Nuclear Chemist Interview Preparation Guide

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Titration is a process to determine the molarity of a base or an acid. In this process a reaction is carried out between the known volumes of a solution with a known concentration, against the known volume of a solution with an unknown concentration.

Well, the special property is that if it is bombarded with neutrons, then the uranium nucleus will split in two, and with that a large amount of energy is released in the form of heat. And this is called fission.

It is denoted by l. Through this quantum number we get to know the number of sub-shells present in the main shell. It also gives information about the shapes of various shells present within the same principal shell and also about the relative energies associated with these sub-shells.

Plutonium is simply a material that is very like uranium, being produced from uranium. It's produced by the absorption of a neutron in uranium, and you get this new metal which has been called plutonium. Its properties are not dissimilar to one of the isotopes of one of the kinds of uranium that exist in the earth's crust. It is fissionable, like the fissionable isotope of uranium. That is to say, you could make a reactor out of it, out of plutonium.

In a molecule when hydrogen atom is less than the ratio of carbon atom, then such molecules are referred as an organic molecule.

Aliquot : It is a measured sub-volume of original sample
Diluent: Material with which sample is diluted

Plutonium is, in fact, a metal very like uranium. If you hold it [in] your hand (and I've held tons of it my hand, a pound or two at a time), it's heavy, like lead. It's toxic, like lead or arsenic, but not much more so.

That's as bad an accident as you can get from a nuclear plant. And worse than any accident in a modern nuclear plant could possibly be. The point is that that reactor was on fire for days and days and days, with radioactive material going up into the air. But it was the crudest kind of reactor, which the Soviets thankfully have stopped building.

According to Avogadro’s law, at same temperature and pressure equal volume of gases contains the same number or molecules regardless of the chemical nature and physical properties.

Avogadro’s number = 6.023 X 10 (-23)

Electron pairing in p, d and f orbitals cannot occur until each orbital of a given subshell contains one electron or is singly occupied. This happens because electrons being identical in charge repel each other when present at the same orbital.

You have to eat it in order to harm yourself with it. It is radioactive, naturally. Radioactive, but much less so than radium, for example, which is scattered again all over the earth's crust. So it's not a very frightening material.

A buffer is an aqueous solution which has highly stable pH. It is a blend of a weak acid and its conjugate base or vice versa. On adding small amount of base or acid to buffer, its pH hardly changes.

A system that exchanges only energy and not matter with the surrounding is said to be a closed system. For example: A reaction taking place in a closed metallic vessel.

A valency is a property of a groups or atoms, equal to the number of atoms of hydrogen that the group or atom could combine with or displace it in forming compounds.

No. Of course they don't. And that, I think, is somewhat understandable. But why the anti-nuclear folks, who say such extreme things that on the face of it one would question, even one who knew nothing about the subject, why they would have credibility, that does puzzle me.

Graphite rod is used in nuclear reactor to convert fast moving neutrons into thermal neutrons.

This principle states that an orbital can have maximum two electrons and these must have opposite spins.

Molality is the number of solute that is present in 1 kg of a solvent.

It's always uranium. It's the fission of uranium.

The monomer of polyethene is ethylene

Levorotation and Dextrorotation is referred to the properties of plane polarized light, when light rotates clockwise when it approaches the observer is then known as dextro-rotation and when the light rotates anti-clockwise then it is referred as levo-rotation.

A compound which exhibits a dextro-rotation is referred as dextro-rotatory and which exhibits levo-rotation is referred as levo-rotatory.

Well, plutonium-239 has, for example, a roughly 25,000-year half-life. That is to say, half of it will have decayed to something else after 25,000 years, approximately. And that's a good long time. And the other isotopes that are similar to that, some have longer half-lives, some of them shorter. The point is that they are the most toxic elements in the waste. And paradoxically, they are also the most useful, because they are all fissionable. So they can be used to produce energy. But if they are there in the waste, they represent a long-term hazard that people can legitimately be concerned about. And those states that are being asked to accept the nuclear waste can legitimately be concerned about that. You know, I think again it's a handle-able problem, but it's a problem that needn't be there, for if you recycle, you separate out exactly those elements and use them in your reactor. You produce energy with them and they're gone. And the nuclear waste that is then put in the ground has a life of perhaps a few hundred years, and all of the really toxic materials are gone. So it totally changes the character of the nuclear waste problem.

Uranium is simply a metal. It's found everywhere in the earth's surface. It's found at two parts per billion in the oceans. It's concentrated, like all the metals, in deposits here and there all over the earth. It looks something like lead. It's heavy like lead. It has a mild amount of radioactivity associated with it, but nothing like radium, for example, which is also scattered throughout the earth's crust.

Fe or ferrous is the metal that is used to extract copper from the solution of copper sulphate.

It is denoted by n. It tells us about the energy level or shell in which the electron is present. The value of n can be 1,2,3,4…….etc. but it cannot be zero. It gives us the information about the average distance of electrons from the nucleus, determines the energy of electron in hydrogen atom and hydrogen like atoms. It also gives us the information about the maximum number of electrons that a shell can have by using the formula 2n2.