1. Cesium-137 is a radioactive byproduct of nuclear reactors such as the one tha
ID: 3863464 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Cesium-137 is a radioactive byproduct of nuclear reactors such as the one that experienced partial meltdown in Chernobyl (then in the USSR, but now in Ukraine) on April 26, 1986. Given that the half-life of Cesium-137 is 30.07 years and it decays exponentially over time,
(a) compute what fraction (or percent) of the Cesium-137 released at that time has since decayed away. You may assume that the elapsed time since the release of this material is 30.92 years for the purpose of this calculation.
(b) How many more years will it take for 95% of the Cesium-137 released in that event to have decayed away.
Explanation / Answer
a)Final amount/Initial amount=0.5^(time/halflife)=0.5^(30.92/30.07)=0.4902.
Hence, 50.98%of the Cesium-137 released at that time has since decayed away.
b)5/100=0.5^(time/30.07)
time/30.07=4.3219
time=129.96 years(Approx 130 years)
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