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The valley of stability can be helpful in interpreting and understanding properties of nuclear decay processes such as decay chains and nuclear fission. The uranium-238 series is a series of α (N and Z less 2) and β− decays (N less 1, Z plus 1) to nuclides that are successively deeper into the valley of stability.
In nuclear fission events the nuclei may break into any combination of lighter nuclei, but the most common event is not fission to equal mass nuclei of about mass 120; the most common event (depending on isotope and process) is a slightly unequal fission in which one daughter nucleus has a mass of about 90 to 100 daltons and the other the ...
Photofission is a process in which a nucleus, after absorbing a gamma ray, undergoes nuclear fission and splits into two or more fragments.. The reaction was discovered in 1940 by a small team of engineers and scientists operating the Westinghouse Atom Smasher at the company's Research Laboratories in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. [1]
The four-factor formula, also known as Fermi's four factor formula is used in nuclear engineering to determine the multiplication of a nuclear chain reaction in an infinite medium. Four-factor formula: k ∞ = η f p ε {\displaystyle k_{\infty }=\eta fp\varepsilon } [ 1 ]
English: Simple diagram of nuclear fission. In the first frame, a neutron is about to be captured by the nucleus of a U-235 atom. In the second frame, the neutron has been absorbed and briefly turned the nucleus into a highly excited U-236 atom.
Fission product yields by mass for thermal neutron fission of U-235 and Pu-239 (the two typical of current nuclear power reactors) and U-233 (used in the thorium cycle). This page discusses each of the main elements in the mixture of fission products produced by nuclear fission of the common nuclear fuels uranium and plutonium.
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, a nuclear reaction is a process in which two nuclei, or a nucleus and an external subatomic particle, collide to produce one or more new nuclides. Thus, a nuclear reaction must cause a transformation of at least one nuclide to another.
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.