A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF CHAIN MEMBER YIELDS IN RADIOACTIVE DECAY CHAINS

摘要

A calculation procedure is developed, readily amenable to computer programming, for the calculation of the chain member yields in radioactive decay chains, or in the analogous isotope production chains for isotope production by neutron absorption. The calculation procedure has the advantage that it entails only the systematic repetition of a number of simple arithmetical operations on two triangular arrays of numbers, which are readily derived from the decay constants of the production chain members. After calculation of chain member yields for some time interval T, the addition effort required in calculating the yields at any integral multiple of T is minimal as is the effort in repeating the calculation for a series of different initial concentrations. A STRETCH Fortran programme based on the calculation method is described in an appendix.