Re: Nuclear decay

["Shapiro, Mark" <mshapiro@EXCHANGE.FULLERTON.EDU>]

Bill,

        I believe you are confusing a "temperature effect" with a pressure
effect.  In order to change a nuclear decay rate, one has to change the
electron density in the immediate vicinity of the nucleus.  There have been
a few experiments that have done this by subjecting radioactive samples to
extremely high-pressures which changes the distribution of inner-shell
electrons enough to alter the decay rates by a few percent.

Mark Shapiro
http://www.IrascibleProfessor.com

-----Original Message-----
From: William J. Larson [mailto:bill_larson@CSI.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 12:39 PM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Subject: Re: Nuclear decay


My recollection is that somebody recently got a 7% effect
on a nuclear reaction rate using "chemical" inducements
like heat.

Cheers,
Bill Larson
Geneva, Switzerland

----- Original Message -----
From: John Cooper <jcooper@BUCKNELL.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: 2000 July 11 9:34 PM
Subject: Nuclear decay


> From the sister/brother list Chemed-l:
>   Conventional answer is "NO"
>   Anyone know otherwise?
>
>  John N. Cooper, Chemistry
>  Bucknell University
>  Lewisburg PA 17837-2005
>  jcooper@bucknell.edu
>  http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/jcooper
>  VOX 570-577-3673    FAX 570-577-1739
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 11:59:00 -0700
> From: Robert W. Zoellner <rwz7001@humboldt.edu>
> To: chemed-l@atlantis.uwf.edu
> Subject: Nuclear decay
>
> Greetings All,
>
> A question came up as a follow-up to the recent fire at New Mexico's Los
> Alamos National Laboratory that I could not answer.  I'm hoping that
> someone out there can do so:
>
> Are rates of nuclear decay affected by changes in temperature?  That is,
> as with other first order reactions, if you raise the temperature, does
> the rate increase?  My immediate response was that the effect of
> temperature would be negligible given the energies involved, but on second
> thought decided that the temperature effect would depend upon the
> activation energy, and I had no clue as to the magnitude of that barrier.
> So ... can you speed up nuclear decay by raising the temperature for
> temperatures attainable in a laboratory setting ... or in the sun ...
> etc.?
>
> Thanks for the assistance.
>
> Bob Z.
>
> Robert W. Zoellner, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor
> Department of Chemistry
> Humboldt State University
> One Harpst Street
> Arcata, California  95521-8299
>
> telephone:  (707)826-3244
> fax:  (707)826-3279