An activation product is a material that has been made radioactive by the process of neutron activation.
Fission products and actinides produced by neutron absorption of nuclear fuel itself are normally referred to by those specific names, and activation product reserved for products of neutron capture by other materials, such as structural components of the nuclear reactor or nuclear bomb, the reactor coolant, control rods or other neutron poisons, or materials in the environment. All of these, however, need to be handled as radioactive waste. Some nuclides originate in more than one way, as activation products or fission products.
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 exchangers.
Fusion reactors will not produce radioactive waste from the fusion product nuclei themselves, which are normally just helium-4, but generate high neutron fluxes, so activation products are a particular concern.
Activation product radionuclides include:
Half-lives and decay branching fractions for activation products[1]
Nuclide
Half-life
Decay mode
branching fraction
Source
Notes
3 1H
12.312 ± 0.025 y
β−
1.0
LNHB
10 4Be
( 1.51 ± 0.06 ) x 106 y
β−
1.0
ENSDF
14 6C
( 5.7 ± 0.03 ) x 103 y
β−
1.0
LNHB
15 6C
2.449 ± 0.005 s
β−
1.0
ENSDF
16 7N
7.13 ± 0.02 s
β−
1.0
ENSDF
19 8O
26.88 ± 0.05 s
β−
1.0
ENSDF
22 11Na
950.57 ± 0.23 d
EC
0.1011 ± 0.0002a
IAEA-CRP-XG
[1]
β+
0.8989 ± 0.0002a
24 11Na
0.62329 ± 0.00006 d
β−
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
27 12Mg
9.458 ± 0.012 m
β−
1.0
ENSDF
26 13Al
( 7.17 ± 0.24 ) x 105 y
EC
0.1825 ± 0.0023b
LNHB
[2]
β+
0.8175 ± 0.0023b
35 16S
87.32 ± 0.16 d
β−
1.0
LNHB
36 17Cl
( 0.01 ± 0.03 ) x 105 y
EC
0.019 ± 0.001
LNHB
β−
0.981 ± 0.001
39 18Ar
269 ± 3 y
β−
1.0
ENSDF
41 18Ar
109.61 ± 0.04 m
β−
1.0
ENSDF
40 19K
( 4.563 ± 0.013 ) x 1011 d
EC
0.1086 ± 0.0013a
IAEA-CRP-XG
[1]
β−
0.8914 ± 0.0013a
42 19K
12.36 ± 0.012 h
β−
1.0
ENSDF
41 20Ca
( 1.02 ± 0.07 ) x 105 y
EC
1.0
ENSDF
45 20Ca
162.61 ± 0.09 d
β−
1.0
ENSDF
47 21Sc
3.3492 ± 0.0006 d
β−
1.0
ENSDF
48 21Sc
43.67 ± 0.09 h
β−
1.0
ENSDF
51 24Cr
27.7009 ± 0.002 d
EC
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
54 25Mn
312.29 ± 0.26 d
EC
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
56 25Mn
0.107449 ± 0.000019 d
β−
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
55 26Fe
( 1.0027 ± 0.0023 ) x 103 d
EC
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
59 26Fe
44.494 ± 0.013 d
β−
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
57 27Co
271.8 ± 0.05 d
EC
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
58 27Co
70.86 ± 0.06 d
β+
0.15 ± 0.0020a
IAEA-CRP-XG
[1]
EC
0.85 ± 0.0020a
60 27Co
( 1.92523 ± 0.00027 ) x 103 d
β−
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
59 28Ni
( 7.6 ± 0.5 ) x 104 y
EC
1.0
ENSDF
63 28Ni
98.7 ± 2.4 y
β−
1.0
LNHB
65 28Ni
2.51719 ± 0.00026 h
β−
1.0
ENSDF
64 29Cu
0.52929 ± 0.00018 d
β+
0.179 ± 0.002a
IAEA-CRP-XG
[1]
β−
0.39 ± 0.003a
EC
0.431 ± 0.005a
66 29Cu
5.12 ± 0.014 m
β−
1.0
ENSDF
65 30Zn
243.86 ± 0.2 d
β+
0.0142 ± 0.0001a
IAEA-CRP-XG
[1]
EC
0.9858 ± 0.0001a
93m 41Nb
( 5.73 ± 0.22 ) x 103 d
IT
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
93 42Mo
( 4.0 ± 0.8 ) x 103 y
EC
1.0
ENSDF
99m 43Tc
0.250281 ± 0.000022 d
β−
0.000037 ± 0.000006a
IAEA-CRP-XG
[1]
IT
0.999963 ± 0.000006a
110m 47Ag
249.85 ± 0.1 d
IT
0.0136 ± 0.0008a
IAEA-CRP-XG
[1]
β−
0.9864 ± 0.0008a
115m 49In
4.486 ± 0.004 h
β−
0.05 ± 0.008
ENSDF
IT
0.95 ± 0.008
126 53I
12.93 ± 0.05 d
β−
0.473 ± 0.006
ENSDF
EC
0.527 ± 0.006
175 72Hf
70 ± 2 d
EC
1.0
ENSDF
181 72Hf
42.39 ± 0.06 d
β−
1.0
ENSDF
182 73Ta
114.43 ± 0.04 d
β−
1.0
ENSDF
181 74W
121.2 ± 0.2 d
EC
1.0
ENSDF
185 74W
75.1 ± 0.3 d
β−
1.0
ENSDF
187 74W
23.72 ± 0.06 h
β−
1.0
ENSDF
198 79Au
2.695 ± 0.0007 d
β−
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
197 80Hg
64.14 ± 0.05 h
EC
1.0
ENSDF
203 80Hg
46.594 ± 0.012 d
β−
1.0
IAEA-CRP-XG
LNHB
Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel, Recommended Data, http://www.nucleide.org/DDEP_WG/DDEPdata.htm Archived 2021-02-13 at the Wayback Machine, 5 June 2008.
IAEA-CRP-XG
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..
^"Half-lives and decay branching fractions for activation products". www-nds.iaea.org. IAEA. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
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