Tritium atom bombardment

Here neutrons from cosmic rays bombard the nitrogen of the upper atmosphere, producing carbon-12 and tritium. The tritium makes its way down to the Earths surface as precipitation, probably in the form of compounds such as HTO (water with one regular hydrogen replaced by a tritium atom). Because the half-life of tritium is only 12.3 years, its concentration in the oceans is much less than it is in rainwater. During the early 1950s when atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons was carried out, the concentration of tritium in rainwater reached about 500 atoms/10 atoms. 

Write the nuclear equations for the following processes, (a) Ni undergoing fi emission (b) two deuterium ions undergoing fusion to give He and a neutron (c) a nuclide being bombarded by a neutron to form Li and an a-particle (identify the unknown nuclide) (d) being bombarded by a neutron to form three a-particles and an atom of tritium. 

While a deuterium-tritium (D-T) mix is the fuel of choice for sustained fusion research, tritium on Earth is scarce. Produced by cosmic ray protons colliding with nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, trace amounts are found in air and less abundantly in water.That is where lithium comes in. Bombarding lithium 6 or lithium 7 atoms with high-energy neutrons results in atoms of tritium and helium. 

There is no critical mass in a fusion bomb, and the force of the explosion is limited only by the quantity of reactants present. Thermonuclear bombs are described as being cleaner than atomic bombs because the only radioactive isotopes they produce are tritium, which is a weak /S-particle emitter (ti = 12.5 yr), and the products of the fission starter. Their damaging effects on the environment can be aggravated, however, by incorporating in the construction some nonfissionable material such as cobalt. Upon bombardment by neutrons, cobalt-59 is converted to cobalt-60, which is a very strong 7-ray emitter with a half-life of 5.2 yr. The presence of radioactive cobalt isotopes in the debris or fallout from a thermonuclear explosion would be fatal to those who survived the initial blast. 

As we noted in Section 21.6, energy can be obtained by combining light nuclei into a heavier nucleus by nuclear fusion. Such fusion reactions have been observed in the laboratory by means of bombardment using particle accelerators. Deuterons (iH nuclei), for example, can be accelerated toward targets containing deuterium (iH atoms) or tritium (iH atoms). The reactions are... 

Tritium, or hydrogen-3, is prepared by bombarding lithium-6 with neutrons. A 0.250-mg sample of tritium decays at the rate of 8.94 X 10 ° disintegrations per second. What is the decay constant (in /s) of tritium, whose atomic mass is 3.02 amu ... 

In the examples considered so far collision led to one of three results inelastic energy transfer, reaction, or decomposition. In more complicated systems a bewildering variety of reactions becomes possible at large collision energy. The reactions of hydrogen atoms with propane provide another good example. These experiments were done using tritium produced by neutron bombardment of He via the nuclear reaction... 

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