Nuclear Reactions
The process of splitting a heavy atomic nucleus into two or more lighter nuclei, releasing a large amount of energy in the process.
What is a nuclear fission?
The use of nuclear reactions to generate heat, which is then used to generate electricity.
What is nuclear power?
A drug that contains a radioactive substance, used in nuclear medicine for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes.
What is a radiopharmaceutical?
A Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity and discovered the elements polonium and radium.
Who is Marie Curie?
The amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive sample to decay, and the same quantity divided by natural logarithm of 2.
Half-lifetime
The process in which two atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus.
What is fusion?
A device that uses nuclear reactions to generate heat, which is then used to generate electricity or to produce isotopes for medical or industrial use.
What is a nuclear reactor?
A medical imaging technique that uses beta+ decaying isotopes to visualize metabolic processes in the body.
What is a PET scan?
An Italian physicist who was one of the pioneers of nuclear physics and played a key role in the development of the first nuclear reactor.
Who is Enrico Fermi?
A measure of the probability that a nucleus will undergo a specific nuclear reaction when bombarded by a particle or photon.
What is a cross section?
A device used in a nuclear reactor to absorb neutrons and thus regulate the rate of the nuclear reaction.
What is a control rod?
The use of high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors, often used in combination with other cancer treatments.
What is radiation therapy?
Detector's delay in detecting subsequent events, which is the technique used to measure a particle's velocity using the time taken to travel distance.
Dead time-of-flight
A technique that uses neutron irradiation to activate elements in a sample, which can then be detected and quantified to determine the sample's composition.
What is neutron activation analysis?
The radioactive byproducts of nuclear power generation and other nuclear applications, which are hazardous to human health and the environment and must be disposed of carefully.
What is nuclear waste?
A type of particle accelerator used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use, as well as for scientific research.
What is a cyclotron?
An Austrian-born physicist who made important contributions to nuclear physics, including the discovery of nuclear fission, for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944.
Who is Lise Meitner?
The energy level structure of the core of an atom that causes Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Nuclear shell shock
A severe nuclear reactor accident that results in the melting of the reactor's core and the release of radioactive material into the environment.
What is a nuclear meltdown?
A type of cancer therapy in which a radioactive source is implanted directly into the body, often used to treat prostate, cervical, and breast cancers.
What is brachytherapy?
German-American physicist known for her contributions to the nuclear shell model, which earned her the Nobel Prize in physics.
Who is Maria Goeppert-Mayer?
Process that results in the emission of a Helium-4 nucleus which is the energy released after the shutdown of a nuclear reactor.
What is alpha decay heat?