Nuclear Physics

The prncipal nuclear reaction to obtain americium is:

239Pu---------(n,γ)------ 240Pu---------(n,γ)------ 241Pu ---------(β-)------241Am

Americium is a by-product of nuclear fuels burn-up and can be extracted (with many difficulties and costs) from these irradiated fuels in reprocessing plants.

A cyclotron is used to accelerate protons, which are used in the medical treatment of patients prescribed this form of therapy. It is an accelerated proton source. Proton therapy is gaining in use, but as it takes a cyclotron, which is a nuclear particle accelerator, to provide the accelerated protons, it costs a small fortune to set up a treatment center. The treatment begins with winding up the beast to gather and accelerate the protons (which is where the cyclotron comes in), and then the direction of the particle stream through appropriate (highly evacuated) plumbing to a treatment room. There, a patient is set up in front of the "business end" of the proton "gun" and positioned appropriately to administer the dose or radiation. Look below and check the links to related questions and to websites with related material.

1. Weak Nuclear Force :Fundamental interaction that underlies some forms of radioactivity and certain interactions between subatomic particles.

It acts on all elementary particles that have a spin of 1/2. The particles interact weakly by exchanging particles that have integer spins. These particles have masses about 100 times that of a proton, and it is this relative massiveness that makes the weak force appear weak at low energies.

2. Strong nuclear Force:Fundamental force acting between elementary particles of matter, mainly quarks.

The strong force binds quarks together in clusters to form protons and neutrons and heavier short-lived particles. It holds together the atomic nucleus and underlies interactions among all particles containing quarks

The mass of 590 ml will depend on what substance is being measured, as each substance has a different density. To determine the mass, you would need to know the density of the substance in question and use the formula mass = volume x density.

Let's look at the construction of the tube. The Geiger-Müller (GM) tube is essentially a cylinder with a "wire" down the middle for an anode, and the inside of the cylindrical housing as the cathode. It's got some gas in it, and the type of gas will vary a bit from tube to tube and what is desired in the design. The "end" has a "window" in it made of thin glass or possibly mica. This window "lets in" the radiation while sealing the tube and providing a minimum amount of shielding that might "block" radiation, particularly alpha and beta radiation. Recall that alpha particles are helium-4 nuclei, and they can't penetrate a sheet of paper. Beta particles are high energy electrons, or possibly positrons, which can be stopped by a sheet of aluminum foil. You can't detect them if you block them. The way it works is as the radiation passes through the GM tube, it leaves an ionized "trail" in the gas behind it. This is primary ionization. The high voltage across the gas causes the ions to be accelerated toward the appropriately charged element. Positive charges move toward the cathode, and negative charges (electrons) move toward the anode. The movement of these charges ionizes other gas atoms, called secondary ionization, and the total effect is to create a current avalanche. With the movement of these charges and the accompanying current "spike" or "jolt" set off by the high voltage, we'll observe a "pulse" that the supporting circuitry in the detector can "see" and a "hit" or "count" is recorded by the Geiger counter. Gamma rays are penetrating types of (electromagnetic) radiation. They blast through the window and they ionize the heck out of the gas inside. It is basically the cumulative effect of all this ionization that creates sufficient ions to initiate the current avalanche that cause the counter to "pulse" electrically. The gamma rays have a field day zapping their way through the cylinder and creating lots ions to create a "click" or a count. In contrast, alpha and beta particles will not penetrate very far into the tube because of their limited ability to do so. This means that the current avalanche is more confined to the "front" of the tube. The superior penetrating power of the gamma rays means that their current avalanche includes a lot of volume deeper in the tube, or more "in the middle" than at the end of the tube, like the particulate radiation. Links can be found below for more information.

Elements with the same number of electrons have similar chemical properties because they have the same electron configuration in their outer shell. This leads to similar reactivity and bonding behavior among them. Examples include elements in the same group or column of the periodic table.

Uranium, for example the isotope 235 is an emitter of: gamma, alpha and beta radiations, also spontaneous fission neutrons. But, for each isotope of uranium the radiation energies, and their percentage is different.

In positron emission, a proton in the nucleus is converted into a neutron, leading to the emission of a positron and a neutrino. Therefore, in the case of Mercury-201 undergoing positron emission, the nucleus transforms into a new element with one less proton and one more neutron in its nucleus.

Radioactive material is warmer than the surrounding material because radioactive material is constantly breaking down. When material breaks down, that means that energy is constantly getting released. When energy is released, it produces warmth.

The positive aspects of nuclear fission are:

it is an energy source which uses fuels which will last for a long time.

It can produce a large amount of energy from a small energy input.

It produces very little carbon emissions.

It is often considered to be better for the environment than coal power plants.

