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The iodine pit, also called the iodine hole or xenon pit, is a temporary disabling of a nuclear reactor due to buildup of short-lived nuclear poisons in the reactor core. The main isotope responsible is 135 Xe, mainly produced by natural decay of 135 I. 135 I is a weak neutron absorber, while 135 Xe is the strongest known neutron absorber.
Xenon-135 (135 Xe) is an unstable isotope of xenon with a half-life of about 9.2 hours. 135 Xe is a fission product of uranium and it is the most powerful known neutron -absorbing nuclear poison (2 million barns ; [ 1 ] up to 3 million barns [ 1 ] under reactor conditions [ 2 ] ), with a significant effect on nuclear reactor operation.
The ratio of xenon-136 to xenon-135 (or its decay products) can give hints as to the power history of a given reactor and the absence of xenon-136 is a "fingerprint" for nuclear explosions, as xenon-135 is not produced directly but as a product of successive beta decays and thus it cannot absorb any neutrons in a nuclear explosion which occurs ...
The period of time in which the reactor is unable to override the effects of xenon-135 is called the xenon dead time or poison outage. During periods of steady state operation, at a constant neutron flux level, the xenon-135 concentration builds up to its equilibrium value for that reactor power in about 40 to 50 hours. When the reactor power ...
Xenon-136 is an isotope of xenon that undergoes double beta decay to barium-136 with a very long half-life of 2.11 × 10 21 years, more than 10 orders of magnitude longer than the age of the universe ((13.799 ± 0.021) × 10 9 years). It is being used in the Enriched Xenon Observatory experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay.
Code management system The year 1995 saw the development of the code management system (CMS). The CMS has simplified the control and logistics for staff and improved the flexibility and speed in deploying and arming weapons.
The Gold Code is the launch code for nuclear weapons provided to the President of the United States in their role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. [1] In conjunction with the nuclear football , the Gold Codes allow the president to authorize a nuclear attack. [ 2 ]
The first nuclear explosive devices provided the basic building blocks of future weapons. Pictured is the Gadget device being prepared for the Trinity nuclear test.. Nuclear weapons design are physical, chemical, and engineering arrangements that cause the physics package [1] of a nuclear weapon to detonate.