AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY- BANGLADESH 4408/1, Kuratoli, Khilkhet, Dhaka, Bangladesh Title : Different applications of Nuclear Physics. Course Title: Nuclear Power Date of Submission: 17-06-21 Engineering Experiment No: 01 Section: A Semester: Summer-21 Course Teacher: Dr. M. Tanseer Ali Submission Type: Individual Term:Mid Submitted by Name 1D Program Zahid Hasan Khoka 18-36652-1 BSc in EEE Wade byi8-3E6521: Different applications of Nuclear Physics. Introduction: Nuclear technology has multiple applications that are fundamental to our daily life, The best-known applications are medicine and electricity production, but there are others in such diverse fields as agriculture, industry and art. Nuclear physics discoveries have led to applications in a variety of disciplines. Nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging, industrial and agricultural isotopes, ion implantation in materials engineering, and radiocarbon dating in geology and archaeology are all examples of this. In this, lab our main objective is — 1. Understanding to nuclear physics and 2. Application of nuclear physics. Theory: Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Medicine Art Hydrology Environment Mining Cosmology Electricity loll Industry E55] Figure 1: Different Field Of Nuclear Physics && Food and Space agriculture exploration Page| 1Power Sector: Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants. Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators in some space probes such as Voyager 2. Generating electricity from fusion power remains the focus of international research. Nuclear power, electricity generated by power plants that derive their heat from fission in a nuclear reactor. Except for the reactor, which plays the role of a boiler in a fossil-fuel power plant, a nuclear power plant is similar to a large coal-fired power plant, with pumps, valves, steam generators, turbines, electric generators, condensers, and associated equipment. Nuclear power plant containment structure transmission nes nuclear reactor ©2018 reyopmc ame Intake from lak or river Figure 2: Nuclear Power Plant Nuclear power provides almost 15 percent of the world’s electricity. The first nuclear power plants, which were small demonstration facilities, were built in the 1960s. These prototypes provided “proof-of-concept” and laid the groundwork for the development of the higher-power reactors that followed. The nuclear power industry went through a period of remarkable growth until about 1990, when the portion of electricity generated by nuclear power reached a high of 17 percent. That percentage remained stable through the 1990s and began to decline slowly around the turn of the 21st century, primarily because of the fact that total electricity generation grew faster than electricity from nuclear power while other sources of energy (particularly coal and natural gas) were able to grow more quickly to meet the rising demand. This trend appears likely to continue well into the 21st century. The Energy Information Administration (EIA), a statistical arm of the U.S. Department Page | 2of Energy, has projected that world electricity generation between 2005 and 2035 will roughly double (from more than 15,000 terawatt-hours to 35,000 terawatt-hours) and that generation from all energy sources except petroleum will continue to grow. A typical nuclear power plant has a generating capacity of approximately one gigawatt (GW; one billion watts) of electricity. At this capacity, a power plant that operates about 90 percent of the time (the U.S. industry average) will generate about eight terawatt-hours of electricity per year. The predominant types of power reactors are pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs), both of which are categorized as light water reactors (LWRs) because they use ordinary (light) water as a moderator and coolant. LWRs make up more than 80 percent of the world’s nuclear reactors, and more than three-quarters of the LWRs are PWRs. ‘Medical Sector: Along with the production of electric energy, nuclear medical techniques are perhaps the most widely known, In the developed Western world, diagnostics and treatment techniques have become so regular, reliable and precise that approximately one in every three patients undergoes some type of therapeutic or diagnostic procedures. Nuclear technology is applied to various branches of medicine: oncology, cardiology, neurology, pneumology or pediatrics. Medical professionals use diagnostic techniques such as radio pharmaceuticals, scans or radioisotopes, and apply radiotherapy treatments that include X rays as well as radiations from radioactive elements or radiation-producing equipment such as accelerators.Beyond diagnostics and the treatment of diseases, nuclear technology is used to sterilize medical equipment, learn about biological processes with the use of tracers or study the properties of tumorous cells, among other uses.30 million people in the world benefit from nuclear medicine. Nuclear technology is applied in branches of medicine such as oncology, cardiology, neurology, pneumology or pediatrics. Treatment for cancer: Radiation therapy involves the application of ionizing radiation to treat conditions such as hyperthyroidism, thyroid cancer, and blood disorders. Radiation therapy is particularly effective as a treatment of a number of types of cancer if they are localized to one area of the body. It may also be used as part of curative therapy, to prevent tumor recurrence after surgery, or to remove a