Applications of photonuclear reactions

Abstract The potential use of photonuclear reactions for a range of applications is described. These are: photonuclear transmutation doping of semiconductors, neutron production from electron linacs, quality checking of radioactive waste, fission product incineration, photoexcitation of isomers for dosimetry, and nuclear resonance fluorescence for materials analysis. Initial brief descriptions of atomic and nuclear interactions of photons and of bremsstrahlung are given.