01:160:163 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Becquerel, Radioactive Tracer
19 May 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Nuclear fission: process of heavy nucleus being divided into smaller portions, containing another element in the products, and the released energy being generated. Nuclear chain reaction: forming three or more smaller nuclei by three neutrons being released. Subcritical:less than one neutron from fusion causes another fission. Critical: amount of mass of the original substance element is able to cause another fission completely to occur. Critical mass is this amount of mass. Fissile nuclei: can be broken apart even by slow neutrons. Fissionable nuclei: nuclei that require a certain amount of kinetically energized neutrons to complete the fission process. Nuclear power plant versus coal-burning power plant. Nuclear: will generate a lot of energy for the single neutron being released and manipulated. Coal burning: this requires large amounts of energy through the burning of coal to generate the equivalent amount of energy released by the manipulation of a neutron, or a thousand neutrons of they were needed for the reaction.