primary malignant tumor. Radiation therapy is synergistic with chemotherapy and has been used before, during, and after chemotherapy in susceptible cancers. Ionizing radiation works by damaging the DNA of exposed tissue, leading to cellular death. When external beam therapy is used, shaped radiation beams are aimed from several angles of exposure to intersect at the tumor, providing a much larger absorbed dose there than in the surrounding, healthy tissue. Brachytherapy is another form of radiation therapy, in which a therapeutic radioisotope is injected into the body to chemically localize to the tissue that requires destruction . Akey feature of brachytherapy is that the irradiation affects only a very localized area around the radiation sources. Exposure to radiation of healthy tissues further away from the sources is therefore reduced in this technique. Radiation therapy is in itself painless. Many low-dose Page | 3palliative treatments (for example, radiation therapy targeting bony metastases) cause minimal or no side effects, although short-term pain flare-ups can be experienced in the days following treatment due to edemas compressing nerves in the treated area. Higher doses can cause varying side effects during treatment (acute), in the months or years following treatment (long-term), or afier re-treatment (cumulative). The nature, severity, and longevity of side effects depend on the organs that receive the radiation, the treatment itself (type of radiation, dose, fractionation, concurrent chemotherapy), and the individual patient. Tracers: A radioactive tracer is a chemical compound in which one or more atoms have been replaced by a radioisotope. A radioactive tracer is a chemical compound in which one or more atoms have been replaced by a radioisotope. By virtue of its consequent radioactive decay, this compound can be used to explore the mechanism of chemical reactions by tracing the path that the radioisotope follows from reactants to products.The underlying principle in the creation of a radioactive tracer is that an atom in a chemical compound is replaced by another atom of the same chemical element. In a tracer, this substituting atom is a radioactive isotope. This process is often called radioactive labeling. Radioactive decay is much more energetic than chemical reactions. Therefore, the radioactive isotope can be present in low concentration and its presence still detected by sensitive radiation detectors such as Geiger counters and scintillation counters. ‘There are two main ways in which radioactive tracers are used: When a labeled chemical compound undergoes chemical reactions, one or more of the products will contain the radioactive label. Analysis of what happens to the radioactive isotope provides detailed information about the mechanism of the chemical reaction, A radioactive compound ‘way to build an image showing how that compound and its reaction products are distributed around the organism, All the commonly used radioisotopes (Tritium 31), Ic, 13u, 150, 18% , 32%, 35s have short half-lives. They do not occur in nature and are produced through nuclear reactions. be introduced into a living organism, The radio-isotope provides Figure 3: Nuclear Physics in Medical Sector Page | 4Hydrology & the Environment: Isotope hydrology is a nuclear technique that uses both stable and radioactive isotopes to follow the movements of the water in the hydrologic cycle. These isotopes can be used to research subterraneous fresh water sources and determine their origin, their type of charge, whether there is a risk of intrusion or contamination by salt water and whether it is possible to use them in a sustainable manner. By registering the levels of radioactive tritium on the ground at different depths it is possible to measure the charging rate, a critical aspect in the management of water resources. Climatologists can put together more reliable data on the evolution of climate and determine the impact of future events. Nuclear techniques have also been successfully applied to solve various pollution problems such as those caused by sulphur dioxide, gas discharges at ground level, in oil spills, in agricultural residues, in water contamination and in the contamination generated by cities.Another interesting use is neutronic probes, used to measure humidity. They are ideal to make the most of limited water resources. In some cases it was possible to save up to 40% of the water. Food & Agriculture: In the field of agriculture, radio isotope and radiation techniques are applied to improve the quality of food by inducing mutations in plants and seeds to obtain the desired crop varieties without having to wait out the long process of natural mutation. Nuclear technology is also very useful in pest control, increasing food production and reducing the amount of necessary fertilizers.In the field of food, direct irradiation of food reduces losses after harvest and improves the quality of the food by increasing itsperiod of conservation. This technique consumes less energy than conventional methods and can replace or radically reduce the use of additives and fumigants. As itis a cold process, treated food items retain their freshness and physical conditions. Direct irradiation of food is a technique accepted and recommended by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Intemational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).Nuclear technology improves the quality of food and extends its period of conservation Page | 5Space Exploration: One of the main applications of nuclear batteries is space navigation. It involves feeding the instrumentation of terrestrial satellites and planetary probes with more powerful generators so that they can reach nearby planets and send information to Earth. Unmanned trips to planets beyond the Earth's solar system were carried out in missions with robotic equipment fed by the electricity produced by the radio isotope plutonium-238. This isotope has a half-life of 87.74 years. It can remain active long enough to power space missions for several centuries, Nuclear Weapons: A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions— either fission, fusion, or a combination. