Nuclear Decay Stuff
A term used to describe unstable nuclei spontaneously emitting mass and energy in order to achieve stability
What is nuclear decay
This term is used to define the time it will take a half a radioactive sample to decay and is independent of the amount of material present
What is half life
This term is used to describe a reaction in which two elements are combined to create a heavier one
What is fusion
This term is used to describe fuels used for fission reactions, can come from decayed fertile material
What is fissionable/ fissile fuel
Similar to bond age locomotives, this is how reactors used generated heat to turn mechanical into electrical energy
What is a steam engine 🚂
This type of decay particle is identical to a helium atom and is the most massive of the decay particles?
What is Alpha Decay cuzzo'
This is a random fully random event which the exact moment of which can not be predicted
What is radioactive decay
This reaction can be initiated by introducing neutrons into the nucleus causing instability between the electromagnetic and strong force
What is fission
The act of inducing fission
What is bombardment
The relationship between fuel rod grade and reactor size
Yeah that's good enough
These are 5 mechanisms for Nuclear Decay yo
What is Gamma, Alpha, Beta minus, Beta Positive and Neutron Radiation
This term is used when referring to a chain of successive decays occurring until and stable configuration is reached, which usually is Lead
What is a decay series
This type of reaction requires a little amount of energy and more energy is produced in the system than is put in
What is an exothermic/ exoergic reaction
The percentages for LEU, HEU, weapons grade uranium and plutonium
When is <20%, >20%, 90%, 93%
This type of reactor is often called a CanDU reactor and uses water in which the hydrogen has been replaced with duterium
What is a heavy water reactor
The particles emitted during Beta decay in order to maintain conservation of momentum during the decay process
What is a Neutrino and Antineutrino
This term is used to describe the probability of a decay per nucleus per second and is unique to each given unstable nuclide, it's also described as a radioactive thumbprint(in accordance with the packet)
What is a decay constant
This reaction requires extremely high temperature to allow nuclei enough kinetic energy to overcome electric repulsion in order to sustain a chain reaction
What is thermonuclear fusion
These terms are used to describe when the effective neutron multiplication factor (k) is greater than one(k > 1), less than one(k < 1), and equal to one (k = 1) [answer must correspond in order]
What is supercritical, subcritical and critical
Control rods can be inserted or withdrawn to control the rate of a reaction by absorbing neutrons without any additional reactions, these three main types; control the rate of reaction, start and stop the reaction, and compensate for change in reactivity as fuel is depleted
What is a regulater, safety, and shim control rod
This type of decay can cause cancer through damage to DNA and is the result of an exited nucleus returning to ground state
What is gamma decay
This is a type of neutron emmited almost immediately as the result of a fission or fusion reaction, typically seen with nuclear weapons
What is a Prompt neutron
The minimum kinetic energy an incident partical needs to initiate an endoergic/ endothermic reaction
What is threshold energy
This a a byproduct of fission that absorbs neutrons and builds up often in the form of xenon, partially responsible for the chernobyl disaster
This term is used to describe a stage of uranium processing in which uranium ore concentrate becomes uranium oxide and is in a powdered form
What is yellow cake 🎂