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Nuclear photodisintegration is the initiation of a nuclear reaction by a photon. ... It may even undergo a supernova explosion. Nuclear Fusion on Earth ...
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1. 13.1 Nuclear Reactions
13.2 Reaction Kinematics
13.3 Reaction Mechanisms
13.4 Fission
13.5 Fission Reactors
13.6 Fusion
13.7 Special Applications
2. 13.1: Nuclear Reactions First nuclear reaction was a nitrogen target bombarded with alpha particles, which emitted protons. The reaction is written as:
The first particle is the projectile and the second is the nitrogen target. These two nuclei react to form proton projectiles and the residual oxygen target.
The reaction can be rewritten in shorthand as: 14N(a, p)17O.
In general a reaction x + X ? y + Y can be rewritten as
X(x, y)Y
3. 3 Important Technological Advances The high-voltage multiplier circuit was developed in 1932 by J.D. Cockcroft and E.T.S. Walton. This compact circuit produces high-voltage, low-current pulses. High voltage is required to accelerate charged particles.
The Van de Graaff electrostatic accelerator was developed in 1931. It produces a high voltage from the friction between two different materials.
4. Types of Reactions Nuclear photodisintegration is the initiation of a nuclear reaction by a photon.
Neutron or proton radioactive capture occurs when the nucleon is absorbed by the target nucleus, with energy and momentum conserved by gamma ray emission.
The projectile and the target are said to be in the entrance channel of a nuclear reaction. The reaction products are in the exit channel.
In elastic scattering, the entrance and exit channels are identical and the particles in the exit channels are not in excited states.
In inelastic scattering, the entrance and exit channels are also identical but one or more of the reaction products is left in an excited state.
The reaction product need not always be in the exit channel.
5. 13.3: Reaction Mechanisms The Compound Nucleus
For low energies of E < 10 MeV, the Coulomb force dominates the reaction. This is described by the compound nucleus.
The compound nucleus is a composite of the projectile and target nuclei, usually in a high state of excitation.
The kinetic energy available in the center of mass frame
can excite the compound nucleus to even higher excitation energies than that from just the masses.
Once formed, the compound nucleus may exist for a relatively long time compared to the time taken by the bombarding particle to cross the nucleus. This latter time is sometimes referred to as the nuclear time scale tN.
When the compound nucleus finally does decay from its highly excited state, it decays into all the possible exit channels according to statistical rules consistent with the conservation laws.
6. 13.4: Fission In fission a nucleus separates into two fission fragments. As we will show, one fragment is typically somewhat larger than the other.
Fission occurs for heavy nuclei because of the increased Coulomb forces between the protons.
We can understand fission by using the semi-empirical mass formula based on the liquid drop model. For a spherical nucleus of with mass number A ~ 240, the attractive short-range nuclear forces offset the Coulomb repulsive term. As a nucleus becomes nonspherical, the surface energy is increased, and the effect of the short-range nuclear interactions is reduced.
Nucleons on the surface are not surrounded by other nucleons, and the unsaturated nuclear force reduces the overall nuclear attraction. For a certain deformation, a critical energy is reached, and the fission barrier is overcome.
7. Induced Fission Fission may also be induced by a nuclear reaction. A neutron absorbed by a heavy nucleus forms a highly excited compound nucleus that may quickly fission.
An induced fission example is
The fission products have a ratio of N/Z much too high to be stable for their A value.
There are many possibilities for the Z and A of the fission products.
Symmetric fission (products with equal Z) is possible, but the most probable fission is asymmetric (one mass larger than the other).
8. Thermal Neutron Fission Fission fragments are highly unstable because they are so neutron rich.
Prompt neutrons are emitted simultaneously with the fissioning process. Even after prompt neutrons are released, the fission fragments undergo beta decay, releasing more energy.
Most of the ~200 MeV released in fission goes to the kinetic energy of the fission products, but the neutrons, beta particles, neutrinos, and gamma rays typically carry away 30–40 MeV of the kinetic energy.
9. Chain Reactions
10. Chain Reactions
11. 13.5: Fission Reactors Several components are important for a controlled nuclear reactor:
Fissionable fuel
Moderator to slow down neutrons
Control rods for safety and to control criticality of reactor
Reflector to surround moderator and fuel in order to contain neutrons and thereby improve efficiency
Reactor vessel and radiation shield
Energy transfer systems if commercial power is desired
Two main effects can “poison” reactors: (1) neutrons may be absorbed without producing fission [for example, by neutron radiative capture], and (2) neutrons may escape from the fuel zone.
