![]() The possibility of radioactive accidents and the long-term storage of nuclear waste often raise concern from the public. However, there are still problems with nuclear fission energy. The question arises - why exactly is nuclear fission energy a good power source for the world? Well, nuclear fission energy has high power output, is comparatively inexpensive, renewable, does not release air pollutants, and has a low carbon footprint. Therefore, new nuclear fission reactions are continuously created, and energy is continuously released in a chain reaction. This starts an entirely new fission reaction releasing energy and three more neutrons. This is because these three neutrons are able to collide with other Uranium-235 atoms in the reactor. Surprisingly, the three neutrons that are released during the reaction are the most important part of the reaction. This means that the "binding energy" of the reactants is greater than the "binding energy" of the products, and that energy must be released. Energy is released because the total mass of the products (the atoms created) is less than the mass of the reactants (original atoms). Because this atom is unstable, it almost immediately breaks into two more stable atoms - Barium-141 and Kronium-92, as well as emitting three additional neutrons. When an additional neutron collides with this atom, it creates an even more unstable atom, Uranium-236. This causes the atom to be predisposed to reach a state where the protons and neutrons are much more balanced. An unstable atom has an excess of either protons or neutrons. Uranium-235 is used in most fission reactions because, given that it contains 92 protons and 143 neutrons, it is an unstable atom. In simple terms, nuclear fission is when a heavy unstable nucleus splits upon impact with another particle, releasing energy. About 11% of the world's power is generated from nuclear fission energy. Finding a new energy resource to take coal's place - one that does not contribute carbon emissions to climate change - is also important. As of now, coal remains the world's main source of energy. That means that finding a cheap, safe, and high-power energy source is extremely important to advancing the world around us. The results presented in this article are valid for this single soil profile and should not be generalised unless validated in a more rigorous study of a larger number of soil profiles.Energy powers our world, homes, businesses, and practically everything we use on a day-to-day basis. Comparison of the analysed (238)Pu/(239,240)Pu, (241)Pu/(239,240)Pu and (241)Am/(239,240)Pu ratios with the ratios calculated with ORIGEN-S code gave an estimate of the average burn-up of the fuel particles to be in the range of 11-12 GWd/tU. It could also be concluded that the fuel fragments found, in this soil were depleted in respect to Cs, Sb and Eu. These hot spots ranged from 0.02 to 0.15 Bq.It could be concluded that the vertical transport of (137)Cs and fuel fragments occurs mainly by movement of particles through the soil. ![]() The beta-active particles, located by beta-autoradiography were correlated with gamma-spectrometric measurements and contained only (137)Cs. A comparison of alpha-autoradiography with the bulk Pu and Am activity showed that 92% of the alpha-activity was present as clearly detectable alpha-spots. It could further be observed that the spots containing alpha- or beta-activity originated from different particles. The alpha- and beta-autoradiography revealed that the activity is mainly present in particulate form. ![]() The average (234)U/(238)U activity ratio of 1.06+/-0.29 indicates that the uranium in this soil is dominated by naturally occurring uranium. The (238)Pu/(239,240)Pu activity ratio of 0.30+/-0.03 and (241)Pu/(239,240)Pu activity ratio of 115+/-14 (in 1986) measured in the soil profile, indicates that the analysed Pu originates mainly from the Chernobyl accident. A (239,240)Pu ground deposition of 77.4+/-8.0 Bq/m(2) was determined by alpha-spectrometry. After 6.5 years 90% of the Cs and Sb activity was contained in the upper 4 cm. Of these radionuclides (137)Cs shows the dominating activity at the present time. The ground deposition of long-lived fission products determined by gamma-spectrometry was (recalculated to 26 April 1986) 1600 kBq (137)Cs/m(2), 900 kBq (134)Cs/m(2) and 60 kBq (125)Sb/m(2). In this article the distribution of fission products and actinides in a soil profile from Novo Bobovicky in Russia, which was contaminated due to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, is described. ![]()
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