CORE-UA 203 Study Guide - Final Guide: Nuclide, Nuclear Fission, Spontaneous Emission

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mauvelocust150

1 Jun 2021

School

New York University

Department

College Core Curriculum

Course

CORE-UA 203

Professor

Michael Ward

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Document Summary

The primary coolant system utilizes pressurized water as the reactor core coolant. Control rods are an important technology for maintaining the desired state of fission reactions within a nuclear reactor. Detects radioactive emissions by their ability to excite atoms + cause them to emit light; radioactive particles strike a light-emittinf substance, which emits photons. When ionizing radiation passes through material, it deposits enough energy to break molecular bonds and displace (or remove) electrons from atoms. Fukushima accident occurred after a series of tsunami waves struck the facility and disabled systems needed to cool the nuclear fuel. The chernobyl accident stemmed from a flawed reactor design and human error. Method for determining the age of an obj containing organic material by using the properties of c-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon. Lecture 22 nuclear energy and solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light energy directly to eclectic energy; uses semiconductor material; 2.

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Nuclear Decay Equations

Learning Goal:

To predict the products of alpha emission, beta emission, positron emission, and electron capture.

Radioactivity is the spontaneous emission of radiation from an unstable nucleus. There are five major types of radioactive decay:

Alpha (Î±) radiation consists of helium nuclei. The helium nucleus is a small particle containing two protons and two neutrons (42He).

Beta (Î²) radiation consists of electrons. In nuclear equations, the standard format for representing a beta particle using superscripts and subscripts is 0â1e.

Positron emission results from the conversion of a proton in the nucleus to a neutron. The ejected positron is a particle that has the same mass as an electron but an opposite charge. In nuclear equations, the standard format for representing a positron using superscripts and subscripts is 01e .

Electron capture is the capture of an inner shell electron by a proton in the nucleus. The process emits gamma (Î³) radiation and results in a proton converting to a neutron. Gamma radiation consists of high-energy electromagnetic radiation.

Gamma (Î³) radiation consists of high-energy radiation, and contains no particles and thus they have no mass. In nuclear equations, the standard format for representing gamma radiation using superscripts and subscripts is 00Î³.

Balancing a decay equation

There are two main rules to remember when balancing nuclear equations:

The total of the superscripts in the reactants and products must be the same.

The total of the subscripts in the reactants and products must be the same.

For an isotope of an element, the superscripts are mass numbers, and the subcripts are atomic numbers:

Mass number â¶ AAtomic number â¶ Z X âµ Chemical symbol

Where the mass number (A) is the sum of the number of proton and number of neutrons in the nucleus, atomic number (Z) is the number of protons in the nucleus, and chemical symbol (X) is the symbol of the specific element.

Part A

Identify the nuclide produced when americium-241 decays by alpha emission:

241 95Amâ42He + ?

Express your answer as an isotope using prescripts.

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Part B

Identify the nuclide produced when phosphorus-32 decays by beta emission:

3215Pâ 0â1e + ?

Express your answer as an isotope using prescripts.

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Part C

Identify the nuclide produced when fluorine-18 decays by positron emission:

18 9Fâ01e + ?

Express your answer as an isotope using prescripts.

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Part D

Identify the nuclide produced when thallium-201 decays by electron capture:

201 81Tl+ 0â1eâ00Î³ + ?

Express your answer as an isotope using prescripts.

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A nuclear reaction is represented by an equation similar to theequation for a chemical reaction. An example of a nuclear reactionis the decay of radium into radon by the emission of an alphaparticle (a helium nucleus). The equation for this reactionis

^{226}_{\ 88}{\rm Ra}\; \rightarrow \, ^{222}_{\ 86}{\rmRn}+\;^4_2{\rm He}.

The superscript preceding each element indicates the nucleon numberof that particular nucleus (total number of protons and neutrons).The subscript indicates the charge of the nucleus, which is equalto the atomic number for nuclei. Nuclear reactions frequentlyinvolve electrons (sometimes called beta rays) and photons(sometimes called gamma rays). Electrons, which have nucleon number0 and charge -1, are represented in equations as either ^{\ \;0}_{-1}\beta or ^{\ \; 0}_{-1}{\rm e}. Photons are represented as^{0}_{0}\gamma to emphasize that they have no nucleon number andcarry no charge.

In nuclear reactions, several conservation laws are usuallysufficient to determine the products or reactants. One of these isconservation of nucleon number. The total number of neutrons andprotons in all of the reactants must be the same as the totalnumber of protons and neutrons in the products. Although protonsand neutrons sometimes change into one another, neither can simplydisappear. Another important conservation law is conservation ofcharge. The net charge of the reactants must be the same as that ofthe products.

Notice that, in our equation for the decay of radium, the sum ofthe nucleon numbers on each side is 226 and the sum of the chargeson each side is 88. If you knew everything in this equation exceptthe isotope of radon produced, you could simply subtract 4 from 226to find the nucleon number required to make the nucleon number ofthe products equal the nucleon number of the reactants. Similarly,if you knew everything in this equation except for the identity ofthe product element, you could simply subtract 2 from 88 and thenlook in a periodic table to find that the element with atomicnumber 86 is radon.

In parts A and B consider the decay of radon by alpha particleemission:

^{222}_{\ 86}{\rm Rn}\;\rightarrow\;X +\,^{4}_{2}{\rm He}.

a. What is the nucleon number of the element X?
Express your answer as an integer.

b. What is the atomic number (nuclear charge) of the elementX?
Express your answer as an integer.

n parts C and D consider the decay of Potassium-43 into calcium-43via the following reaction:

^{43}_{19}{\rm K} \rightarrow ^{43}_{20}{\rm Ca}+\,X.

c. What is the charge of the emitted particle X?
d. is not visible yet

E. An isotope of potassium with a half-life of roughly one billionyears is often used in radioactive dating. This isotope decaysthrough electron capture, the process of drawing an electron intothe nucleus. What is the chemical symbol for the element thatresults from this process? The equation for the reaction is

^{40}_{19}{\rm K}+\,^{\ \;0}_{-1}{\rm e}\rightarrow \,?.
Express your answer as a chemical symbol (e.g., Na forsodium).

f. The reaction energy of a reaction is the amount of energyreleased by the reaction. It is found by determining the differencein mass between the reactants and products and then using E=mc^2 toconvert the lost mass into the released energy.

Look again at the equation for the decay of radium (Ra), given inthe introduction. Use the following table of masses to determinethe reaction energy of this reaction.
Nucleus or particle Mass in atomic mass units
radium-226 226.025402
radon-222 222.017571
alpha particle 4.002602
Express your answer in joules to three significant figures.

please answer fully... thank you

CORE-UA 203 Study Guide - Final Guide: Nuclide, Nuclear Fission, Spontaneous Emission

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