🚀 go-pugleaf

Thomas Buckler <t.buckler@virgin.net> wrote:

>Why are fission reactors difficult to decommission? - is it simply because
>that the construction materials will be radioactive due to absorption?

Yes. That makes it very expensive (I would not call it difficult in a strict
technical sense).

>Matter and Anti-Matter. Is it the opposite of normal matter (i.e. an
>electron has a positive charge and a proton has a negative charge)?

Anti-elektrons (positrons) have a positive charge, anti-protons have a
negative charge, yes. But to avoid a common misconception: they do NOT
have a negative mass or something like that. The mass of a proton and
an anti-proton are equal.

>If it
>is difficult to create and contain (due to annihilation with normal matter)
>why do you have positive and negative beta-decay? - surely that's matter /
>anti-matter.

Yes, and the positron that is emitted in positive beta decay usually
anihilates with an electron very soon.

>NEUTRINO's - What exactly is one, and how is it related to beta decay?

They are probably (rest)massless, uncharged particles. They are created in
beta decay because some quantity called lepton number should be constant in
all reactions between particles known today. A neutrino has a lepton number
of 1, just as the elektron, an anti-neutrino and a positron have a lepton
number of -1. So if an elektron is created in beta decay, an anti-neutrino
should also be created.

In fact, this is not the whole story. There are partices called muons and
tauons (and their anti particles of course). They behave exactly like an
elektron, only their mass is much larger. They have related neutrino's. So
there are 3 types of neutrino's: elektron-neutrino's (the ones that are
emitted at beta decay), muon-neutrino's and tau-neutrino's. The lepton
numbers of all these particles are separatedly conserved, so if a muon
decays into an electron, also an anti-elektron neutrino and a muon-neutrino
are created in the process.

>QUARKS - How does the character of them change during beta - and beta +
>decay? 

Yes. A proton consistes of 2 u and 1 d quark, a neutron of 1 u and 2 d
quarks. During beta decay a proton is converted into a neutron or vice
versa. So an u quark is converted into a d quark or vice versa.

-- 
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