A Subject Sampler by Linda Kelly
~ John Marshall High School
Go
to the following web sties. Read the interesting information and answer
these questions:
South Texas Nuclear Power
Plant at Bay City, Texas, is one of the largest nuclear power plants in the
U.S.
1. What
percent of the mass of an atom is contained in the nucleus?
2. What
particles are contained in the nucleus?
3. What
type of force holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus?
4. What
type of particle determines what chemical element the atom is?
5. How
many elements are known so far?
6. How
many unstable isotopes are there?
Isotpes
Are Used to Power a Space Probe
7. Who
was working with uranium and discovered radioactive decay?
8. Who
discovered that uranium produced different kinds of radioactive particles?
9. What
are the three types of nuclear particles?
10. What can stop the penetration of an alpha particle?
11. What can stop the penetration of a beta particle?
12. What is needed to stop the penetration of gamma
particles?
Irradiation Helps Protect Food and Increase
Crop Production
13. What is another name for alpha particle?
14. If an alpha particle is emitted by a nuclide,
how does the mass number change?
15. If an alpha particle is emitted by a nuclide,
how does the atomic number change?
16. Energy is released when an alpha particle is
emitted. The masses of the daughter nuclides are
less than the
masses of the parent nuclides. Where does this mass go?
17. What are beta particles?
18. If a beta particle is emitted, how does the
mass number change?
19. If a beta particle is emitted by a nuclide,
how does the atomic number change?
20. When a beta particle is emitted, what happens
to the mass (as predicted by Einstein)?
21. What is a gamma ray?
22. If a gamma ray is emitted, how does the mass number change?
23. If a gamma ray is emitted by a nuclide, how
does the atomic number change?
24. What is half-life?
25. What is radioactive 14C used for?
Fusion
Reactions Create New Elements
26. What is fusion?
27. Write the fusion equation given in the example.
28. How much energy does a fusion reaction yield?
29. Why do fusion reactions not occur on Earth?
30. Where do fusion reactions occur?
31. What mass does a nucleus need to reach in order
for a fusion reaction to stop?
32. Which four elements found on Earth are the leftovers
of a supernova explosion?
33. Why are fusion reactions of interest today?
Fission
Reaction
34. What is fission?.
35. Write the fission reaction for uranium.
36. How long have fission reactions been going on
in the universe?
Spent
Fuel Storage Pool
Scroll
down to “Half-Life”
Draw
the picture of I-131 decaying to Xe-131 for 32 days.
................
0 days - 8 days - 16 days - 24 days - 32 days
37. What is the half-life of I-131?
38. Of the 4 grams of I-131 that you started with,
how many grams are left after 32 days?
Fuel
Assembly for the reactor
Push
the START button.
Draw
a picture of the half-life graph of Applet Decay for 50
seconds.
On
the gray scroll line, click on the back arrow to change t = 10 seconds. Push RESET. Push START
Draw
a sketch of the green graph for 10
seconds:
On
the gray scroll line, click on the back arrow to change t = 25 seconds. Push
RESET. Push START
Draw
a sketch of the green graph for 25
seconds:
39. Does all of the radioactive
sample ever lose all of its emitting power?
Reactor
Core That Holds 193 Fuel Assemblies
Control
the Nuclear Power Plant. Do the simulations SEQUENCE 1, SEQUENCE 2 SEQUENCE
3.
40.
Did you survive? _____ Which simulation were
you able to control the best?____
Transmission
Lines Carry Electricity to Users in Texas
Check
to make sure all of your answers are complete and turn in your written responses.
Works Cited ~ title:
www.flamingtext.com, graphics ~ http://www.chem.duke.edu/~jds/cruise_chem/nuclear/discovery
.html;
http://www.stpnoc.com/gallery6.htm; http://wwwlbl.gov/abc/Basic.html#Fusion
All Rights Reserved. Northside Independent School District. October 2005
