Radioactive atoms, creation

Most radionuehdes are created by nuclear reactions. A typical example would be neutron activation within a nuclear reactor. The activity at a point in time after the start of irradiation represents a balance between the rate of creation of radioactive atoms and the rate of decay. 

Soon after their creation, the newly formed radiocarbon atoms react with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide, molecules of carbon dioxide in which the carbon atom is radiocarbon ... 

Although much of the preceding discussion involved the synthesis of new molecules by organic and inorganic chemists, there is another area of chemistry in which such creation is important—the synthesis of new atoms. The periodic table lists elements that have been discovered and isolated from nature, but a few have been created by human activity. Collision of atomic particles with the nuclei of existing atoms is the normal source of radioactive isotopes and of some of the very heavy elements at the bottom of the periodic table. Indeed nuclear chemists and physicists have created some of the most important elements that are used for nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, plutonium in particular. 

This daring prediction was thereby confirmed iron, lord of nuclear creation, the most robust of all atomic nuclei, is not created as iron, but as radioactive nickel (see Appendix 3). 

CHEMICAL ELEMENTS. A chemical element may be defined as a collection of atoms of otic type which cannot be decomposed into any simpler units by any chemical transformation, but which may spontaneously change into other units by radioactive processes A chemical element is a substance that is made up of but one kind of atom. Of the over 100 chemical elements known, only 90 tire found in nature. The remaining elements have been produced in nuclear reactors and particle accelerators. Theoretical physicists do not all agree, but some believe that fission-stable nuclei should exist at atomic numbers 109. 114. and 126. Claims thus lur have been made for the discovery, isolation, or creation of elements up to 110. The element with the highest atomic number officially named and entered into the formal table of atomic weight is darmstudlium (Dx) with an atomic number of 110. 

The reaction of Eq. (3.6.15) is also possible in the reverse direction, even if relatively infrequent this is particle-antiparticle pair creation. This possibility is what underlies the idea of vacuum polarization and small effects, like the Lamb shift in atomic spectra. Positrons are not that rare Many radioactive nuclei decay by positron emission—for instance, sodium-22 ... 

Nuclear fission is a process in which the nucleus of an atom splits, usually into two pieces. This reaction was discovered when a target of uranium was bombarded by neutrons. Eission fragments were shown to fly apart with a large release of energy. The fission reaction was the basis of the atomic bomb, which was developed by the United States during World War II. After the war, controlled energy release from fission was applied to the development of nuclear reactors. Reactors are utilized for production of electricity at nuclear power plants, for propulsion of ships and submarines, and for the creation of radioactive isotopes used in medicine and industry. 

The opportunity to employ nuclear power (power released by fissioning heavy nuclei and power released in radioactive decay) in space systems became evident as early as in the middle of the twentieth century. After the creation of atomic weapon both in the USA and in the USSR, practical studies of possible lines and patterns of atomic power sources for different space missions were initiated (Snyder 1961). 

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