Page 87 - A Life - my Live - my path

My career - the IRE

and delivery times to hospitals in Belgium, but also to cross
the borders of neighbouring countries.
In the appendix the concepts of fission and fusion are
developed.

Comment: the philosopher's stone
Some alchemists of the past tried to transform - using the
philosopher's stone - lead into gold.
They made 2 mistakes:
The first is to confuse chemical reaction (with water, flour
and yeast, we make bread ) and radioactive decay.
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The 2 , to obtain gold, the starting isotope must be either
nd
platinum or mercury and not lead.
In practice, the atomic mass of platinum or mercury must
first be changed (i.e. by neutron bombardment) and then have
patience to ultimately obtain a very small amount of gold.
This experiment was performed in 1941.

At the IRE, during the 13 years I worked there, I never heard
of any nuclear problems.
There was never any fissile material, and if there were to
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80
be, the quantity had to be below half of the critical mass .

78 When making bread, bread fermentation is an alcoholic fermentation. Yeasts
break down the simple sugars in the dough into carbon dioxide, ethyl alcohol
and other compounds important to the taste of bread. The release of gas
causes the dough to swell, which gives breads lightness.
79 An isotope is said to be fissile if its nucleus is likely to undergo fission under
the effect of so-called slow neutrons. Example: uranium 235 or plutonium 239
80 The critical mass of fissile material is the minimum mass of material sufficient
to trigger a nuclear fission chain reaction.
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