12. Core Components Fission neutrons typically have 1–2 MeV of kinetic energy, and because the fission cross section increases as 1/v at low energies, slowing down the neutrons helps to increase the chance of producing another fission. A moderator is used to elastically scatter the high-energy neutrons and thus reduce their energies. A neutron loses the most energy in a single collision with a light stationary particle. Hydrogen (in water), carbon (graphite), and beryllium are all good moderators.
The simplest method to reduce the loss of neutrons escaping from the fissionable fuel is to make the fuel zone larger. The fuel elements are normally placed in regular arrays within the moderator.
13. Core Components The delayed neutrons produced in fission allow the mechanical movement of the rods to control the fission reaction. A “fail-safe” system automatically drops the control rods into the reactor in an emergency shutdown.
If the fuel and moderator are surrounded by a material with a very low neutron capture cross section, there is a reasonable chance that after one or even many scatterings, the neutron will be backscattered or “reflected” back into the fuel area. Water is often used both as moderator and reflector.
14. Energy Transfer
15. Types of Reactors
16. Nuclear Reactor Problems The danger of a serious accident in which radioactive elements are released into the atmosphere or groundwater is of great concern to the general public.
Thermal pollution both in the atmosphere and in lakes and rivers used for cooling may be a significant ecological problem.
A more serious problem is the safe disposal of the radioactive wastes produced in the fissioning process, because some fission fragments have a half-life of thousands of years.
Two widely publicized accidents at nuclear reactor facilities—one at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979, the other at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986—have significantly dampened the general public’s support for nuclear reactors.
Large expansion of nuclear power can succeed only if four critical problems are overcome: lower costs, improved safety, better nuclear waste management, and lower proliferation risk.
17. Breeder Reactors A more advanced kind of reactor is the breeder reactor, which produces more fissionable fuel than it consumes.
The chain reaction is:
The plutonium is easily separated from uranium by chemical means.
Fast breeder reactors have been built that convert 238U to 239Pu. The reactors are designed to use fast neutrons.
Breeder reactors hold the promise of providing an almost unlimited supply of fissionable material.
One of the downsides of such reactors is that plutonium is highly toxic, and there is concern about its use in unauthorized weapons production.
18. 13.6: Fusion If two light nuclei fuse together, they also form a nucleus with a larger binding energy per nucleon and energy is released. This reaction is called nuclear fusion.
The most energy is released if two isotopes of hydrogen fuse together in the reaction.
19. Formation of Elements
The proton-proton chain includes a series of reactions that eventually converts four protons into an alpha particle.
As stars form due to gravitational attraction of interstellar matter, the heat produced by the attraction is enough to cause protons to overcome their Coulomb repulsion and fuse by the following reaction:
The deuterons are then able to combine with 1H to produce 3He:
The 3He atoms can then combine to produce 4He:
20. Formation of Elements
21. Hydrostatic Equilibrium A hydrostatic equilibrium exists in the sun between the gravitational attraction tending to contract a star and a gas pressure pushing out due to all the particles.
As the lighter nuclides are “burned up” to produce the heavier nuclides, the gravitational attraction succeeds in contracting the star’s mass into a smaller volume and the temperature increases. A higher temperature allows the nuclides with higher Z to fuse.
This process continues in a star until a large part of the star’s mass is converted to iron. The star then collapses under its own gravitational attraction to become, depending on its mass, a white dwarf star, neutron star, or black hole. It may even undergo a supernova explosion.
22. Nuclear Fusion on Earth Among the several possible fusion reactions, three of the simplest involve the three isotopes of hydrogen.
Three main conditions are necessary for controlled nuclear fusion:
The temperature must be hot enough to allow the ions, for example, deuterium and tritium, to overcome the Coulomb barrier and fuse their nuclei together. This requires a temperature of 100–200 million K.
The ions have to be confined together in close proximity to allow the ions to fuse. A suitable ion density is 2–3 × 1020 ions/m3.
The ions must be held together in close proximity at high temperature long enough to avoid plasma cooling. A suitable time is 1–2 s.
23. Fusion Product The product of the plasma density n and the containment time t must have a minimum value at a sufficiently high temperature in order to initiate fusion and produce as much energy as it consumes. The minimum value is
This relation is called the Lawson criterion after the British physicist J. D. Lawson who first derived it in 1957. A triple product of ntT called the fusion product is sometimes used (where T is the ion temperature).
