Nuclear Physics

halflife

The reason why an atomic bomb produces such a large explosion is that certain radioactive isotopes, such as U-235 or plutonium, can be made to undergo a chain reaction in which all the atoms will decay in a very short period of time (a small fraction of a second) releasing all the energy at once. Radium does not do that. However, if you had a substantial quantity of radium you could certainly use it to create radioactive contamination which could induce cancer in many people. That is known as a "dirty bomb".

The waste is sealed into glass blocks and then the blocks are sealed into metal canisters before being buried deep underground.

The electron particles in cathode rays have a negative charge. So if a plate is positively charged, it would attract the cathode rays, and if it was negatively charged, it would repel the rays.

No. Decay is the process, radiation is the product.

The mass difference between Helium-3 (3He) and Tritium (3H) is approximately 2 atomic mass units (amu). This is because Tritium has two neutrons in its nucleus, making it heavier than Helium-3.

Manmade elements.

These have traditionally been considered to be: Technetium, Promethium, Neptunium, and all elements beyond Neptunium.

However trace levels of several of these have since then been detected naturally.

Strong nuclear forces act through gluons in the nucleus

Simply put, radiation biophysics is the intersection of biology and radiation physics. And it's a big intersection - with lots of traffic. Radiation physics is all about what happens to living things that are zapped with radiation. And it's a huge field because of the different types of radiation and the many, many ways it occurs naturally or is artificially generated and applied for a purpose. Let's look at a few areas of investigation and application to get a handle on radiation biophysics. We are naturally exposed to radiation from the moment we are conceived to the moment we die. The radiation comes in two "flavors" as we look at it - electromagnetic and particulate. As an example of the former, we are being bombarded by gamma rays right now. These rays are are a form of extremely high frequency electromagnetic radiation. The rays originate on the sun and in other stars, star-like objects, etc. throughout the galaxy and the universe in general. They also originate from the nuclear decay of radioactive materials around us, both naturally occurring stuff (e.g., radium) and from man-made stuff, like material from bomb tests, nuclear accidents and the like. Gamma rays are what is called ionizing radiation, and that means that as the ray passes through material (like living tissue), it breaks some of the covalent bonds of the biochemical molecules. This can destroy some chemical structures. If it turns out that the "target" is a DNA or RNA chemical structure, it can alter or kill the unit of life. There are particulate radiation sources all around us too. These sources are mostly the ones we already cited - radioactive materials in the environment that occur naturally or have been man made. The "effective range" of these particulate radiation sources is (thankfully) very short (except for neutron sources, which aren't that common). That's good because these "subatomic bullets" have tremendous energy, and they can ionize the heck out of living tissue - they can damage it big time. They can also undergo interactions with non-bio materials that release other ionizing radiation, and that radiation is bad for biologicals. Having sort of "summed up" radiation hazards, let's look at who cares about all this. Health physics is a closely associated - or actually a specialty - within the field of radiation biophysics. The health physicist focuses on the adverse affects of radiation on living things, particularly people. The nice folks in health physics are the ones who track exposure to X-rays of hospital staffers, laboratory personnel or company radiation workers and the like. They are interested in all the sources of radiation in a given setting where they have charge and all the folks who work in areas and could be exposed. They're the ones who insure dosimeters and film badges are available and worn appropriately. And they collect and process all the radiometric data related to exposures and maintain a file on everyone to maintain a history of exposure. These nice people have to monitor all the radioactive sources used in medical treatment of patients, and they work along with the physicians, and the other medical and technical staff who handle the materials. As you might guess, there is a lot of documentation associated with this activity. And all of the people associated with these activities are working in radiation biophysics. Oh, and the health physics experts are working in all the places where nuclear reactors are, and also anywhere radioactive materials are manufactured, processed and fabricated into something we wish to use. NASA and all space concerns where people are outside earth's atmosphere must have radiation biophysicists on hand to consider the effects of the extra radiation on those who go up. It's isn't as nice out there as some people think. We usually have research going on here or there where we are exposing biological material to some form of radiation. The researchers and all those who work with them in monitoring and safety are working in radiation biophysics. Bottom line is that anywhere there is an intersection of people and radiation or radioactivity, there is radiation biophysics.

An electron is the carrier of the negative electrostatic force, and it has a charge of -1. Also, the electron, along with the proton and neutron, are the "basic building blocks" of atoms, and they make up the matter all around us. The positron, on the other hand, is an anti-electron - it's antimatter! And it is the antiparticle of the electron. It has a charge of +1, which is just the opposite of the electron's. The fact that the electron and positron are matter and anti-matter, and that they have a charge of -1 and +1 respectively are the major differences. A positron is an electron's anti-particle, and when the electron and positron come in contact with each other to combine, they annihilate each other in a process called electron-positron annihilation. There is a link below to that related question and to a couple of others.

Applications of plutonium:

• explosive in nuclear weapons

• nuclear fuel in nuclear power reactors

• the isotope 238Pu is used as energy source in spacecrafts or other applications (radioisotope thermoelectric generators)

• neutron generator, as Pu-Be source

238U --> 234Th + 4He

234Th --> 234Pa + e-

234Pa --> 234U + e-

234U --> 234Np + e-, not possible

It certainly can. It can also occur at lower or higher temperatures.

15 MK is roughly the core temperature of the Sun. At this temperature the PP chain is dominant, with the CNO cycle contributing roughly an order of magnitude less energy. At around 17 MK the two are roughly equal, and at higher temperatures the CNO cycle becomes dominant.

Much below 4 MK, you're not normally going to get significant fusion (there are "cold fusion" techniques that can happen at much lower temperatures, such as muon-catalysed fusion, but these aren't net producers of energy: it takes more energy to make the muons than you can get out of the resultant fusion reaction).

The two most prominent particle colliders that are looking for the Higgs boson are the Tevatron at FermiLab (although that one is going to close soon) and the LHC at CERN.

Here is a recipe for a sherbet bomb- mix the following ingredients:

1 tablespoon Icing Sugar

¼ teaspoon Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda)

¼ teaspoon Citric Acid

1 teaspoon Flavoured jelly crystals

1. alpha is stopped by a sheet of paper
2. beta is stopped by a sheet of foil or a couple inches of other material
3. gamma penetrates long distances

I would expect the total radiation to be equal to the sum of the individual radiations.

Yes, autunite is radioactive due to its uranium content. It is a mineral that contains uranium and typically emits low levels of radiation. Proper handling and disposal protocols should be followed when working with autunite to minimize exposure to radiation.

The strong nuclear force is very powerful, but extremely short-range: it holds quarks and gluons together to form elementary particles like protons and neutrons, and binds them together in the atom's nucleus.

The strong force decreases very quickly over distance, which is one reason why heavier elements (those with large atomic numbers, like uranium and plutonium) tend to experience radioactive decay, while most lighter elements don't. It also explains why protons are so stable: their half-life is on the order of 6.6 x 1033 years, or more than three times the current age of the universe!

It's safer to hold a car antenna. The car antenna is a receiver only. The mobile antenna both sends and receives. It transmits calls, texts & data using microwave energy (similar to the energy found in microwave cookers). Although the 'jury is still out' it's speculated that long-term exposure to microwave energy can cause tissue damage.

The decay is:
Bi-187------------------Tl-183

• strong nuclear force
• weak nuclear force
• gravity - however this is too weak to be worth considering inside the nucleus

There is only one type of alpha particle - a helium-4 nucleus. A beta particle can either be an electron or an anti-electron. However, consulting the Wikipedia article "Isotopes of silver", it seems that silver-111 has a beta-minus decay - that means that it emits a regular electron (which has a negative charge).