Page 20 - Radiochemistry and nuclear chemistry

Origin of Nuclear Science 9

1953-1955 A. Bohr, MoRel.son, and Niisson develop the unified model of the nucleus (single particle
effects on collective motions).
1955 Chamberlain, Segr~, Wiegand, and Ypsilantis produce antiprotons.
1955 First nuclear powered ship (submarine Nautilus).
1954-1956 A 5 MWe nuclear power station starts at Obninsk, USSR, in 1954. First civilian nuclear
power station (45 MWe) starts at Calder Hall, England, in 1956.
1956 Reines and Cowan prove the existence of neutrinos.
1957 Fire in carbon dioxide cooled graphite reactor at Windscale, U.K.
1957 Explosion in nuclear waste storage facility at Kyshtym (Chelyabinsk), USSR, with
contamination of large areas.
1959 First civilian ship reactor used in the ice-breaker Lenin, launched in the USSR.
-1960 Hofstadter et al.; protons and neutrons contain unevenly distributed internal charge.
-1960 Lederman, Schwarz and Steinberger discover the muon neutrino.
1961 A radionuclide (2-~Pu) is used as power source in a satellite (Transit-4 A).
1961 Semiconductor detectors are developed.
1963 End of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons (see below).
1965 A. Penzias and R. W. Wilson discover the 3 K cosmic microwave radiation background.
-1970 Theory of quarks developed (Gell-Mann); quarks proven in nuclear scattering experiments
(Friedman, Kendall and Taylor).
1972 French scientists discover ancient natural nuclear reactor in Oklo, Gabon.
1979 Core melt-down in PWR reactor at the Tree Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, USA; no
environmental contamination.
1983 Rubbia, van der Meer & co-workers at CERN discover the W and Z weak interaction
communicators.
1986 Explosion and fire in the Chernobyl-4 reactor unit at Pripyat, Ukraine, USSR, with
contamination of large areas.

1955 Formation of United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation
(UNSCEAR).
1957 Formation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with headquarters in Vienna.
1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty bans nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under
water.
1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is signed by the "three
depository governments" (USSR, UK, and USA), all nuclear weapons countries (NWC), and
40 other signatory, non-nuclear weapons countries (NNWC).
1971 The IAEA takes the responsibility for a safeguards system for control of fissile material in
non-nuclear weapons countries.
1991 140 states have signed the NPT agreement.

1.5. Literature

Historical reading and classics in nuclear chemistry:
E. RUTHERFORD, J. CHADWICK and C. D. ELLIS, Radiations from Radioactive Substances, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge 1930 (reprinted 1951).
M. CURIE, Radioactivitj, Herrmann, Paris 1935.
O. HAHN, Applied Radiochemistry, Cornell University Press, 1936.
H. D. SMYTH, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1946.
R. T. BEVER, Foundations of Nuclear Physics, Dover Publ. Inc., New York 1949.
O. HAHN, A Scientific Autobiography, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1966.
Nobel Lectures, Chemistry and Nobel Lectures, Physics, Elsevier, Amsterdam 1966 and later.
S. GLASSTONE, Source Book on Atomic Energy, 3rd edn., van Nostrand, New York 1967.
A. ROMER, Radiochemistry and the Discovery of Isotopes, Dover Publ. 1970.
G. T. SEAnORO and W. D. LOVELAND, Nuclear Chemistry, Hutchinson, Stroudsberg 1982.