The factor Q is used to represent the ratio of the power produced in the fusion reaction to the power required to produce the fusion (heat). This Q factor is not to be confused with the Q value.
The breakeven point is Q = 1, and ignition occurs for Q >> 1. For controlled fusion produced in the laboratory, temperatures on the order of 20 keV are satisfactory.
24. Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions
Because of the large amount of energy produced and the relatively small Coulomb barrier, the first fusion reaction will most likely be the D + T reaction. The tritium will be derived from two possible reactions:
The problem of controlled fusion involves significant scientific and engineering difficulties. The two major schemes to control thermonuclear reactions are magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF).
Magnetic confinement of plasma is done in a tokomak, which has many confinement boundaries.
Heating of the plasma to sufficiently high temperatures begins with the resistive heating from the electric current flowing in the plasma. There are two other schemes to add additional heat: (1) injection of high-energy (40–120 keV) neutral (so they pass through the magnetic field) fuel atoms that interact with the plasma, and (2) radio-frequency (RF) induction heating of the plasma (similar to a microwave oven).
25. Inertial Confinement The concept of inertial confinement fusion is to use an intense high-powered beam of heavy ions or light (laser) called a driver to implode a pea-sized target (a few mm in diameter) composed of D + T to a density and temperature high enough to cause fusion ignition.
26. 13.7: Special Applications A specific isotope of a radioactive element is called a radioisotope.
Radioisotopes are produced for useful purposes by different methods:
By particle accelerators as reaction products
In nuclear reactors as fission fragments or decay products
In nuclear reactors using neutron activation
An important area of applications is the search for a very small concentration of a particular element, called a trace element.
Trace elements are used in detecting minute quantities of trace elements for forensic science and environmental purposes.
27. Medicine Over 1100 radioisotopes are available for clinical use.
Radioisotopes are used in tomography, a technique for displaying images of practically any part of the body to look for abnormal physical shapes or for testing functional characteristics of organs. By using detectors (either surrounding the body or rotating around the body) together with computers, three-dimensional images of the body can be obtained.
They use single-photon emission computed tomography, positron emission tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging.
28. Archaeology Investigators can now measure a large number of trace elements in many ancient specimens and then compare the results with the concentrations of components having the same origin.
Radioactive dating indicates that humans had a settlement near Clovis, New Mexico 12,000 years ago. Several claims have surfaced in the past few years, especially from South America, that dispute this earliest finding, but no conclusive proof has been confirmed.
The Chauvet Cave, discovered in France in 1995, is one of the most important archaeological finds in decades. More than 300 paintings and engravings and many traces of human activity, including hearths, fiintstones, and footprints, were found. These works are believed, from 14C radioactive dating, to be from the Paleolithic era, some 32,000 years ago.
29. Art Neutron activation is a nondestructive technique that is becoming more widely used to examine oil paintings. A thermal neutron beam from a nuclear reactor is spread broadly and evenly over the painting. Several elements within the painting become radioactive. X-ray films sensitive to beta emissions from the radioactive nuclei are subsequently placed next to the painting for varying lengths of time. This method is called an autoradiograph.
It was used to examine Van Dyck’s Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-Stricken of Palermo, from the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art collection and revealed an over-painted self-portrait of Van Dyck himself.
30. Crime Detection The examination of gunshots by measuring trace amounts of barium and antimony from the gunpowder has proven to be 100 to 1000 times more sensitive than looking for the residue itself.
Scientists are also able to detect toxic elements in hair by neutron activation analysis.
31. Mining and Oil Geologists and petroleum engineers use radioactive sources routinely to search for oil and gas. A source and detector are inserted down an exploratory drill hole to examine the material at different depths. Neutron sources called PuBe (plutonium and beryllium) or AmBe (americium and beryllium) are particularly useful.
32. Small Power Systems Alpha-emitting radioactive sources have been used as power sources in heart pacemakers.
Smoke detectors use 241Am sources of alpha particles as current generators. The scattering of the alpha particles by the smoke particles reduces the current flowing to a sensitive solid-state device, which results in an alarm.
Spacecraft have been powered by radioisotope generators (RTGs) since the early 1960s.
33. New Elements No transuranic elements—those with atomic number greater than Z = 92 (uranium)—are found in nature because of their short half-lives.
Reactors and especially accelerators have been able to produce 22 of these new elements up to Z = 116.
Over 150 new isotopes heavier than uranium have been discovered.
Physicists have reasons to suspect from shell model calculations that superheavy elements with atomic numbers of 110–120 and 184 neutrons may be particularly long-lived.