It produces more energy than coal power plants and most other energy sources.

subatomic particles with a negative charge. They orbit the nucleus of an atom in specific energy levels and are involved in chemical bonding. They are essential for the behavior of matter at the atomic and molecular levels.

The half-life of Alli (orlistat) is around 1 to 2 hours. This means that it takes about 1 to 2 hours for half of the drug to be eliminated from the body.

Yes. It's a many-step process, but it can be done. We've already changed lead into gold to realize the dreams of the ancient alchemists. But it isn't something we do a lot of because it costs more to synthesize gold than to buy it, and that's with the issue of the radioactive end product aside.

J. J. Tomson was the discoverer of the electron. Using a cathode ray tube he found a particle that was deflected by a positively charged plate. Today we call cathode ray tubes televisions (at least the ones with picture tubes). He called the new particle a "corpuscle". Today we call it an electron (derived from the Greek word for "amber" which can be used to generate static electricity). Based on his research, he reasoned that the new particle had a negative charge. He proposed that an atom was like a mushy ball with raisins (electrons) stuck in the surface. Just like a tasty English holiday treat called Plum Pudding. Since atoms are usually electrically neutral (no charge), he reasoned that the mushy part had a positive charge (which would cancel the negative charge of the electron). Americans would say it was more like the electrons were chocolate chips in a scoop of chocolate chip ice cream or the chocolate chips in a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough. (the repeated use of chocolate has nothing to do with the model). LA Dacanay

Tsar Bomba (King of bombs) is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated on October 30, 1961 over the Mityushikha Bay nuclear testing range, Novaya Zemlya Island in the Arctic Sea. It yielded 50 Megatons, equivalent to 50 million tonnes of TNT, though was originally designed to be a 100 Megaton bomb. Despite it's power, it's use was impractical, since it could not easily be delivered to a far off target area. It was mainly built to display Russia's power during the cold war.

A 50MTon bomb detonated at optimal airburst altitude has a blast radius of 60 miles. But I believe the Tzar Bomba was detonated low to minimize damage zone.

I think perhaps your confused here somewhat. A fermion is a particle which obeys the Pauli exclusion principle; put simply two fermions can not be in the same state (i.e. have the same set of quantum no's) at the same time. Fermions cannot be broken down into anything smaller, fermions include quark's, electron's, muon's, tau's and neutrino's which are elementary i.e. not made of anything but energy

Quarks make up all other particles. Bosons can be made of 3 quarks and are split into two catergorys: Baryons such as Protons, Neutrons and many other heavy particles these are effectively composite fermions as they contain 3 quarks. Or Mesons, which contain one quark and an anti quark and hence are not composite fermions.

Pair production is the transformation of electromagnetic energy into matter, into a particle and its antiparticle, usually an electron and a positron. Let's have a look at this situation.

When a high energy gamma ray with a minimum energy of 1.022 MeV passes close to an atomic nucleus, a phenomenon called pair production can occur. In this event, the energy of the gamma ray is converted into mass. It's a play right out of Albert Einstein's quantum mechanical playbook. The electron and positron are opposites of each other, and the appearance of an elementary particle and its antiparticle must obey conservation laws. That's where the "assistance" of a nearby atomic nucleus comes in. The electron and positron will appear and come away from the event with some given kinetic energy, and will scatter and slow down as they move off. The positron, of course, will end up combining with an electron in a mutual annihilation event where the two particles have their mass entirely converted into energy. This will result in a pair of electromagnetic rays, or photons, leaving the annihilation event and moving in opposite directions.

fossle fuel energy, oil, gas from ground

Quarks are elementary particles and cannot be split or isolated due to the strong force that binds them together. They are always found in groups of two or three within a particle called a hadron.

called luminescence. It occurs when the substance absorbs energy from the external radiation and re-emits it as light. Luminescence can be either fluorescent, phosphorescent, or other forms based on the time it takes for the substance to re-emit the absorbed energy as light.

Radium, being radioactive, will irradiate and activate some things placed near a sample. The element radium in its "natural" form is an alpha particle emitter, and things that get hit by an alpha particle have a chance of undergoing nuclear transformation. An alpha particle, which is emitted by a 226Ra atom when it decays, is a helium-4 nucleus. It's composed of two protons and two neutrons. This is a "heavy hitter" as regards particulate radiation. It won't travel far, even in air, because it is too massive and it "runs into stuff" in scattering reactions because of its size. But when it reacts with a nucleus, things happen. That's how some materials near a radium source become radioactive.

The discovery of subatomic particles like electrons, protons, and neutrons contributed to a better understanding of the structure of atoms. Isotopes, which are atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons, helped refine the atomic theory by explaining variations in atomic mass. Together, these discoveries have shaped our modern understanding of atomic structure and behavior.

The main constituents of the nucleus are protons and neutrons, but each of these is made up of smaller particles known as quarks.