Nuclear energy opposition

Today safe management and disposal of radioactive waste has become a valid objective in itself, independent of further exploitation of nuclear energy. However, in the public acceptance debates the two areas remain intimately connected. Anti-nuclear organizations commonly support political opposition to repository projects and some make their position even clearer by proposing to support disposal projects under the stringent condition that further peaceful use of atomic energy is abandoned. 

As mentioned in the start of Chapter 4, the correlation between electrons of parallel spin is different from that between electrons of opposite spin. The exchange energy is by definition given as a sum of contributions from the a and /3 spin densities, as exchange energy only involves electrons of the same spin. The kinetic energy, the nuclear-electron attraction and Coulomb terms are trivially separable. 

Since Rutherford s work, scientists have identified other types of nuclear radiation. Some consist of rapidly moving particles, such as neutrons or protons. Others consist of rapidly moving antiparticles, particles with a mass equal to that of one of the subatomic particles but with an opposite charge. For example, the positron has the same mass as an electron but a positive charge it is denoted 3 or f e. When an antiparticle encounters its corresponding particle, both particles are annihilated and completely converted into energy. Table 17.1 summarizes the properties of particles commonly found in nuclear radiation. 

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