A Look at Nuclear Science and Technology

Larry Foulke

Atomic and Nuclear Physics The Einstein Connection 2.4 Just like your checkbook; it all has to balance and Unstable nuclides eventually go away

Nuclear Decay Chart of Nuclides

Check the web at
http://www-nds.iaea.org/relnsd/vcharthtml/VChartHTML.html For an alternative chart Try also http://wwwndc.jaea.go.jp/CN10/ Or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chart_of_nuclides These web links are on the Week 2 Overview.

Nuclear Data
Z

Nuclear Decay Balance Eqns.

! Shorthand notation for writing nuclear decay events ! Similar to chemical balance equations Examples

Alpha Decay:
Beta Decay: Positron

235 92
239 93

4 U ! 231 Th + " 90 2

Np # 239 94 Pu +

0 $1

0 "+0 !

11 Emiss.:6

0 + 0 C #11 B + " + 5 1 0!

! Equation must always conserve mass and charge ! Typically dont list energy or momentum in these balance equations
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Nuclear Data

Nuclear Decay Balance Eqns.

! Shorthand notation for writing nuclear decay events ! Similar to chemical balance equations Examples Alpha Decay:
235 92 4 U " 231 Th + 90 2!

or

235 92

4 U ! 231 Th + 90 2 He

Beta Decay:
Positron

239 93

0 0 Np ! 239 Pu + # + $ 94 "1 0

11 Emiss.:6

0 + 0 C #11 B + " + 5 1 0!

! Equation must always conserve mass and charge ! Typically dont list energy or momentum in these balance equations
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Nuclear Data

Nuclear Decay
! The decay of an unstable nucleus is a random process. ! Every unstable nuclide is characterized by a unique decay constant, !. ! Decay Constant ! The probability that a single nucleus will decay per unit time.

! Units:

& # decay $ nuclei second ! % "

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Decay Activity
! If N is the number of nuclei present in a sample then the rate of nuclear decays for the sample is given by:

A(t ) = ! N (t )
! A is referred to as the activity of the sample. ! Activity has basic units of
$ decay ' decay $ ' = % " ! [nuclei] % & second " # & nuclei second #

! SI Unit:

1 Becquerel [Bq] = 1 decay/sec

! Old Unit: 1 Curie [Ci] = 3.7!1010 decay/sec

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Decay Activity (Time Dependent)

! Each radioactive decay destroys one of the unstable nuclei, changing the number of nuclei present.

[1! decay ] = [ !1! nucleus ]

! The number of nuclei, N, and activity, A, are time dependent quantities

A(t ) = ! N (t )

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Decay Activity (Time Dependent)

N (t )= N (0)e
!" t

A(t )= A(0)e! " t

! The original formula can be rewritten in terms of the fractional nuclide population remaining after time t.

Fractional population at time t

A(t ) !" t = =e N (0) A(0)

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N (t )

Example calculation
! Presume that we have 1,000,000 nuclei of uranium-235 which has a half-life of

! 1 = 7.04 x108 years = 704 million years

2

! And lets say we want to know the fractional population of uranium-235 after radioactive decay for one million years ! First, we have to calculate the decay constant from the half-life of 7.04x108 years

!=

0.693

7.04 x108 yrs

= 9.84 x10"10 yrs"1

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Example calculation
Fractional population at time t

N (t ) "! t =e N (0)

! Presume that we have 1,000,000 nuclei of uranium-235 which has a radioactive decay constant of:

! = 9.84 x10"10 yrs "1

! And lets say we want to know the fractional population of uranium-235 after radioactive decay for one-year (or one years worth of seconds = 3.15576x107 seconds) ! The answer is:

N (0)

N (t )

( =e

! 9.84 x10!10 yr !1 (1,000,000 yrs )

=e

!9.84 x10!10

= 0.99902
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Decay in Units of Half-Life

Knief, Fig 2-2

Half-Life Examples
! Uranium 232 233 234 235 236 238 ! Fission Products Strontium-90 Cesium-137 70 yr 160,000 yr 250,000 yr 704,000,000 yr 23,000,000 yr 4,500,000,000 yr

29 yr 30 yr
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Mean Time to Decay

! In addition to the half-life it is also useful to know the mean lifetime for a nuclide ! Mean Lifetime (")
!The average (mean) time that it will take for a single nuclide to decay.

