Exam 19: Nuclear Chemistry: Applications to Energy and Medicine

Extremely high temperatures are required to initiate nuclear fusion, but then energy is released by nuclear fusion. This is analogous to ________

Which statement is not correct? In hydrogen fusion in our sun, ________

Balance the following nuclear equation by supplying the missing nuclide.

Radiation seed therapy is a common method for treating some prostate cancers and brain tumors. Cesium-131 is a new isotope being proposed for this treatment. Cesium-131 decays with a half-life of 9.7 days by emitting X-rays with a photon energy of 29,000 eV. What mass of cesium-131 would have to be embedded in a 15 g tumor to produce a radiation dose of 115 Gy in 3 weeks' time (21 days)? Note: 1 Gy = 1 J/kg, and 1 eV = 1.60  10^19 J.

The difference between the uranium used in an atomic bomb and that used in a nuclear power plant is that ________

A nerdy Scotch-drinking physicist, Nicola, suspected that the 50-year-old Scotch she purchased was misrepresented. Reasoning that water must contain the radioactive hydrogen isotope, tritium, because this isotope is produced in the atmosphere by cosmic rays, she decided she could use the tritium concentration in the Scotch to determine when it was bottled. She found that the tritium concentration in the Scotch was only 64% that of the tritium concentration in the water on the Isle of Islay where the Scotch was bottled. How old, really, was this 50-year-old Scotch? The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years.

Strontium-90 is most likely to decay by ________

Which graph below illustrates decay?

In 1913, an element was known to "emanate" from radium-226 by  emission and then to decay to polonium-218, also by  emission. What was the unknown element?

Cobalt-56 decays by emitting a positron. What is the product?

Phosphorus-32 is a radioactive isotope used as a tracer in the liver. How much phosphorus-32 was originally used if there is only 3.50 mg left in a sample after 288 h? (The half-life of phosphorus-32 is 14.3 days.)

Polonium-210, which decays by  emission, is a fatal toxin. What is the product nuclide from this nuclear process?

Paxil (paroxetine) is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) used to treat depression. Its function in the brain can be studied by using radiolabeled ¹⁸F instead of natural abundance fluorine in its structure. The positron emission is detected by a PET scan. The half-life of ¹⁸F is 109.7 minutes. If radiolabeled Paxil were administered to a patient for a PET scan at 10:00 A.M. on a Wednesday, at what time would its activity reach 27% of the original activity?

Tritium (³H) is used in glowing "EXIT" signs conveniently located where there is no electricity for lightbulbs. What decay route is likely for tritium?

The mass of a particular isotope is given by ________

Fluorine-18 is an isotope commonly used in radioimaging, due in part to the short half-life (~2 hours) of the isotope. What type of emission process is likely for fluorine-18?

Compare the energy released by the collisions and annihilation of (1) an electron and a positron and (2) a proton and an antiproton.

Which type of radiation has the greatest penetration ability?

The purpose of control rods in a fission reactor is to ________

How many half-lives did a radioactive sample complete if 2.5 g of a sample remains from 20 g of initial material?