Nuclear reactions nature

L. Meitner and O. R. Frisch, Disintegration of uranium by neutrons A new type of nuclear reaction, Nature 143 (1939) 239-240. 

Petit, J. C., G. Della Mea, J, C. Dran, J. Schott, and R. A. Berner, (1987), Diopside Dissolution New Evidence from H-Depth Profiling with a Resonant Nuclear Reaction, Nature 325, 705-706. 

Talbott JH (1950) Use of lithium salts as a substitute for sodium chloride. Arch Intern Med 85 1-10. Thelliee M and Ripoll C (1995) NCR and SIMS study of whether lithium ions have limited intracellular access. J Trace Microprobe Techn 13 536. Thelliee M, Wissocq JC and Heueteaux C (1980) Quantitative microlocation of lithium in the brain by (n, a) nuclear reaction. Nature 283 299-302. The United States Phaemacopeia Twenty-Fieth Revision, The National Formulary Twntieth Edition (USP 25, NF 20), pp. 1014-1017. United States Pharmacopeial Convention, Inc. ed., Rockville. 

Neutron Activation Analysis Few samples of interest are naturally radioactive. For many elements, however, radioactivity may be induced by irradiating the sample with neutrons in a process called neutron activation analysis (NAA). The radioactive element formed by neutron activation decays to a stable isotope by emitting gamma rays and, if necessary, other nuclear particles. The rate of gamma-ray emission is proportional to the analyte s initial concentration in the sample. For example, when a sample containing nonradioactive 13AI is placed in a nuclear reactor and irradiated with neutrons, the following nuclear reaction results. 

Occurrence and Recovery. Rhenium is one of the least abundant of the naturally occurring elements. Various estimates of its abundance in Earth s cmst have been made. The most widely quoted figure is 0.027 atoms pet 10 atoms of silicon (0.05 ppm by wt) (3). However, this number, based on analyses for the most common rocks, ie, granites and basalts, has a high uncertainty. The abundance of rhenium in stony meteorites has been found to be approximately the same value. An average abundance in siderites is 0.5 ppm. In lunar materials, Re, when compared to Re, appears to be enriched by 1.4% to as much as 29%, relative to the terrestrial abundance. This may result from a nuclear reaction sequence beginning with neutron capture by tungsten-186, followed by p-decay of of a half-hfe of 24 h (4) (see Extraterrestrial materials). 

The principal source of natural tritium is the nuclear reactions induced by cosmic radiation in the upper atmosphere, where fast neutrons, protons, and deuterons coUide with components of the stratosphere to produce tritium ... 

All the techniques discussed here involve the atomic nucleus. Three use neutrons, generated either in nuclear reactors or very high energy proton ajccelerators (spallation sources), as the probe beam. They are Neutron Diffraction, Neutron Reflectivity, NR, and Neutron Activation Analysis, NAA. The fourth. Nuclear Reaction Analysis, NRA, uses charged particles from an ion accelerator to produce nuclear reactions. The nature and energy of the resulting products identify the atoms present. Since NRA is performed in RBS apparatus, it could have been included in Chapter 9. We include it here instead because nuclear reactions are involved. 

Uranium-235 and U-238 behave differently in the presence of a controlled nuclear reaction. Uranium-235 is naturally fissile. A fissile element is one that splits when bombarded by a neutron during a controlled process of nuclear fission (like that which occurs in a nuclear reactor). Uranium-235 is the only naturally fissile isotope of uranium. Uranium-238 is fertile. A fertile element is one that is not itself fissile, but one that can produce a fissile element. When a U-238 atom is struck by a neutron, it likely will absorb the neutron to form U-239. Through spontaneous radioactive decay, the U-239 will turn into plutonium (Pu-239). This new isotope of plutonium is fissile, and if struck by a neutron, will likely split. 