"=
!Units: [seconds]

!
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Nuclear Decay
! During a nuclear decay much of the excess energy of an unstable nuclei is removed with the emitted particle: ! Changes in binding energy of nucleus ! Kinetic energy given to emitted particle ! However, following the decay event, the product nucleus may be left in an excited state (still too much energy) ! In these cases the nucleus can do one of two things:
! Undergo nuclear decay again ! Rearrange nucleons in nucleus to achieve a lower overall energy state.

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Image Source Notes

1.! Reprinted with permission from Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation.

Supplemental Exercise Slides

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Nuclear Decay Balance Eqns.

! Shorthand notation for writing nuclear decay events ! Similar to chemical balance equations Examples Alpha Decay: Beta Decay: Positron
235 92 239 93 4 U " 231 Th + 90 2!

or
0 $1

235 92

4 U ! 231 Th + 90 2 He

Np # 239 94 Pu +

0 "+0 !

11 Emiss.:6

0 + 0 C #11 B + " + 5 1 0!

! Equation must always conserve mass and charge ! Typically dont list energy or momentum in these balance equations
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Example calculation #2
Fractional population at time t

N (t ) = e "! t N (0)

! Presume that we have 1,000,000 nuclei of Tritium (H-3) which has a radioactive decay constant of: ! = 1.78 x10"9 sec "1 ! And lets say we want to know how long it will take for the fractional population of Tritium to decay to half of it initial value ! We find the answer by solving for time, t.

0.5 =

N (0)

N (t )

( =e

! 1.78 x10!9 sec !1 ( t )

We solve and find that

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Explanation of natural log calculations

Standard equation used in this course Which usually looks like this in our problems: We take the natural log of both sides to get

x = e! y

N (t ) = e "! t N (0)
!n ( x ) = !n e! y = ! y

( )

Which usually looks like this in our problems:

! N (t ) $ '( t !n # = ! n e = ' (t & " N (0) %

( )

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Decay Half-Life
! Calculate the amount of time required for 50% of a nuclide population to decay:

N (0)
0.5 = e
! "T 1
2

N (t )

1 = 0.5 2
2

!n [ 0.5 ] = ! "T1

! !n [ 0.5 ] T1 = 2 "
Units: [seconds]

! !n [ 0.5 ] T1 = 2 "

! This is referred to as the nuclides half-life ! Conversely, the decay constant is found by
!=
" !n [ 0.5 ] 0.693 = T1 T1
2 2
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Decay Activity (Time Dependent)

! Looking at units we see:

! decays $ ! -nuclei $ -dN ( t ) A (t ) = # =# = & & dt " second % " second %

! The decay activity is the rate of decrease of a given nuclide population ! Can be written as a first-order separable ODE (Ordinary Differential Equation)

" dN (t ) A(t ) = = !N (t ) dt
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Decay Activity (Time Dependent)

! From this ODE we can solve for the nuclide population as a function of time, N(t)
Original Equation
" dN (t ) = !N (t ) dt dN (t ) = "! dt N (t )

Multiply both sides by dt/N(t) Integrate Evaluate indefinite integral Take exponent of both sides

1 ! N (t ) dN (t ) = "# ! dt

Log[N (t )] = !" t + C
N (t ) = e " ! t eC
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Decay Activity (Time Dependent)

N (t ) = e " ! t eC

! We need a boundary condition to determine the constant of integration, C ! Let N(0) be the initial nuclide population (at t=0) 1 N (0) = e "! 0 eC
eC = N (0)

! Final equation:

Memorize this!
"! t

N (t ) = N (0) e

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