0.000022 d||β−||0.000037 ± 0.000006a||rowspan="2"|IAEA-CRP-XG||rowspan="2"|[1]
|-
||IT||0.999963 ± 0.000006a
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|Ag|110m}}||rowspan="2"|249.85 ± 0.1 d||IT||0.0136 ± 0.0008a||rowspan="2"|IAEA-CRP-XG||rowspan="2"|[1]
|-
||β−||0.9864 ± 0.0008a
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|In|115m}}||rowspan="2"|4.486 ± 0.004 h||β−||0.05 ± 0.008||rowspan="2"|ENSDF
|-
||IT||0.95 ± 0.008
|-
|rowspan="2"|{{nuclide|I|126}}||rowspan="2"|12.93 ± 0.05 d||β−||0.473 ± 0.006||rowspan="2"|ENSDF
|-
||EC||0.527 ± 0.006
|-
|{{nuclide|Hf|175}}||70 ± 2 d||EC||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Hf|181}}||42.39 ± 0.06 d||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Ta|182}}||114.43 ± 0.04 d||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|W|181}}||121.2 ± 0.2 d||EC||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|W|185}}||75.1 ± 0.3 d||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|W|187}}||23.72 ± 0.06 h||β−||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Au|198}}||2.695 ± 0.0007 d||β−||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|-
|{{nuclide|Hg|197}}||64.14 ± 0.05 h||EC||1.0||ENSDF
|-
|{{nuclide|Hg|203}}||46.594 ± 0.012 d||β−||1.0||IAEA-CRP-XG
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| LNHB
| Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel, Recommended Data, http://www.nucleide.org/DDEP_WG/DDEPdata.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213021408/http://www.nucleide.org/DDEP_WG/DDEPdata.htm |date=2021-02-13 }}, 5 June 2008.
|-
| style="width: 12em;"| IAEA-CRP-XG
| style="width: 60em;"| M.-M. Bé, V.P. Chechev, R. Dersch, O.A.M. Helene, R.G. Helmer, M. Herman, S. Hlav ác, A. Marcinkowski, G.L. Molnár, A.L. Nichols, E. Schönfeld, V.R. Vanin, M.J. Woods, IAEA CRP "Update of X Ray and Gamma Ray Decay Data Standards for Detector Calibration and Other Applications", IAEA Scientific and Technical Information report STI/PUB/1287, May 2007, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria, {{ISBN|92-0-113606-4}}.
|-
| ENSDF
| Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File, http://www-nds.iaea.org/ensdf/, 5 June 2008.
|}
[1] Branching fractions from LNHB database.
[2] Branching fractions renormalised to sum to 1.0..
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www-nds.iaea.org/reports-new/tecdocs/technical-reports-series-156.pdf Handbook on Nuclear Activation Cross-Sections, IAEA, 1974]
* [http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/databases/databases.html Nuclear Structure and Decay Databases (nndc.bnl.gov)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320225323/http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/databases/databases.html |date=2013-03-20 }}
* [http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/Halflife/halflife.html New and revised half-life measurements results made by the Radioactivity Group of NIST]
* [https://www-nds.iaea.org/sgnucdat/safeg2008.pdf HANDBOOK OF NUCLEAR DATA FOR SAFEGUARDS: DATABASE EXTENSIONS, AUGUST 2008]
Category:Radiation
Category:Neutron
Category:Radiation effects
Category:Nuclear materials
---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Activation product](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activation_product) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activation_product?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.