X-rays Late 19th century--Wilhelm Roentgen discovers "X-rays" coming off glass surface struck by electrons.

X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelength < 100 A. Roentgen observed they were not absorbed as easily as light. Legislators in early 1900's tried to ban X-rays when they heard they could allow you to see through clothes! What makes X-rays? Electron slowing down in a piece of material may knock an electron out of the inner shell of an atom. When an electron from a high orbit decays all the way down to the bottom, which sometimes happens, it creates a very high energy (frequency) photon. This is the X-ray. X-Radiation used until 50's for all sorts of common uses. In the 1950s, every shoe store had a X-ray machine. People would try on a pair of shoes and stick their feet under the X-ray machine to look at how well the shoes fit their feet. Not only could you see the outline of the feet and the bones inside the shoe, but you could also see the nails that held parts of the shoe together. After an increase of cancer among shoe salesmen and people using those shoe x-ray machines often, they were banned.

3 different types of "common" nuclear radiation

Early 1900's, physicists & chemists wanted to find out if materials could emit X-rays spontaneously. Becquerel and the Curies (Marie & Pierre) found that many elements starting with Uranium & higher (atomic number) were "radioactive", i.e. they emitted mysterious "rays" which could illuminate photographic plates even when behind opaque obstacles (Nobel prizes 1903,1911). Different materials emitted different types of radiation, which were finally sorted by their behavior in magnetic field:

Evidently gamma rays had no electric charge (they are electromagnetic rays with wavelength less than an Angstrom) coming from nuclear transitions.

Alpha particles have positive charges and consist of a stable type of nuclear fragment equivalent to a Helium nucleus: 2 neutrons and 2 protons stuck together. Beta particles are simply electrons ejected from the nucleus when a "beta decay" takes place, usually a neutron turning into a proton, electron and neutrino.

Radioactive decay Definition. isotope: a species of nucleus with particular number of neutrons and protons. May be stable or unstable. Two atoms are said to be isotopes if they have the same number of protons, but different numbers of neutrons. According to quantum mechanics, every unstable nucleus has a small probability every second of decaying and emitting radiation. In a given sample of material, there is no way to tell which nucleus will decay when. On the average, however, one can classify types of radioactive decay by saying how long it takes 1/2 of all nuclei in a sample to

decay. This is radioactive "half-life" of the isotope.

How Uranium turns into lead

Green arrows are alpha decays, red ones are beta decays.

Carbon dating By measuring the rate of decay of C-14, we can tell how old something is if it lived once. C-14 is naturally occurring isotope of Carbon which is found at the 10 -8 level in the atmosphere. Plants or animals circulate CO2 until they die, so if we measure what fraction of the C's are C-14 we can tell when they died.

Radiation hazards Radiation damages human cells because rays are high energy, can cause mutations by altering DNA. But we are exposed to radiation all the time. Here is typical total radiation dosage for human being nowadays.

How much exposure is too much? Medical guidelines have changed drastically since 50's (no more X-ray shoe sizers). Any use of nuclear weapons would have catastrophic health consequences locally, serious ones worldwide.

Nuclear fission occurs when nucleus deforms so much that nuclear forces can't hold it together any more. Nuclear energy is released.

Let's calculate how much by adding up the masses on both sides of the equations. Mass numbers can be looked up in isotope tables (units are amu, where amu is basically mass of proton): 1.008665+235.04395 = 90.91959 + 141.92054 + 3*(1.008665) + ? 236.052 = 235.866 + ? (missing mass) missing mass = 0.1859 amu Einstein: this is equivalent to energy released of E=mc2 E released for each fission = 0.1859 * (1.6 x 10 -27 kg) * (3 x 108 m/s) 2 2.664 x 10-11 J = 166 MeV

Is this a lot? A typical chemical reaction releases hundreds of kJ per mole of reactant. A mole is 1023 particles. So per molecule we get about 105 J / 1023 = 10 -18 Joules, in other words the fission reaction yields about 10 million times as much energy per molecule!!! This is what all the fuss was about in 1939 when Hahn and Strassman discovered fission.

Chain reaction Notice each decay of 235U produces 3 neutrons for every 1 that came in. If all the neutrons in a sample of 235U cause a fission reaction (before they encounter surface of sample and are lost), there will be an uncontrollable chain reaction in which huge quantities of energy are released (atomic bomb). Images of explosion and aftermath of bombed dropped on Hiroshima 1945.

(Ping-pong ball demo)

Most people have forgotten about the dangers of nuclear weapons since the end of the cold war, and when they think about actual nuclear explosions they think about the bombs dropped on Japan. However nuclear testing continued until 1996, when they were stopped with the signing by the U.S. and 166 other nations of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which forbids testing of nuclear weapons. The treaty has never been ratified by the U.S. senate, and the Bush administration has indicated it may renounce it and resume testing. Controlled chain reaction Idea is to introduce substance which absorbs 2 neutrons from the 3 emitted from each 235U. Then reaction will sustain itself without running out of control. Example: graphite is good neutron absorber, graphite used as control rods in nuclear reactor.

Plutonium

From unfissionable isotope 238U, create Pu, long-lived (1/2-

life = 24,000 years) fissionable element not found in nature. Use as fuel for reactor or A-bomb (Nagasaki 1945). Here is some info on Pu health hazards. 238 Pu is an alpha emitter with 1/2-life of 90 years.

Fusion

Fission occurs because large nuclei can lower their energy/nucleon by breaking into smaller fragments. Fusion can occur because the smaller nuclei can actually gain energy by fusing with one another, as seen above. Of course, they have to overcome the electromagnetic

repulsion of their positive charges to do so. This requires they be shot together at high speed.