PHYS 40422 Applied Nuclear Physics

Lecture 1 & 2

Prof. Jon Billowes

Nuclear Physics Group (Schuster Building, room 4.08)
j.billowes@manchester.ac.uk

These slides (ppt and pdf format) available on Blackboard

Also: Glenn F. Knoll Radiation Detection and Measurement (Wiley) – for parts 1 & 2 of course

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 Assumed knowledge
(from PHYS30121)

• Segrè Charts
• Nuclear forces, Binding energies
• General features of α, β, γ decay
• Fission and Fusion

This is covered by Chapter 1 and Chapter 2

(sections 2.1, 2.2) of John Lilley’s book

Discovery of radiation

1896
Becquerel observes fogging of
photographic plates by unknown
radiation emanating from
uranium ores.

More detailed studies by Marie

and Pierre Curie, and Ernest
Rutherford in Cambridge find
three distinct type of radiation:
alpha, beta and gamma.

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 Rutherford’s contribution
Canada (1898 – 1907)
Manchester (1907 – 1919)
• Identifies nature of radiations:
α – helium nuclei (Nobel prize for Rutherford)
β – electrons
γ – energetic photons
• First experiments in transmutation of nuclear matter.
• Rutherford speculates on existence of a neutral particle
involving the proton and electron. James Chadwick wins
Nobel prize for discovery of the neutron in 1935.

Nobel Prizes from Rutherford’s work:

1908 E. Rutherford (Chemistry – nature of a particle)
1927 C.T.R. Wilson (cloud chamber)
1935 J. Chadwick (discovery of neutron)
1943 de Hevesy (Chemistry – radiotracers)

The Segrè Chart

Proton number

Isobars:
Same nucleon
number, A
A=N+Z is
constant

Isotopes:
Different neutron number but
same proton number (same
element, same chemistry)

Neutron number

3
 Binding energy per nucleon: EB/A

EB/A

Binding energy per nucleon (actual)

EB/A

4
 Binding energy per nucleon (actual)

Radioactive decay – half-life

Decay rate:

Sample Activity = λN decays per second

remaining
N (t)

Solution:

1/λ = τ the mean lifetime

Time in units of half-lives ( )

5
 α decay
In heavy nuclei the disruptive Coulomb energy increases at a
faster rate (Z2) than does the nuclear binding energy (proportional
to A). The emission of a 4He nucleus is a favoured agent for
reducing charge.

α emission is favoured
because it has a relatively
high binding energy.

232U 228Th + 4He

Z=92 Z=90 Z=2

The Geiger-Nuttall plot

Energy of α particle

Logarithm of half-life (in seconds) plotted against Q value

for various even-even α-emitting nuclei. The lines connect
sequences of isotopes. The horizontal scale is linear in
1/Q1/2.

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 Reaching stability by β decay

Neutron-rich Proton-rich
Stable
β- decay β+ decay
n p + e- + antineutrino p n + e+ + neutrino
Electron capture (ε):
p + e- n + neutrino

β kinetic energy spectrum

ν
e Pv
Pe

PN

Q (= total energy released in decay)

Electron energy spectrum is continuous and has a maximum equal

to the Q value of the decay. The shape is modified by Coulomb field
of nucleus.

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 -ray emission
When nuclei are produced in α or β decay, or in a
nuclear reaction they are generally formed in
excited states. These decay rapidly (10-15 – 10-9
seconds) by  -ray emission (like x-ray and photon
emission by atomic electrons).

Parent
The gamma rays have
β
discrete energies which are
β characteristic of the
daughter nucleus.
β

Typical -energies are around

Daughter 500 keV but they can overlap
the x-ray region (90 keV – and
indistinguishable from x-rays)
and extend up to some MeV.

Gamma-ray spectrum for a standard calibration

source of 152Eu (13 year) taken with a germanium
semiconductor detector

122 keV
(152Sm)
152Eu
344 keV
(152Gd) EC, β+ β-
Counts

152Sm 152Gd

779 keV
1408 keV

Channel

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 Neutron-induced fission
In heavy nuclei the repulsive Coulomb force between the
protons begins to dominate. If the nucleus is disturbed
sufficiently from its equilibrium shape, the Coulomb
repulsion can irreversibly drive the nucleus to break into
two – fission!

Potential The energy required to

energy overcome the barrier to
fission is called the
activation energy or
fission barrier.
It is about 6 MeV for heavy
nuclei around A=240.

