Uranium-241 [UPSC Current Affairs]

Physicists in Japan discovered a new Uranium isotope, Uranium-241. In this article, you can read about the discovery of the new uranium isotope- Uranium-241 in detail. This topic is important for the IAS exam GS paper III.

New uranium isotope- Uranium-241:

• A new isotope of uranium with an atomic number of 91 and a mass number of 241 has been discovered by physicists based in Japan.
• It has been since 1979 that a new neutron-rich uranium isotope has been discovered. This is primarily due to the immense challenge involved in synthesising a nuclide in this particular range by general reactions.

Discovery of Uranium-241:

• At the KEK Isotope Separation System (KISS), researchers utilized a process called multinucleon transfer to accelerate uranium-238 nuclei into plutonium-198 nuclei, causing the two isotopes to exchange protons and neutrons.
• The resulting nuclear fragments included uranium-241, whose nucleus mass was measured and estimated to have a half-life of 40 minutes based on theoretical calculations.
  • Using time-of-flight mass spectrometry, the team determined the mass of each nucleus by measuring the time it took to reach a detector, which allowed them to identify different isotopes. 

Importance:

• This discovery refines our understanding of nuclear physics and helps in designing nuclear power plants and models of exploding stars.
• This experiment demonstrated that the combination of multinucleon transfer and KISS could open up new areas for research, leading to the discovery of more neutron-rich actinide nuclides and a better understanding of nuclide stability and astronomical nucleosynthesis.
  • By carefully measuring the mass of elements in the vicinity of uranium, scientists can gain valuable insights into the nuclear processes that lead to the formation of heavy elements during explosive cosmic events.
• Physicists are actively searching for the next element with a magic number of protons or neutrons. And this systematic mass measurement system aims to include many neutron-rich isotopes, with the goal of reaching neutron number 152, where a new magic number is anticipated. This research is considered a first step in that direction.

Additional Information:

• Magic numbers:

• • In nuclear physics, a magic number refers to a specific number of nucleons (protons or neutrons) that are thought to have a special stability and are more tightly bound than other numbers of nucleons. These magic numbers are the numbers 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126.
  • The magic numbers arise from the shell model of the atomic nucleus, which describes the behaviour of nucleons in terms of the energy levels of their orbits. Just like electrons in atoms have discrete energy levels, nucleons in the atomic nucleus also have discrete energy levels. The magic numbers correspond to completely filled energy levels or subshells, and these filled energy levels make the nucleus more stable and less likely to undergo nuclear reactions.

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