{"id":1795,"date":"2006-09-10T22:21:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-11T03:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=1795"},"modified":"2006-09-10T22:21:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-11T03:21:00","slug":"puzzles-of-nuclear-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=1795","title":{"rendered":"Puzzles of nuclear physics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a scientific\/engineering background, and I don&#8217;t understand radioactivity.  So, I&#8217;m writing up this little thing, summarizing wikipedia entries, etc.  <\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the weak nuclear force, splitting atoms = mucho heat.  Neutrons spread out from the split atoms, and bust up other atoms that aren&#8217;t all that stable to begin with.  The whole process starts by putting atoms that &#8220;leak&#8221; neutrons with a bunch of other similar atoms, and depending on the density of those atoms, you get nuclear reactions suitable for generating the heat which lets us light a city, or reactions which obliterate one.  <\/p>\n<p>Extra neutrons floating around, also bad.  Leads to cancer, death, and (rarely) glowing in the dark.  Check.  <\/p>\n<p>Okay, so the extra neutrons flying around all over the place don&#8217;t just split other atoms.  Sometimes, they incrementally increase the size of an atom, creating plutonium or other elements which stick around for very short periods of time, unlike plutonium. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Radiation.\n<ul>\n<li>There are three forms of radiation that we get taught about.  Alpha, beta, gamma.\n<ol>\n<li>Gamma is high frequency electromagnetic radiation.\n<li>Alpha particles are helium nuclei, and\n<li>beta particles are electrons.<\/ol>\n<li>Gamma rays travel, like light, or radio waves, and are harder to block (lots of lead required).  But they also don&#8217;t stick around, so they aren&#8217;t responsible for the bulk of the danger from radioactive wastes.\n<li>Beta particles are slower, and tend to stick around more (blockable by thin sheets of metal)?  (but we have dislocated electrons in batteries around us all the time, so how would this be a major problem?)\n<li>Alpha particles are downright pokey by comparison, and can be blocked with thin sheets of paper.  They tend to stick around.  But once again, helium is around us all the time.  Assuming these highly positive helium nuclei manage to swipe some innocent atoms&#8217; electrons, where&#8217;s the problem?\n<\/ul>\n<li> this is the part I didn&#8217;t get:\n<ul>\n<li>Spent fuel rods contain radioactive isotopes of several elements.  When uranium splits into other things, the other things stick around.  Many of them absorb neutrons, and start radiating (while also inhibiting the reaction of the fissile elements through that absorbtion.)  This is why spent fuel rods are dangerous, still contain material that can be reused, and yet will not continue to react.\n<li>  Nuclear explosions are a different story.  They release vaporized radioactive debris (which turns into nanoscale dust).  That debris spreads on the wind through rain, etc.  (didn&#8217;t read as much on this one, because it wasn&#8217;t my main interest).\n<li>A passing exposure to some level of radiation isn&#8217;t so bad.  It&#8217;s ongoing exposure to a source of alpha, beta, or gamma radiation.  For instance, radioactive iodine (like non-radioactive idodine) gathers in the thyroid, where its radiation destroys tissue in the area and increases the risk of cancer.<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So much to know&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a scientific\/engineering background, and I don&#8217;t understand radioactivity. So, I&#8217;m writing up this little thing, summarizing wikipedia entries, etc. Thanks to the weak nuclear force, splitting atoms = mucho heat. Neutrons spread out from the split atoms, and bust up other atoms that aren&#8217;t all that stable to begin with. The whole process &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/?p=1795\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Puzzles of nuclear physics&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheerfulchaotic.crazycrew.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}