Things to do and think about
Not all the answers are available on these pages (try searching the web yourself to find the answers).
- Where does the energy come from in the nuclear fission reaction?
- How many neutrons are produced by an individual nuclear fission reaction?
- The following experiment requires that you obtain i) a large amount of small grains of something, preferably in 2 distinctive but uniform colours and ii) two large transparent containers. (Sugar is one possibility and clean sand is another). Both can be obtained in a range of colours and sand can also be dyed;
- count or measure out ~100000 grains of one colour (colour A) and place them into one of the transparent containers, put that container aside – it will be used for comparison purposes.
- count or measure out ~720 grains of one colour (colour A) and ~100000 of colour (B), (make sure you have enough grains and a big enough container) and place these into the second transparent container.
- Vigorously shake the container and then count how many of colour A you can see amongst the colour B from the outside of the container.
- Repeat the same for ~3000 of A in ~100000 of B. Place the containers side by side and stand back about 1 metre and see if you can see any colour difference between the two containers.
- Keep adding A to B in lots of ~3000, shake, stand back and compare the containers until a colour difference appears. How many sand grains of A are required to make a difference?
- How many times smaller are atoms of U than your grains of sand or sugar?
- What is the typical geological environment for a natural nuclear reactor to occur?
- What evidence is there today that the Oklo fossil reactors bred additional U-235 from plutonium?
If you get stuck or you are curious to find out more email the author (Dr Robert Loss) at: r.loss@curtin.edu.au
