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Studies of alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment
This dissertation deals with the alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment around South Africa, and the published literature relating to alpha-emitting nuclides in sea water and in marine organisms is surveyed in Chapter 1. As a first step in the investigation, the total alpha-activity of some 4...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Physics
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613222250479616 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Shannon, L V |
| author2 | Cherry, R D |
| author_browse | Cherry, R D Shannon, L V |
| author_facet | Cherry, R D Shannon, L V |
| author_sort | Shannon, L V |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This dissertation deals with the alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment around South Africa, and the published literature relating to alpha-emitting nuclides in sea water and in marine organisms is surveyed in Chapter 1. As a first step in the investigation, the total alpha-activity of some 400 samples of marine life was determined using the thick-source alpha-particle detection technique. The relative contributions of the thorium series nuclides and "excess" unsupported polonium-210 were determined by using the "thorium pairs" technique and by studying the variation of the total alpha count-rate with time. This is considered in Chapter 2. The 'second phase of the investigation was to investigate the alpha-spectrum of marine life. This was done for several plankton samples using a large capacity ion-chamber. As expected several disequilibria were found to exist and the findings are discussed in Chapter 3. Unsupported polonium-210 accounted for the major proportion of the total alpha-activity in several marine groups, while radium-226 and daughters accounted for most of the long-lived radioactivity. Thorium series elements were also present. Using the ion-chamber data together with total alpha-counting data, an estimate of the radium-226 content of plankton was made. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18132 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:42.829Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Department of Physics |
| publisherStr | Department of Physics |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18132 Studies of alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment Shannon, L V Cherry, R D Physics This dissertation deals with the alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment around South Africa, and the published literature relating to alpha-emitting nuclides in sea water and in marine organisms is surveyed in Chapter 1. As a first step in the investigation, the total alpha-activity of some 400 samples of marine life was determined using the thick-source alpha-particle detection technique. The relative contributions of the thorium series nuclides and "excess" unsupported polonium-210 were determined by using the "thorium pairs" technique and by studying the variation of the total alpha count-rate with time. This is considered in Chapter 2. The 'second phase of the investigation was to investigate the alpha-spectrum of marine life. This was done for several plankton samples using a large capacity ion-chamber. As expected several disequilibria were found to exist and the findings are discussed in Chapter 3. Unsupported polonium-210 accounted for the major proportion of the total alpha-activity in several marine groups, while radium-226 and daughters accounted for most of the long-lived radioactivity. Thorium series elements were also present. Using the ion-chamber data together with total alpha-counting data, an estimate of the radium-226 content of plankton was made. 2016-03-21T19:26:52Z 2016-03-21T19:26:52Z 1970 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18132 eng application/pdf Department of Physics Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Physics Shannon, L V Studies of alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | Studies of alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment |
| title_full | Studies of alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment |
| title_fullStr | Studies of alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Studies of alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment |
| title_short | Studies of alpha-radioactivity in the marine environment |
| title_sort | studies of alpha radioactivity in the marine environment |
| topic | Physics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18132 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT shannonlv studiesofalpharadioactivityinthemarineenvironment |