Is it possible for a nitrogen atom to change into an oxygen atom?

Answer 1

We usually don't see a nitrogen atom change into an oxygen atom. This kind of change is a nuclear transmutation, and we just don't encounter much of this nitrogen-to-oxygen thing happening in nature. But there are instances where nitrogen can "change" into oxygen, and we have to look at a couple of isotopes of oxygen and nitrogen to discover if a nuclear reaction might transform nitrogen to oxygen. Let's take a little trip through an operating pressurized water nuclear reactor where this actually happens.

The water circulating in a water-cooled nuclear reactor is H2O, and you knew that. Most of the oxygen in that water is oxygen-16. When water passes through the core of the reactor, the high neutron flux can activate the oxygen. An oxygen-16 atom can absorb a neutron and then undergo beta decay to become nitrogen-16. Further, nitrogen-16 in the water can then absorb a neutron and become nitrogen-17. It turns out this happens a lot. But the nitrogen-17 is very unstable, and it transforms via beta decay back into oxygen. The oxygen-17 on the end of this series of transformations is stable, by the way. But it will cycle back through the reactor and may undergo more transformations.

A link can be found below to a related question, and the curious investigator might wish to trace the transformations mentioned. Further, a hard-core learner might want to come up with the nuclear formulae that are written to express the reactions.