Abstract
BARIUM-140, one of the γ-ray emitting isotopes in fallout, has a physical half-life of 12.8 days. It decays to lanthanum-140 which emits γ-rays and has a physical half-life of 40.3 h. Barium-140 contributes approximately 10 per cent of the total fission product activity at 10 days and 30 days after production. About 12 per cent of the total radioactivity of fission products aged for 10 or 30 days after production is lanthanum-140 (ref. 1). Therefore, barium-140 and its daughter contribute significantly to that portion of the fall-out radiation dose caused by radionuclides of short or intermediate half-lives.
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SASTRY, B. Metabolic Dissociation of the Parent and Daughter Radionuclide Pair, Barium-140 and Lanthanum-140. Nature 210, 1395–1396 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/2101395a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2101395a0
