ABSTRACT
A large fraction of radiation chemistry studies have been concerned with the studies of water and aqueoussolutionsbecauseoftheuniqueimportanceofwaterinbiologicalsystemsandbecauseof itsrelevancetoanumberofpracticalapplications,including(1)variousareasofnuclearscience andtechnologysuchaswater-coolednuclearpowerreactors(wheretheradiolyticprocessesneedto becarefullycontrolledtoavoiddeleteriouseffects),(2)radiationeffectsinspace,(3)radiotherapy and diagnostic radiology, and (4) the environmental management of radioactive waste materials (LaVerne,2004;Garrettetal.,2005).Wateralsoservesasthestandardreferencematerialforclinicalradiationtherapybecauseitsabsorptionpropertiesforionizingradiationaresimilartothoseof biologicaltissue(Medinetal.,2006).Thestudyoftheradiolysis*ofwaterhasbeenactivelyexaminedformorethanacentury.Infact,CurieandDebierne(1901),Giesel(1902,1903),andRamsay and Soddy (1903) were the Ÿrst to observe that dissolved radium salts decompose aqueous solutions byliberatinghydrogenandoxygengasescontinuously(dueprincipallytothereleaseofα-particles fromtheradium).Excellentaccountsofthehistoryofaqueousradiationchemistryhavebeengiven byKroh(1989),Jonah(1995),FerradiniandJay-Gerin(1999),LaVerne(2000),Zimbrick(2002), and Buxton (2004).