Plutonium (symbol Pu atomic number 93) is not a naturally occurring element. Plutonium is formed in a nuclear reaction from a fertile U-238 atom. Since U-238 is not fissile, it has a tendency to absorb a neutron in a reactor, rather than split apart into smaller fragments. By absorbing the extra neutron, U-238 becomes U-239. Uranium-239 is not very stable, and undergoes spontaneous radioactive decay to produce Pu-239. 

The Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago Laboratoi"y, headed by Enrico Fermi (Italian-American), creates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Natural gas liquified for first time in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Nucleosynthesis is the formation of elements. Hydrogen and helium were produced in the Big Bang all other elements are descended from these two, as a result of nuclear reactions taking place either in stars or in space. Some elements—among them technetium and promethium—are found in only trace amounts on Earth. Although these elements were made in stars, their short lifetimes did not allow them to survive long enough to contribute to the formation of our planet. However, nuclides that are too unstable to be found on Earth can be made by artificial techniques, and scientists have added about 2200 different nuclides to the 300 or so that occur naturally. 

The composition of the Earth was determined both by the chemical composition of the solar nebula, from which the sun and planets formed, and by the nature of the physical processes that concentrated materials to form planets. The bulk elemental and isotopic composition of the nebula is believed, or usually assumed to be identical to that of the sun. The few exceptions to this include elements and isotopes such as lithium and deuterium that are destroyed in the bulk of the sun s interior by nuclear reactions. The composition of the sun as determined by optical spectroscopy is similar to the majority of stars in our galaxy, and accordingly the relative abundances of the elements in the sun are referred to as "cosmic abundances." Although the cosmic abundance pattern is commonly seen in other stars there are dramatic exceptions, such as stars composed of iron or solid nuclear matter, as in the case with neutron stars. The... 

Finally, P also differs from other elements in that it is overwhelmingly dominated by a single, stable isotopic form containing 15 protons and 16 neutrons. There are only two naturally occurring radioactive forms of P P and P, which are produced in the atmosphere by nuclear reactions with argon. A small amount of P is... 

Elements 43 (technetium), 61 (promethium), 85 (astatine), and all elements with Z > 92 do not exist naturally on the Earth, because no isotopes of these elements are stable. After the discovery of nuclear reactions early in the twentieth century, scientists set out to make these missing elements. Between 1937 and 1945, the gaps were filled and three actinides, neptunium (Z = 93), plutonium (Z = 94), and americium (Z = 95) also were made. 

Palladium hydride is a unique model system for fundamental studies of electrochemical intercalation. It is precisely in work on cold fusion that a balanced materials science approach based on the concepts of crystal chemistry, crystallography, and solid-state chemistry was developed in order to characterize the intercalation products. Very striking examples were obtained in attempts to understand the nature of the sporadic manifestations of nuclear reactions, true or imaginary. In the case of palladium, the elfects of intercalation on the state of grain boundaries, the orientation of the crystals, reversible and irreversible deformations of the lattice, and the like have been demonstrated. 

Nuclear Reactor—A power plant that heats water by using nuclear reactions instead of burning coal, oil, or natural gas. All of these sources of energy simply heat water and use the steam which is produced to turn turbines that make electricity or propel a ship. 

Radioactivity, Induced—Radioactivity produced in a substance after bombardment with neutrons or other particles. The resulting activity is "natural radioactivity" if formed by nuclear reactions occurring in nature and "artificial radioactivity" if the reactions are caused by man. 

Lee, R. R., D. A. Leich, T. A. Trombrello, J. E. Ericson, and I. Friedman (1974), Obsidian hydration profile measurements using a nuclear reaction technique, Nature 250, 44-47. 

The yields of r-process nucleosynthesis species are obtained by application of an extensive nuclear reaction network code that consists of 4000 species. The mass-integrated abundances from the surface (zone 1) to the zones 83 (a), 92 (b), 95 (c), 98 (d), 105 (e), and 132 (f) are compared with the solar r-process abundances in Fig. 1. A solar r-process pattern for A>130 is naturally reproduced in cases c-f, while cases a-b fail to reproduce the third abundance... 

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