PHY806:Nuclear Energy

HOME WORK IV

Part-A
Q1 The cross section Cd113 for capturing thermal neutrons is 2 x 104 barn, the mean atomic
mass of natural Cd is 112 amu and its density is 8.64 x 103 Kg/m3.
a) What fraction of incident beam of thermal neutron is absorbed by a Cd sheet of
0.1mm thickness.
b) What thickness of Cd is needed to absorbed 99% of an incident beam of thermal
neutrons?
Q2 Calculate the Q value for the following reaction 5B11(α,n)N14 from the following reaction
14 2 15 1
7N +1H 7N +1H +9.42MeV
15 2 13 4
7N +1H 6C +2He +8.2MeV
13 2 11 4
6C +1H 5B +2He +5.56MeV
1 1 2
1H +0n 1H +0.530MeV
Also given that 1H =3.7263 x109eV
2
4 9
2He =1.8751 x 10 eV

Q3 A 0.01 mm thick 3Li7 target is bombared with 1013 protons/sec. As a result 108
neutrons/Sec are produced.What would be the cross section for this reaction? Density lithium
is 500 Kg/m3.

Part-B
Q4. What are radio-isotopes? Mention at least two of them indicating their use in industry
and science.

Q5 A piece of wood from the ruins of ancient was found to have C14 activity of 13
disintegrations/minute/gm of its carbon content. The C14 activity of living wood is 16
disintegrations/minute/gm. How long ago did the tree die from which the wood sample
came ?

Q6 The 5B10(α,P)6C13 reaction shows among others a resonance for all excitation energy of
the compound nucleus of 13.23 MeV. The width of this level as found experimentally is 130
KeV. Calculate the mean life of the nucleus for this excitation.