As a rule of thumb, SNF must be stored until its activity has declined by a factor of 1010 or more. How many half-lives are required for the activity of a particular radionuclide to decline to 10↓10 of its original activity?
Added by Victor Manuel L.
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The half-life of a radionuclide is the time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay. After one half-life, the activity is reduced to 50% of its original value. Show more…
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In the nuclear industry, workers use a rule of thumb that the radioactivity from any sample will be relatively harmless after 10 half-lives. Calculate the fraction of a radioactive sample that remains after this time period. (Hint: Radioactive decays obey first-order kinetics.).
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