Nuclear Engineering 101, 001 - Fall 2014 - UC Berkeley

@article{,
license={Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs},
title= {Nuclear Engineering 101, 001 - Fall 2014 - UC Berkeley},
keywords= {},
author= {},
abstract= {### Course Title: 
Nuclear Reactions and Radiation

### Catalog Description: 
Energetics and kinetics of nuclear reactions and radioactive decay, fission, fusion, and reactions of energetic neutrons, properties of the fission products and the actinides; nuclear models and transition probabilities; interaction of radiation with matter.

### Course Prerequisite: 
Physics 7ABC Physics for scientists and engineers
Prerequisite Knowledge and/or Skills: 
The course uses the following knowledge and skills from prerequisite and lower-division courses:

- solve linear, first and second order differential equations.
- understand and apply the fundamental laws of physical chemistry such as the Boltzmann distribution for particles in an ideal gas.
- understand and apply the fundamentals of classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism and the elements of quantum mechanics to idealized representations of the structure of nuclei and nuclear reactions.
- understand and apply the fundamental notions of probability and probability distributions.

### Course Objectives: 

- Provide the students with a solid understanding of the fundamentals of those aspect of low-energy nuclear physics that are most important to applications in such areas as nuclear engineering, nuclear and radiochemistry, geosciences, biotechnology, etc.

### Course Outcomes: 

- calculate the consequences of radioactive growth and decay and nuclear reactions.
- calculate estimates of nuclear masses and energetics based on empirical data and nuclear models.
- calculate estimates of the lifetimes of nuclear states that are unstable to alpha-,beta- and gamma decay and internal conversion based on the theory of simple nuclear models.
- use nuclear models to predict low-energy level structure and level energies.
- use nuclear models to predict the spins and parities of low-lying levels and estimate their consequences with respect to radioactive decay.
- use nuclear models to understand the properties of neutron capture and the Breit-Wigner single level formula to calculate cross sections at resonance and thermal energies.
- calculate the kinematics of the interaction of photons with matter and apply stopping power to determine the energy loss rate and ranges of charged particles in matter
- calculate the energies of fission fragments and understand the charge and mass distributions of the fission products, and prompt neutron and gamma rays from fission

### Topics Covered: 

- Introduction to nuclear reactions and radioactive decay - mass and energy balances and decay modes
- Nuclear and Atomic masses - empirical data and the semiempirpical mass formula
- Application of the Semiempirical mass formula to determine the nuclear mass surface and the general characteristics of the energetics of alpha- and beta-decay and nuclear fission
- Application of the Semiempirical mass formula to uncover empirical evidence for nuclear shell structure; the magic numbers
Introduction to the facts of quantum mechanics and conserved quantities – angular momentum and parity, the Schroedinger equation and the particle in the box model
- The Spherical Shell Model - particle motion , angular momentum and parity in the spherical potential well and the isotropic harmonic oscillator potentials
- The Empirical Shell Model and low-lying levels of spherical and near spherical nuclei
- The Electric Potential of Nuclei and Evidence for Deformed Nuclei – multipole expansion of the electric potential and empirical data on quadrupole moments
- Predictions of the Quantized Rigid Rotor and Harmonic Vibrator - comparisons of the idealized models with empirical data on rotational and vibrational spectra of deformed nuclei
- Alpha Decay - energetics and the decay probability in the limit of the Gamow model. Comparison of model predictions with empirical data. Alpha decay schemes
- Beta Decay - beta decay, positron emission and electron capture; the Fermi theory of allowed beta decay; forbidden transitions; Fermi and Gamow-Teller decay; empirical beta decay schemes and correlations with elementary beta decay theory and spherical shell structure
- Gamma Decay and Internal Conversion- multipole expansion of the radiation field and qualitative consideration of decay probabilities in the limit of the Moskowski and Weisskopf models; nuclear isomerism; internal conversion; nuclear structure and empirical data on gamma decay
- Nuclear Fission - energetics and empirical data on mass distributions and shell structure, charge distribution of the fission fragments, prompt neutrons and gamma rays
- Nuclear Reactions - reaction types and energetics; kinematics of two-body elastic scattering and nuclear reactions; applications to moderation of neutrons and the interaction of charged particles with matter; direct and compound nuclear reactions; resonances and physical plausibility of the form of the Breit-Wigner single level formula; the Breit-Wigner single level formula and resonances properties of neutron reactions
- Introduction to the Interaction of Charged Particles with Matter; ranges of leptons and heavy charged particles in matter
- Introduction to the Interaction of Photons with Matter - the Compton Effect; qualitative discussion of the effect of electron binding; pair production; macroscopic cross sections and attenuation coefficients

},
terms= {},
url= {https://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/courses/ne-101}
}