nuclear isomer energy storage

Laser spectroscopic characterization of the nuclear-clock isomer

Apr 18, 2018· Laser spectroscopy is used to investigate the hyperfine structure and determine the fundamental nuclear properties of the isomer 229mTh, the strongest candidate for the

What is a metastable nuclear state (isomer)?

A different kind of metastable nuclear state (isomer) is the fission isomer or shape isomer. Most actinide nuclei in their ground states are not spherical, but rather prolate spheroidal, with an axis of symmetry longer than the other axes, similar to an American football or rugby ball.

Metastable Nuclear Isomers as Dark Matter Accelerators

nuclear isomer sources such as naturally occurring 180 mTa, 137 Ba produced in decaying Cesium in nuclear waste, 177 mLu from medical waste, and 178 Hf from the Department of Energy storage can be combined with current dark matter detector technology to search for this class of dark matter. I. INTRODUCTION The nature of dark matter (DM) is

Why do nuclear isomers have a longer life?

The longer lives of nuclear isomers'' metastable states are often due to the larger degree of nuclear spin change which must be involved in their gamma emission to reach the ground state. This high spin change causes these decays to be forbidden transitions and delayed. Delays in emission are caused by low or high available decay energy.

Investigations of nuclear isomeric states utilizing heavy-ion storage

Apr 10, 2024· In the focus of this work are heavy-ion storage rings which can be employed for studies of or with nuclear isomers. The latter have to be produced elsewhere as a secondary beam with suitable parameters prior to their injection and storage in the ring [].Therefore, the storage rings have to be coupled to radioactive-ion beam facilities.

3 Energy Sources, Conversion Devices, and Storage | Powering

Nuclear Isomer Energy Storage. Nuclear isomer energy storage involves absorption and release of energy during transitions in the quantum energy state of atomic nuclei. Some researchers

Dynamical Control of Nuclear Isomer Depletion via Electron

A 4.85 keVexcitation from the isomer to the gateway state at 2430 keV [3] should release the entire stored energy within only 4 ns. Isomer depletion has often been men-tioned in the context of potential nuclear energy storage solutions without involving fission or fusion [1,4–6]. One of the most intriguing means to externally drive

Nuclear Isomers

Jun 19, 2024· Classification of nuclear isomers. Nuclear potential energy as a function of spin variation, spin projections, and shape deformation. The blue arrows denote For decades, isomers have held promise as a more compact ((10^{4}) denser than chemical batteries) and longer-lasting energy storage solution [31, 63,64,65]. Long-duration energy

The thorium-229 low-energy isomer and the nuclear clock

Feb 25, 2021· Recent experiments have provided essential information on the nuclear properties of 229 Th (half-life 7,920 years), such as the nuclear moments, decay modes of the isomer

Hafnium controversy

The hafnium controversy was a debate over the possibility of "triggering" rapid energy releases, via gamma-ray emission, from 178m2 Hf, a nuclear isomer of hafnium.The energy release per event is 5 orders of magnitude (100,000 times) higher than in a typical chemical reaction, but 2 orders of magnitude less than a nuclear fission reaction. In 1998, a group led by Carl Collins in

Nuclear Isomers at the Extremes of their Properties

In the following sections, we discuss selected examples of high-energy isomers, high-multipolarity isomers, extremely low energy isomers, very high-spin isomers, very long-lived isomers,

Nuclear Isomers: A Primer

Nuclear isomers are the long-lived excited states of nuclei. Therefore, they constitute the meta-stable landscape of nuclei. The first isomer was probably identified as early as 1921. Further, the isomers are beginning to be seen as potential energy storage devices and nuclear clocks with a host of applications. Possible discovery of a

Physical viability for nuclear batteries | Journal of

Sep 7, 2023· The conversion of energy from radiation sources into electricity is a technological topic that, starting from a concept developed and experimentally demonstrated by Moseley and Harling [] has become a research focus at the intersection of nuclear physics, materials science, and device engineering bining long working lifetime and high stability under a wide range

Nuclear isomers at the extremes of their properties

Mar 8, 2024· Interest in this isomer arises from its capacity as an energy storage device as well the possibility to obtain a high energy gamma ray laser . N=143)) having an excitation energy of 76.7 eV is another example of an extremely low energy nuclear isomer. It has a reasonably large half-life of 26.5 min, which may be significantly affected by

Isomer depletion | The European Physical Journal Special Topics

Apr 2, 2024· Nuclear excited states provide the storage of additional energy which can be more attractive for some applications, Footnote 2 particularly when their lifetimes are sufficiently long: in other words, for spin or K isomers . An early interest in isomers related to potentially useful energy output comes from the literature on the gamma-ray laser

Isomer Energy Source for Space Propulsion Systems

Oct 5, 2020· Energy storage levels of 1.3 GJ/g are possible with this material, though the successful triggering and maintenance of a chain reaction in this material are still debated topics within the scientific community. Nuclear thermal propulsion and the energy release of a nuclear spin isomer present potential for increased rocket performance with

How long does a nuclear isomer last?

For example, the 180m73Ta nuclear isomer survives so long (at least 10 15 years) that it has never been observed to decay spontaneously. The half-life of a nuclear isomer can even exceed that of the ground state of the same nuclide, as shown by 180m73Ta as well as 186m75Re, 192m277Ir, 210m83Bi, 212m84Po, 242m95Am and multiple holmium isomers.

