Testing the Physics of Nuclear Isomers

Technical Report · Wed Jan 25 04:00:00 EST 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/883612· OSTI ID:883612

Hazi, A

For much of the past century, physicists have searched for methods to control the release of energy stored in an atom's nucleus. Nuclear fission reactors have been one successful approach, but finding other methods to capitalize on this potential energy source have been elusive. One possible source being explored is nuclear isomers. An isomer is a long-lived excited state of an atom's nucleus--a state in which decay back to the nuclear ground state is inhibited. The nucleus of an isomer thus holds an enormous amount of energy. If scientists could develop a method to release that energy instantaneously in a gamma-ray burst, rather than slowly over time, they could use it in a nuclear battery. Research in the late 1990s indicated that scientists were closer to developing such a method--using x rays to trigger the release of energy from the nuclear isomer hafnium-178m ({sup 178m}Hf). To further investigate these claims, the Department of Energy (DOE) funded a collaborative project involving Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Argonne national laboratories that was designed to reproduce those earlier results.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 883612
• Report Number(s): UCRL-TR-218474
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
DECAY
EXCITED STATES
FISSION
GROUND STATES
ISOMERS
PHYSICS
POTENTIAL ENERGY
TESTING