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Another type of innovative neutron generator is the inertial electrostatic confinement fusion device. This neutron generator avoids using a solid target which will be sputter eroded causing metalization of insulating surfaces. Depletion of the reactant gas within the solid target is also avoided. Far greater operational lifetime is achieved.
The mere fact that an assembly is supercritical does not guarantee that it contains any free neutrons at all. At least one neutron is required to "strike" a chain reaction, and if the spontaneous fission rate is sufficiently low it may take a long time (in 235 U reactors, as long as many minutes) before a chance neutron encounter starts a chain reaction even if the reactor is supercritical.
Reactions with neutrons are important in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. While the best-known neutron reactions are neutron scattering , neutron capture , and nuclear fission , for some light nuclei (especially odd-odd nuclei ) the most probable reaction with a thermal neutron is a transfer reaction:
In nuclear physics, a nuclear chain reaction occurs when one single nuclear reaction causes an average of one or more subsequent nuclear reactions, thus leading to the possibility of a self-propagating series or "positive feedback loop" of these reactions. The specific nuclear reaction may be the fission of heavy isotopes (e.g., uranium-235 ...
The UK's first full-scale nuclear reactor was the Windscale Pile in Sellafield. The pile was designed for the production of plutonium-239 which was bred in multi-week reactions taking place in natural uranium fuel. Under normal conditions, natural uranium does not absorb enough of its own emitted "fast" neutrons to maintain a chain reaction.
Diagram of an RTG used on the Cassini probe. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect.
The AI conversation has been about energy all year. But a few recent developments have brought focus back to a very efficient but somewhat abandoned form of energy: nuclear.
Neutron activation is the only common way that a stable material can be induced into becoming intrinsically radioactive. Activation is inherently different than contamination. Neutrons are only free in quantity in the microseconds of a nuclear weapon's explosion, in an active nuclear reactor, or in a spallation neutron source.