News

• A schedule for the spring semester is available (see below)
• Explosion at French nuclear site (non-nuclear, the explosion was at a furnace)
• Siemens to quit nuclear industry
• Low levels of radioactive particles 'found in Europe'
• Chernobyl vs Fukushima - which one is worse?
• Sellafield waste reactor proposed to convert plutonium
• NK moratorium on uranium enrichment
• Laser fusion nears crucial milestone
• Ukraine to build Chernobyl 'cap' to stop radiation leak

Introduction

Physics Topics

• Fall 2011
• Syllabus
• Lecture Notes
• Energy and Power
• Structure of the atom
• Radioactivity
• Radioactive sources as power stations
• Fission reactions
• Fusion reactions
• Power Stations
• How Nuclear Power Works
• The Fuel Cycle in Brief
• Conversion and Enrichment
• What is Uranium?
• What is Radiation?
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission
• Pressurized Water Reactors
• Animated diagram
• Boiling Water Reactors
• Animated diagram
• Liquid Fuel Thorium Reactors
• Liquid fluoride thorium reactor
• How a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) works
• What Are The Problems With LFTR Technology?
• LFTR: A Long-Term Energy Solution?
• Spring 2012
• Spring schedule
• Some internet resources for Spring 2012
• Fusion Reactors
• Inertial Confinement
• Google search for Inertial Confinement
• Lawrence Livermore National Lab
• National Ignition Facility
• Inertial Confinement Fusion at General Atomics, San Diego, Ca.
• Inertial Confinement Fusion at Sandia National Labs
• Magnetic Confinement
• Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)
• Fusion Basics
• The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor
• European Fusion Development Agreement - formerly the Joint European Torus (JET) project
• Weapons
• Arms Control Association
• The High Energy Weapons Archive - A Guide to Nuclear Weapons
• The U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project
• Federation of American Scientists
• The High Energy Weapons Archive - A Guide to Nuclear Weapons
• Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Nuclear Resources Links
• Nuclear Weapons & Waste - Natural Resources Defense Council
• 50 Facts About US Nuclear Weapons
• Leo Szilard
• Nevada Test Site - US Departent of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration
• PowerPoint file (February 15^th 2012)
• Health and Safety (or lack thereof)
• Basic DNA
• Internet animations
• DNA replication
• Protein synthesis
• Estimating risk from ionizing radiation
• Some internet resources for Fall

Syllabus etc.

• You can get a copy of the syllabus here.
• Scott's English web site for this course
• Answers to the Pre-Test

Assignments

• Fall 2011
• Assignment 1 - due Wednesday August 31^st 2011. In this assignment you are asked to gather some facts which will be the background to this course. It covers some basic information about the use of nuclear power and the associated hazards, the use of nuclear weapons including some of the accidents which have occurred, and some of the health aspects of both weapons and power stations. For now concentrate on collecting facts, we will fill in the explanations as we make our way through the next two semesters.
• Assignment 2 - Answers
• Assignment 3 - Answers
• Assignment 4 - due Wednesday October 5^th 2011
• Assignment 5 - due Wednesday October 12^th 2011
• Final Paper
• Spring 2012
• Assignment 1
• Accompanying Appendix
• Assignment 2 - Answers
• Assignment 3 - due Wednesday March 28^th 2012
• Final Paper - due Friday May 18^th 2012. By noon if you drop a hard copy off at the Physics office, by 11:59 if you email me your paper.

Discussion Questions

• Discussion topics for the Fall 2010 semester

Discussion topics for the Spring 2012 semester
• Question 1 - Responses so far
• Question 2 - Responses so far
• Question 3 - Responses so far
• Question 4 - Responses so far
• Question 5 - Responses so far
• Question 6 - Responses so far (for the beginning of the class on Wednesday April 25^th 2012)
• Question 7 - Responses so far (for the beginning of the class on Wednesday April 25^th 2012)

Debate (Spring semester)

• Debate topics for the Spring 2012 semester
• Introduction
• Debate timing
• Debate topics
• Debate teams

Library Resources

The following books have been placed on reserve at the library
• "Physics", James S. Walker, 2^nd ed. See in particular chapters 31 and 32.
• "Modern Physics", Bernstein, Fishbane, and Gasiorowicz. See in particular chapters 1 and 15.
• "Conceptual Physics", Paul G. Hewitt, 9^th ed. See in particular chapters 32-34.
• "Conceptual Physics", Paul G. Hewitt, 10^th ed. (2 copies) See in particular chapters 32-34.
• "Physics: A Window on our World", Jay Bolemon, 3rd ed.  See in particular chapters 27 and 28.
• "Physics: The Nature of Things", Susan M. Lea and John Robert Burke. See in particular chapter 36.

Internet Resources

• Glossary of Terms
• Periodic tables
• University of Akron
• Los Alamos
• The Berkeley Laboratory Isotopes Project's
• EnvironmentalChemistry.com
• Periodic Table of Elements
• Practice Questions for Radioactive Decay
• Help on the mathematics of logarithms and exponentials
• American Journal of Physics Resource Letters
• Nuclear Reactions
• Reactors
• The Manhattan Project
• The Future of Nuclear Power
• Physics and Society: Nuclear Arms Control
• The Avalon Project, Yale University