Neutron absorption
When low energy neutrons (even at thermal energies)
are absorbed by a nucleus, they leave the final nucleus
in an excited state.

Low-energy neutron

The excitation energy may ~7 MeV

exceed the activation energy
and the nucleus fissions (235U).
The excitation energy might be
released as  radiation and the
neutron is captured (238U).

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 Criticality
A nuclear chain reaction occurs when on average more
than one neutron from a fission reaction causes another
fission reaction

Generation n + 1 Generation n + 2

Generation n

An uncontrolled chain reaction within a sufficiently large amount of fission

fuel (critical mass) can lead to an explosive energy release.
The first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated by a
team led by Enrico Fermi (Univ. Chicago) on December 2, 1942 during the
Manhattan Project.

PWR – Pressurised water reactor

Typically requires fuel enriched to 4% of 235U

Early UK reactors (MAGNOX) could use natural uranium

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 Oklo Natural Reactors in West Africa
Occurred 2 billion years ago

235U (present at about 3% level compared to 0.7% today) plus

ground water produced conditions which allowed natural nuclear
reactors to run stably for hundreds of thousands of years.

Waste products remained closely confined to reactor localities

ever since – geological disposal of waste works!

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

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 Brief outline of derivation of Bethe‐Bloch formula
2
dE  ze 2  4 Z  N A   2 mv 2  
S     ln    ln( 1   2 )   2 
dx  4 0  Amv 2   I  

Brief outline of derivation of Bethe‐Bloch formula
2
dE  ze 2  4 Z  N A   2 mv 2  
S     ln    ln( 1   2 )   2 
dx  4 0  Amv 2   I  

• Consider particle of charge ze, passing a stationary electron e (energy transfer

does not depend on sign of charges)

• Assumptionsis non-relativistic
Initially, electron does not move (during passage of particle ze), non-relativistic

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 • So energy transfer depends on impact parameter b

• Need to integrate over all impact parameters, correcting for the number of
possible targets at distance b (i.e. multiply by target density)

• So consider cylinders of constant b through the material…

b
db
ze

dn
 2 b  (number of electrons / unit area )
db
N
=2 b  Z A x
A

Calculate average energy loss... IMMEDIATELY a problem… The integral, bar 
constants is just 1/b. Again an easy integral but a major problem if we 
integrate from zero to infinity…

Try and justify a minimum and maximum b…
bmax
dn m c 2 Zz 2
E   Ee (b)  2C e 2 x  ln b bmax
b
db
bmin
db  A min

me c 2 Zz 2
C 2 x  ln E Emax
E

 A min

 e2 
with C  2 N A  2 
 4 0 me c 

Easier to see if we express b in terms of E, so an Emin and Emax
– Emax? Take this to be the head on collision. Emin? Take this to be the 
ionisation potential…  and thus we get the Bethe‐Bloch formula 

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 -particle tracks in a cloud chamber Electron tracks in a cloud chamber

Calculation of the relativistic terms for v/c =  = 0.1 and 0.9

v/c ln(1 - 2) 2 — ln(1 - 2) — 2

0.1 -0.01 0.01 0.0

0.9 -1.66 0.81 0.85

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 Energy dependence of S

103

Protons in aluminium
-dE/dx (MeV g-1 cm²)

102

101

100
10-1 100 101 102 103 104
Proton energy (MeV)

Calculating S for other projectiles:

Example: Calculate S for a 4 MeV  particle in aluminium

For a given speed v, projectile dependence of S  z2

v (4 MeV ) = v (1 MeV proton)
So, S (4 MeV ) = 4  S (1 MeV proton)

From graph: S (1 MeV proton in Al)  170 MeV/g/cm2

Whence:
S (4 MeV  in Al)  4  170 MeV/g/cm2 = 680 MeV/g/cm2

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 Stopping power of electrons in Al and Pb

Bremsstrahlung (dotted line) is more important in high-Z stoppers

Calculation:

Estimate the relative collision loss for alpha particles and

electrons having the same kinetic energy:
KE = ½ mv2  1/v2  m/KE
whence:
(dE/dx) (alpha) = 4 1/v2 () = 4 m()/KE = 4m() ~ 30,000
(dE/dx) (electron) 1/v2 (el) m(el)/KE m(el)

i.e alpha particles are much more easily stopped electrons of similar energy

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