Name: _______________
Nuclear Reactions Review Sheet
Identify the nuclear symbol for the following.
1. Gamma
__________
3.
4
2He
__________
2. Positron
__________
4.
0
-1e
__________
Balance the following nuclear equations.
5.
239
94Pu
6.
6
3Li
7.
241
95Am
8.
235
92U
9.
37
19K
10.
→ 42He + _____
+ 10n → 0-1e + 42He + _____
1
0n
+ 42He → 210n + _____
+ 10n → ____10n + 13953I + 9539Y
→ _____ + 0+1e
+ 23592U → 2 10n + _____ + 13752Te
11. What is the difference between a nuclear reaction and a chemical reaction?
12. The half life of C-14 is 5,730 years. If a bone was found in the desert with 400 grams of C-14
remaining in the sample and the bone is found to be 11,460 years old, how many grams of carbon-14
were originally in the bone?
12. An isotope of cesium, Cs-137, has a half life of 30 years. If 1.0 grams of Cs-137 disintegrates over a
period of 90 years, how many grams of Cs-137 would remain?
13. Sodium-25 was to be used in an experiment but it took 3.0 minutes to get the sodium from the
reactor to the lab. If 5.0 mg of sodium-25 was removed from the reactor, how many milligrams of
sodium-25 were placed in the reaction 3.0 minutes later if the half life of sodium-25 is 60 seconds?
14. The half life of isotope SEGAL is 250 minutes. How many days would it take for a 32.0 gram sample
of SEGAL to decay into a 0.25 gram sample?
15. The half life of Po-218 is 3.0 minutes.
a) How much of a 2.0 gram sample remains after 15 minutes?
b) You need 0.10 grams of Po-218 for a nuclear experiment. If it takes a half an hour for it to
reach you with SUPER EXPRESS SHIPPING, how much of this material would you need to
purchase?
16. What is the difference between fission and fusion?
17.
If 0.00308kg of neutrons and 0.027 kg of Li-6 decays into 0.009 kg of Hydrogen-3 and 0.016 kg of alpha
particles, how much energy is released?
Ch. 19 Nuclear Chemistry & Nuclear Facts Test Topics
Do you know…
1) what these words mean?
Radioactive
Half-life
Carbon dating
Food irradiation
2) a) what these decay particles are? alpha, beta, gamma, positron
b) what the charges are of each particle?
3) what a Geiger counter is/does?
4) how a nuclear power plant makes electricity?
5) some advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power?
6) some differences between nuclear reactions and chemical reactions?
7) what happened at the power plant at Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl?
8) a) the difference between fission and fusion reactions?
b) Which one is powering the sun?
c) Which one was used in the first atomic weapons (atom bombs)?
9) some medical uses of radiation?
10) how to balance nuclear reactions?
11) how to solve carbon dating and half-life problems?
Chain reaction