NUCLEAR PHYSICS Long live isomer research

a nuclear battery. Table 1 Nuclear isomers. Long-lived isomers store enough energy for many different applications. The key is fi nding out how to release that energy ''on tap''. Isomer Energy

Isomeric Transition | Basics & Nuclear Impact

May 29, 2024· One promising area of future research involves the use of nuclear isomers in energy storage. Certain isomers, due to their ability to store significant amounts of energy over long durations, have potential applications in creating long-lasting energy storage systems. This could lead to breakthroughs in how energy is stored and released on

The thorium-229 low-energy isomer and the nuclear clock

Feb 25, 2021· The spin and parity of the 229 Th nuclear ground state have been determined to be I π = 5/2 + (refs 22,23).The isomeric state was assigned I π = 3/2 + (ref. 24) and experimentally verified in

Excitation and probing of low-energy nuclear states at high

PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH5, 023134 (2023) Excitation and probing of low-energy nuclear states at high-energy storage rings Junlan Jin,1,2 * Hendrik Bekker,3,4 Tobias Kirschbaum,5 Yuri A. Litvinov,6 Adriana Pálffy,5 Jonas Sommerfeldt,7,8 Andrey Surzhykov,7,8 Peter G. Thirolf,9 and Dmitry Budker 3 4 10 † 1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,

Nuclear Isomers

Sep 5, 2023· Isomers are metastable nuclear excitations with long half-lives, ranging from nanoseconds to years. In general, an isomer''s decay is inhibited by at least one of three physical constraints: spin isomers involve a large change in the magnitude of the angular momentum, often combined with low transition energy; K isomers require a large change in the direction of the

Poking Atomic Nuclei With Lasers For Atomic Clocks And Energy Storage

May 6, 2024· In a 2021 research paper by [Yuanbin Wu] and colleagues the long-term energy storage potential and controlled release of energy in a 93m Mo isomer is studied, using electron beams as the trigger

CONTROLLED EXTRACTION OF ENERGY FROM

triggered to release their energy on demand. 1. What are Isomers? Isomers are excited-states of the nuclei that emit gamma radiations when de-excited. The energy stored in the individual nucleus can contain 100,000 times the energy of an individual chemical atom. [1] By analogy with chemical isomers, nuclear isomers

Nuclear isomer

OverviewApplicationsNuclei of nuclear isomersMetastable isomersNearly stable isomersHigh-spin suppression of decayDecay processesSee also

Hafnium isomers (mainly Hf) have been considered as weapons that could be used to circumvent the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, since it is claimed that they can be induced to emit very strong gamma radiation. This claim is generally discounted. DARPA had a program to investigate this use of both nuclear isomers. The potential to trigger an abrupt release of energy from nuclear isotopes, a prerequisite to their use in such weapons, is disputed. Nonetheless a 12-member H

arXiv:2107.12448v1 [physics.atom-ph] 26 Jul 2021

Jul 28, 2021· Long-lived excited states of atomic nuclei can act as energy traps. These states, known as nuclear iso-mers, can store a large amount of energy over long periods of time, with

Dynamical Control of Nuclear Isomer Depletion via Electron

Some nuclear isomers are known to store a large amount of energy over long periods of time, with a very high energy-to-mass ratio. Here, we describe a protocol to achieve the external control

Energy of the 229Th nuclear clock transition | Nature

Sep 11, 2019· Owing to its low excitation energy and long radiative lifetime, the first excited isomeric state of thorium-229, 229mTh, can be optically controlled by a laser1,2 and is an ideal candidate for the

Nuclear Isomers

Isomers are metastable nuclear excitations with long half-lives, ranging from nanoseconds to years. In general, an isomer''s decay is inhibited by at least one of three physical constraints: spin isomers involve a large change in the magnitude of the angular momentum, often combined with low transition energy; K isomers require a large change in the direction of the angular

Excitation and probing of low-energy nuclear states at high-energy

May 30, 2023· Th 229 with a low-lying nuclear isomeric state is an essential candidate for a nuclear clock as well as many other applications. Laser excitation of the isomeric state has been a long-standing goal. With relativistic Th 229 ions in storage rings, high-power lasers with wavelengths in the visible range or longer can be used to achieve high excitation rates of Th

Nuclear Isomer energy storage and Quantum Nucleaonic Reactors

Nuclear Isomers are an exciting new development in the field of Nuclear physics. They are, essentially, a nuclear storage battery. These would amount immensely dense energy storage devices, with power densities per unit wieght reaching a theorhetical limit near that of low end fusion reactions! Best Batteries - 300 Wh/Kg Fuel Cells

Laser spectroscopic characterization of the nuclear-clock isomer

Apr 18, 2018· 229 Th has a low-energy transition between the nuclear ground state and a long-lived isomer, 229m Th, at an excitation energy of about 7.8 eV. This enables the application of precision laser

Is isomer depletion possible in nuclear energy storage solutions?

Isomer depletion has often been men-tioned in the context of potential nuclear energy storage solutions without involving fission or fusion [1,4 –6]. One of the most intriguing means to externally drive the transition to the gateway state is via coupling to the atomic shell.

Nuclear isomer

A nuclear isomer is a metastable state of an atomic nucleus, in which one or more nucleons (protons or neutrons) occupy excited state (higher energy) levels. "Metastable" describes nuclei whose excited states have half-lives 100 to 1000 times longer than the half-lives of the excited nuclear states that decay with a "prompt" half life (ordinarily on the order of 10 −12 seconds).