Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
For example, the United States Department of Energy defines a prompt neutron as a neutron born from fission within 10 −13 seconds after the fission event. [1] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines a prompt neutron as a neutron emerging from fission within 10 −14 seconds. [2] This emission is controlled by the nuclear force and is ...
Reference ranges (reference intervals) for blood tests are sets of values used by a health professional to interpret a set of medical test results from blood samples. Reference ranges for blood tests are studied within the field of clinical chemistry (also known as "clinical biochemistry", "chemical pathology" or "pure blood chemistry"), the ...
A subcritical mass is a mass that does not have the ability to sustain a fission chain reaction. A population of neutrons introduced to a subcritical assembly will exponentially decrease. In this case, known as subcriticality, k < 1. A critical mass is a mass of fissile material that self-sustains a fission chain reaction.
The neutrons are usually classified in 6 delayed neutron groups. [4] The average neutron lifetime considering delayed neutrons is approximately 0.1 sec, which makes the chain reaction relatively easy to control over time. The remaining 993 prompt neutrons are released very quickly, approximately 1 μs after the fission event.
The mean generation time, λ, is the average time from a neutron emission to a capture that results in fission. [16] The mean generation time is different from the prompt neutron lifetime because the mean generation time only includes neutron absorptions that lead to fission reactions (not other absorption reactions).
The values of the neutron drip line are only known for the first ten elements, hydrogen to neon. [19] For oxygen (Z = 8), the maximal number of bound neutrons is 16, rendering 24 O the heaviest particle-bound oxygen isotope. [20] For neon (Z = 10), the maximal number of bound neutrons increases to 24 in the heaviest particle-stable isotope 34 ...
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.
In nuclear engineering, prompt criticality describes a nuclear fission event in which criticality (the threshold for an exponentially growing nuclear fission chain reaction) is achieved with prompt neutrons alone and does not rely on delayed neutrons. As a result, prompt supercriticality causes a much more rapid growth in the rate of energy ...