#radiation physics

Clarice Evone Phelps is a nuclear engineer who has worked with and researched numerous radioisotopes. She earned a B.S. in chemistry at Tennessee State University, then joined the US Navy and studied nuclear science, eventually serving as a NCO operating a nuclear reactor aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. After her time in the navy, Phelps briefly worked for chemical instrument company Cole-Parmer before joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a technician. She was promoted to research associate and program manager, doing research on many topics relating to nuclear science. She worked on the production of radioisotopes for industrial uses in the Nuclear Science and Engineering directorate, researched superheavy isotopes in the Nuclear Materials Processing Group, and performed separation and analysis of lanthanides and actinides in the Medical, Industrial, and Research Isotopes Group. She was involved in the discovery of the element tennessine, the most recently discovered element. Phelps worked on the purification of a sample of berkelium-249, which served as the target upon which a beam of calcium-48 was launched. Six atoms of tennessine were produced at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, five instances of Ts-293 and one instance fo Ts-294. Phelps has also done research on isotopes of plutonium and neptunium with NASA, and worked with the Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade Project. She has also completed a M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

is that satisfaction in mediocrity?

*Alpha particles are identical to a helium nucleus. We’ve been able to detect them since around 1900. They were old news by 1975. Also basically all elements heavier than uranium naturally emit them, and they interact quickly with the surrounding environment, so while you could probably detect a hot source, you wouldn’t necessarily know it was a particular piece of tech, or just a giant natural chunk of radium. This is doubly annoying because there are three main forms of radioactive emissions, alpha, beta, and gamma. Literally just pick another cool-sounding Greek letter and the story is exactly the same, and people with basic radiation physics knowledge will just be like “Oh, okay, totally fictional particle, whatevs,” instead of “THAT IS NOT HOW ALPHA PARTICLES WORK.

Radiology & Radiation Therapy (JRRT) is a peer reviewed open access journal that publishes high-quality original manuscripts in all the disciplines of diagnostic, interventional, therapeutic radiology, radiation physics and radiation biology.