Anactivation product is a material that has been made radioactive by the process ofneutron activation.

Fission products andactinides produced byneutron absorption ofnuclear fuel itself are normally referred to by those specific names, andactivation product reserved for products ofneutron capture by other materials, such as structural components of thenuclear reactor ornuclear bomb, the reactor coolant,control rods or otherneutron poisons, or materials in the environment. All of these, however, need to be handled asradioactive 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 byheat exchangers.

Fusion reactors will not produce radioactive waste from the fusion product nuclei themselves, which are normally justhelium-4, but generate highneutron fluxes, so activation products are a particular concern.

Activation productradionuclides include:

[1] Branching fractions from LNHB database.

[2] Branching fractions renormalised to sum to 1.0..

• Handbook on Nuclear Activation Cross-Sections, IAEA, 1974
• Nuclear Structure and Decay Databases (nndc.bnl.gov)
• New and revised half-life measurements results made by the Radioactivity Group of NIST
• HANDBOOK OF NUCLEAR DATA FOR SAFEGUARDS: DATABASE EXTENSIONS, AUGUST 2008

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