Nuclide Navigator Pro Interactive Chart of the Nuclides and Reference Software

Chart of the Nuclides
The main interface for NuclideNavigator-Pro is the Chart of the Nuclides which can be displayed in a variety of informative views including General Electric, Karlsruhe, and Trilinear formats. The General Electric and Karlsruhe formats use a common layout with a nuclide grid defined by the number of protons on the vertical axis and neutrons on the horizontal axis such that isotopes of a common element are displayed in rows. However, they use different color schemes with the General Electric view representing nuclide half-life and neutron cross section and the Karlsruhe representing nuclide decay modes. The Trilinear format, which is available in both color schemes, aligns isotopes on a diagonal. When “walking down” decay chains this layout uses vertical navigation for beta decay and horizontal movement for alpha decay instead of the diagonal movement associated with the traditional grid layout. The chart can also be limited to the natural series (Thorium, Neptunium, Uranium, and Actinium) to simplify evaluation of these decay chains.

Finding the source of gamma and alpha emissions is simple with the intuitive query tool. It not only allows setting an energy range for potential nuclide matches, but also allows filtering by nuclide generation mode, half-life, and secondary emissions. This additional information can greatly improve the quality of the search results and help the spectroscopist evaluate analysis results and optimize libraries.

Nuclide and Element Emission Data
Nuclide Properties are accessed by double-clicking a nuclide in the Chart of the Nuclides or a peak energy in the Peak Search results. The properties page includes basic nuclide information, such as half-life, energy emissions for the ground and metastable states, parent nuclides, and daughter nuclides with their generation probabilities. Clicking on the parent and daughter nuclides will navigate up or down the decay chain as applicable.

Energy emission type can be switched between gamma, beta, and alpha emissions and sorted by energy or branching ratio. A synthetic spectrum for the associated radiation type is also available with gamma spectra based on either high or low resolution detector types. These synthetic spectra give the spectroscopist a good idea of what to expect with different types of instrumentation and can be used as a teaching aid in lieu of actual measurement data. The spectrum images and the data behind them are also available for use in other software applications including spreadsheets and presentations.

Comprehensive reports of nuclide and emissions data can be generated for a subset of nuclides from the master libraries using the Library Lister. The content of the report is controlled through selectable parameter options including the decay mode, energy range, parent/daughter nuclides, and several other useful parameters.

Elemental Properties are accessed by double-clicking an element box in the Chart of the Nuclides. The properties page includes basic elemental abundance information and x-ray energies/intensities for the different electron shells. This information is invaluable when assessing x-ray emissions of different materials associated with detector shielding, attenuation layers, and sample matrices.

Library Manager
The Library Manager greatly simplifies the generation of application specific libraries. Simply load a master library and drag the desired nuclides to the Target library list. Preferences can also be set to restrict which nuclides and peaks are copied to the Target, and the content can be manually adjusted as necessary for the intended library use. Target libraries can be saved to the standard ORTEC library format for use in applications such as GammaVision or saved to an XML format that is readable in any text editor or can be processed by custom applications if desired.

Decay Calculator
NuclideNavigator-Pro’s Decay Calculator makes it easy to perform and visualize complex decay calculations. It includes calculations for simple decay of a single nuclide, parent-daughter decay, full decay chains, user-defined nuclide groups, and Cf-252 with neutron count rate. The results for each nuclide and total activity are displayed graphically in addition to being available in comprehensive reports. A synthetic spectrum of gamma emissions in high (HPGe) or low (Sodium Iodide) resolution format is available when assessing full Decay Chains. This spectrum view can be useful for relatively simple parent-daughter relationships and the complex natural decay chains that include numerous nuclides.

Periodic Chart of the Elements and Units Converter
The Periodic Chart of the Elements is a rich, interactive resource for element properties. The main interface is the classic Periodic Table with informative color coding associated with chemical groups and the physical form of the element at room temperature. Basic physical properties are displayed as the mouse is moved over the elements and more detailed chemical properties are accessed by double-clicking the element. A short history for each element is available by right-clicking the element.

The Units Converter is a useful utility program for converting common measurement units. Simply enter a value for the known units and instantly calculate the value for the desired units.

Measurement types include: Angle, Area, Density, Flow, Force, Length, Mass, Power, Pressure, Radiation – Activity, Radiation – Exposure, Radiation – Absorbed Dose, Radiation – Dose Equivalent, Temperature, Time, Velocity, and Volume. Most of the common units for each measurement are available for conversion — and quite a few uncommon ones!

References

Master Nuclear Data Libraries

• NuDat 2.6 [10-21-16]: National Nuclear Data Center, information extracted from the NuDat 2 database, http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/, and supplemented with Fission yields and Neutron cross sections referenced below.
• TORI-99c5x: Table of Radioactive Isotopes, The Isotopes Project at LBNL, http://ie.lbl.gov/toi/ supplemented with Cascade coincidence data derived from ENSDF, Positron annihilation data from PC_NuDat-04, and Fission yields and Neutron cross sections referenced below.
• PC_NuDat-04: National Nuclear Data Center, http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/.
• Erdtmann_Soyka: The Gamma Rays of the Radionuclides, G. Erdtmann and W Soyka, Verlag Chemie, Weinheim, 1979.
• NNDC-Prompt: National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 2004.
• RSICC-Prompt: THERMGAM, DLC-140, 1981, RSICC, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, https://rsicc.ornl.gov.
• CapGam-2013: National Nuclear Data Center, information extracted from the CapGam data, http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/capgam.

• The Isotopes Project at LBNL, http://ie.lbl.gov.

• T. R. England and B. F. Rider, LA-UR-94-3106, ENDF-349.

• S. F. Mughabghab, M. Divadeenam and N. E. Holden, Neutron Cross Sections from Neutron Resonance Parameters and Thermal Cross Sections, Academic Press (1981).

• Synthetic emission spectra for gamma rays and alpha particles are generated using algorithms developed by the author for typical HPGe and NaI sensors. A significant amount of credit is due to the published works of, and private communications with Ray Gunnink.
• Beta particle shapes are generated using the equations associated with the standard (Fermi) theory of beta decay. Coulomb corrections for positrons are non-relativistic point-charge approximations. Corrections for electrons are calculated using the equations from G. K. Schenter and P. Vogel, Nuclear Science 1983, Volume 83, page 393-396.

• H. Bateman, The solution of a system of differential equations occurring in the theory of radioactive transformations, Proc. Cambridge Phil. Soc., v.15 (1910) 423-427.
• M. Amaku, P.R. Pascholati, V. R. Vanin, Decay chain differential equations: Solution through matrix algebra, Computer Physics Communications 181 (2010) 21-23.

• Based on the “History of the Origin of the Chemical Elements and Their Discoverers” generated by Norman E. Holden, National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory.