Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Some isotopes undergo spontaneous fission (SF) with emission of neutrons.The most common spontaneous fission source is the isotope californium-252. 252 Cf and all other SF neutron sources are made by irradiating uranium or a transuranic element in a nuclear reactor, where neutrons are absorbed in the starting material and its subsequent reaction products, transmuting the starting material into ...
A californium neutron flux multiplier (CFX) is a source of neutrons for research purposes. It contains a small amount of californium-252 and several plates of highly enriched uranium (uranium-235) in a subcritical configuration. As the californium undergoes spontaneous nuclear decay, it
Californium-252 production diagram. Californium-252 (Cf-252, 252 Cf) undergoes spontaneous fission with a branching ratio of 3.09% and is used in small neutron sources. Fission neutrons have an energy range of 0 to 13 MeV with a mean value of 2.3 MeV and a most probable value of 1 MeV. [11]
Neutron moisture gauges use 252 Cf to find water and petroleum layers in oil wells, as a portable neutron source for gold and silver prospecting for on-the-spot analysis, [21] and to detect ground water movement. [65] The main uses of 252 Cf in 1982 were, reactor start-up (48.3%), fuel rod scanning (25.3%), and activation analysis (19.4%). [66]
The most common application for spontaneous fission is as neutron source for further use. These neutrons may be used for applications such as neutron imaging , or may drive additional nuclear reactions, including initiating induced fission of a target as is common in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons .
ORNL sells milligrams of californium-252 to customers based on its value of $27 million per gram. A very strong neutron emitter, Cf-252 is used in portable metal detectors, for identifying gold ...
This is a list of radioactive nuclides (sometimes also called isotopes), ordered by half-life from shortest to longest, in seconds, minutes, hours, days and years. Current methods make it difficult to measure half-lives between approximately 10 −19 and 10 −10 seconds.
Main page; Contents; Current events; Random article; About Wikipedia; Contact us; Help; Learn to edit; Community portal; Recent changes; Upload file