A bit of Gamma Spec - Lutetium
Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 1:09 pm
I attach images of this morning's work with a nice big chunk of Lutetium that I had in my element "petting zoo". I was reading through a book on the elements and one of the characteristics of lutetium metal was listed as non-radioactive!! I knew better! I grabbed my "table of the isotopes" and found that the entire element's two natural isotopes Lu 175 and Lu 176 are radioactive and, thus, decaying. I once thought Thorium had a long half life.
A number of the rare earth elements have isotopes with half lives spanning unbelievable spans of time in their decay. I still think Bismuth wins the half life battle with its single 100% isotope 209 of 19 quintillion years, (1 billion times the age of the entire universe).
I fired up the Canberra using my 3X3 bicron scintillation head and ran a gamma spec. It didn't take long.
See images and click to enlarge.
Richard Hull
A number of the rare earth elements have isotopes with half lives spanning unbelievable spans of time in their decay. I still think Bismuth wins the half life battle with its single 100% isotope 209 of 19 quintillion years, (1 billion times the age of the entire universe).
I fired up the Canberra using my 3X3 bicron scintillation head and ran a gamma spec. It didn't take long.
See images and click to enlarge.
Richard Hull