====
ﺍﻟﺮﺣﻴﻢ
ﺍﻟﺮﲪﻦ
ﺑـﺴﻢ ﺍﻟﻠّﻪ
ESGEE-Oran
4−ième année Génie Mécanique - Énergétique
Course: Nuclear Energy
Part 1: Elements of Nuclear Reactor Physics
Chapter 1: The Atomic Nucleus
10/10/2024 and 17/10/2024
Problem Set 1
1. How many neutrons and protons are there in each of the following nuclides: (a) 11 B, (b)
24
Na, (c) 60 Co, (d) 207 Pb, and (e) 238 U?
2. How many atoms of 10 B are there in 5 grams of boron?
3. Natural uranium contains the isotopes 234 U, 235 U and 238 U. Calculate the relative atomic
weight of natural uranium.
4. How many atoms of 234 U are there in 1 kg of natural uranium?
5. Estimate the mass ratio of the 238 U and 235 U atoms .
6. How many atoms of deuterium are there in 2 kg of water? and what is the hydrogen
atom density in water?
7. A reactor is fueled with 4 kg uranium enriched to 20 atom-percent (a%) in 235 U. The
remainder of the fuel is 238 U. The fuel has a mass density of 19.2 g/cm3 . (a) What is the
enrichment of 235 U in weight-percent (w%)? (b) What is the mass of 235 U in the reactor?
(c) What are the atom densities of 235 U and 238 U in the fuel?
8. A concrete with a density of 2.35 g/cm3 has a hydrogen content of 0.0085 weight fraction.
What is the atom density of hydrogen in the concrete?
9. How much larger in diameter is a uranium nucleus compared to an iron nucleus?
10. It has been proposed to use uranium carbide (UC) for the initial fuel in a reactor, with
the uranium enriched to 25 w%. The density of UC is 13.6 g/cm3 . what is the atomic
density of the U-235?
11. The fuel for a certain reactor consists of pellets composed of mixed oxides, UO2 and
PuO2 , with PuO2 comprising approximately 30 w% of the mixture. The uranium is
essentially all U-238, whereas the plutonium contains the following isotopes: Pu-239
(70.5 w%), Pu-240 (21.3 w%), Pu-241 (5.5 w%) and Pu-242 (2.7 w%). Calculate the
number of each isotope per gram of the fuel.
====
12. Determine the binding energy (in MeV) per nucleon for the nuclides: (a) 16 O, (b) 17 O, (c)
56
Fe, and (d) 235 U. What is the significance of these results?
13. Calculate the neutron separation energy for 16 O and 17 O.
14. The mass of the proton and hydrogen atom are known to 10 significant figures. Estimate
the binding energy of the electron BEe in the 1 H atom and compare this result to what
the Bohr model predicts (13.606 eV). Discuss this comparison.
15. What is (a) the BE of 3 He, and (b) the neutron separation energy?
16. From the data in Appendix B, plot the mass parabolas for nuclei in the isobar with
A = 184. Show on the plot the neutron number N for maximum stability as calculated
from the line stability equation.