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission (ie., “atomic”) bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 20,000 tons of trinitrotoluene (TNT). The first fusion (ie., thermonuclear “hydrogen’) bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10,000,000 tons of TNT. A modem thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons (1.1 million tonnes) of TNT. Thus, even a small nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate an entire city by blast, fire and radiation, Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction, and their use and control have been a major focus of international relations policy since their inception. Only two nuclear weapons have been used in the course of warfare, both by the United States near the end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, a uranium gun-type fission bomb code-named “Little Boy” was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, Only three days later a. plutonium implosion-type fission bomb code-named “Fat Man” (as illustrated in ) was exploded over Nagasaki, Japan, The resulting mushroom cloud is shown in . The death toll from the two bombings was estimated at approximately 200,000 people—mostly civilians, and mainly from acute injuries sustained from the explosions. The role of the bombings in Japan’s surrender, and their ethical implications, remain the subject of scholarly and popular debate Page | 6Figure 4: Nuclear Weapons Nuclear Geophysics: The application of nuclear physics to geophysics began in the early 1900s, with the work of Rutherford and Boltwood , and since that time nuclear techniques have had a large impact on both industrial and basic geoscience, By 1913 Soddy had proved the existence of nuclear isotopes, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Figure 5: Nuclear Geoph The age of the Earth, and began the field of geochronology. A few decades later, the industrial world capitalized on the development of nuclear probes to enhance mining and logging techniques. The use of nuclear probes in geo-exploration has been an essential component of the oil, gas, and uranium industries for well over 50 years, and nuclear logging has also become well established in the coal and metalliferous mining industries. Since the 1970: the IAEA has actively fostered Page |7the application of nuclear physics in geological explorations, identifying the nuclear data needs for the field. These developmental efforts have produced a number of technical reports . In basic research geophysics and geochemistry, advanced nuclear techniques play an important role in questions ranging from determinations of the Earth’s heat production from the antineutrinos emitted in the decay chains from uranium and thorium, to characterization of the flow of ‘groundwater circulating deeply through the Earth’s crust using atom trap isotope trace analysis. Water resources: Adequate potable water is essential for life, Yet in many parts of the world fresh water has always been scarce and in others it is becoming so. Isotope hydrology techniques enable accurate tracing and measurement of the extent of underground water resources. Such techniques provide important analytical tools in the management and conservation of existing supplies of water and in the identification of new sources. They provide answers to questions about origin, age, and distribution of groundwater, as well as the interconnections between ground and surface water, and aquifer recharge systems. The results permit planning and sustainable management of these water resources. For surface waters they can give information about leakages through dams and irrigation channels, the dynamics of lakes and reservoirs, flow rates river discharges, and sedimentation rates. Neutron probes can measure soil moisture very accurately, enabling better management of land affected by salinity, particularly in respect to irrigation. Discussion: The many applications of nuclear physics are represented in this lab report. Nuclear physics has been and continues to be used to meet a wide range of social requirements. Many of these applications have spawned entire sub-fields in their own right. Nuclear energy, medicinal uses, material dating, and nuclear weapons are only a few examples. These applications were explained with appropriate figures in order to better comprehend the applications of nuclear physics. As our main goal is to understand the applications of nuclear physics thus our lab was successfully achieved. Page | 8References: [1] hutps://www.foronuclear.org/en/sector-values/applications-of-nuclear-technology/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_physics [3] https://www.britannica.convtechnology/nuclear-power [4] https://www.bbe.com/news/newsbeat-5 1091897 [5] https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/6895 1071 6/trump-administration-begins-production-of-a- new-nuclear-weapon Page |9