3 ms·
Do we actually have that much control over what the fission products are? My impression was that you hit U-235 with a neutron, and you get the same kinds of fis
by c1ccccc1 4y ago
Do we actually have that much control over what the fission products are? My impression was that you hit U-235 with a neutron, and you get the same kinds of fission products out whether it's a bomb or a reactor. It's just determined by physics what kinds of isotopes are likely to come out, and my impression was that we don't know how to influence it so that only the shorter-lived kinds are created. Bombs may be designed to consume a very high fraction of the fuel, but that would tend to make them worse, since the fission products are more radioactive than the starting Uranium, and there will be more of them. The mushroom cloud thing does make sense as an explanation for why Hiroshima is still inhabited, though. And it's clear that Corium wouldn't be able form in the middle of a nuclear bomb explosion.
- Retric 4y agoWe don’t have direct control over the specific products, but as I understand it the extreme amounts of neurons in a nuclear bomb destabilize large atoms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste#Transmutation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste#Transmutatio... I don’t understand all the details but apparently this is why some types of H-Bombs can be relatively “clean.”