Control rods made of materials such as cadmium and boron can be raised or lowered into the reactor to soak up neutrons and slow down or speed up the chain reaction. Water is pumped through the reactor to collect the heat energy that the chain reaction produces. It constantly flows around a...
Around the nucleus of the atom, where the protons and neutrons live, there are electrons whizzing around. We used to think that they had certain circular orbits like the planets have around the sun, but have discovered that it is much more complicated, and much more exciting! Instead, the ...
The formula for calculating critical mass is: mc^2 = (N/A) * E, where m is the mass of the material, c is the speed of light, N is the number of neutrons released per fission, A is the atomic mass of the material, and E is the energy released per fission. Are there any fact...
In atomic nucleus, which is the bounded system of nucleons—protons and neutrons, the presence of at least one proton is obligatory to have non-zero electric charge. As the nucleon in ~2000 times exceeds electron by mass, mass of the electron bounded in atom is almost negligible compared to...
Usually, a so-called breeding blanket is used, which will surround the camera trained on the nuclear fusion reaction and capture high-energy neutrons flying from it [168]. The blanket will contain melted lithium salts to ensure tritium synthesis through lithium nuclear fission [168]: (13) ...
In atomic nucleus, which is the bounded system of nucleons—protons and neutrons, the presence of at least one proton is obligatory to have non-zero electric charge. As the nucleon in ~2000 times exceeds electron by mass, mass of the electron bounded in atom is almost negligible compared to...